Closer Examination

The keyboard comes in a plastic wrap to keep it pristine and dust-free out of the box. Once removed, the first thing I noticed was how light it is despite its size. In fact, it weighs just slightly more than the Cherry MX Board 3.0, which occupies less than half the space this keyboard does. It feels very strange and out of place initially, and unfortunately, it is also not associated with Cherry's usual good build quality as this keyboard flexes around when twisted at the corners. While not an issue during regular use, it must be noted. The keyboard employs a large ABS plastic case with separate top and bottom panel pieces, and the bezels are especially large on the top to where this keyboard takes up a similar amount of space as some others that came with a separate wrist rest. We will see on the next page if there is something important at the top here, else this is not the best of designs from Cherry.

There are dedicated indicator LEDs in the top-right corner, as seen from the front, for Num Lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll Lock. Below these is the standard Num Pad with its secondary legends printed below the primary ones, and in two separate locations such that the arrow keys are on the bottom right and the words on the bottom left. Secondary legends are above the primary ones in the alphanumeric section and on the top left here. Regardless, with no backlighting on the keyboard, it hardly matters, and the order is clear enough to be understood without causing any ambiguity.

Single-legend placement is generally in the middle for 1u size keycaps and on the left side for larger keycaps, with the font's size on the larger side of average for easier visibility. The typeface itself is fairly clean as well since this is targeted at office professionals. The Ctrl key is spelled out completely, and Caps Lock is offset as with the MX Board 3.0, which I find unnecessary on this keyboard. Also, there are no ridges on the F and J keys, which makes it harder for touch typing. Cherry has instead used a more concave keycap surface for these keys in order to aid in identifying them, but it simply does not work as well.


On the back, we see a label in the middle with the company logo and product certification stickers. There are also two relatively small rubber pads at the bottom for some friction against a desk's surface, but there are none at the top. The lack of pads at the top is not a very good idea given how light this keyboard is for its size, and it was beginning to slide around on my desk with a laminated surface. There are two small feet at the top that can be raised to elevate the keyboard, both of which have a transparent housing for some reason and a rubber pad at the bottom. As it is, I found myself using the keyboard with both feet raised up more often than not even though I personally prefer not to with larger keyboards.


The keyboard's cable is non-detachable and comes out at the right side from the top. Given the lack of any cable-routing options, I am not sure why Cherry decided to have this be on the right side where most people would also have a mouse cable nearby. The cable is the usual 6' long and terminates in a standard male USB Type-A connector. USB 2.0 will suffice for power and functionality here given the lack of backlighting. The cable has a USB to PS/2 adapter attached to it out of the box, which will help should you have an older OEM PC without any available USB ports to use it with. I am glad Cherry did it this way and not the way of Zalman with a native PS/2 port and a PS/2 to USB adapter instead. As it is, you can use the keyboard in PS/2 mode and use a higher key rollover. That said, I would have still liked to see a USB pass-through or a hub on this keyboard.


We see the Cherry profile being employed on the keycap set here, as has been the norm with all recent Cherry-branded keyboards. As it is, there are still the differently slanted rows, and each keycap has a contoured surface that guides fingertips to the center naturally. The Cherry profile differs from the more common OEM profile for mechanical keyboards in that these are lower in profile. One thing absent on the keycaps here is the notch on the F and J keys that help with touch typing, especially in lower-lit environments given the absence of backlighting here. It is another in a series of small things that in their sum make for a lesser user experience.

The keycaps are really good as far as stock keycaps go, with thick ABS used for the material itself (average wall thickness 1.33 mm), and there is a protective second layer Cherry applied over the laser etched legends, which Cherry says will last far longer than normal laser etched legends. While I cannot speak for their longevity here since the review's time frame is a matter of weeks only, I will note that while finger oils were beginning to affect the keycaps' surfaces, the legends remained pristine even after four weeks of the sort of heavy usage that has other laser etched legends show signs of wear before then. The light gray models have similar light gray colored keycaps with darker legends, so be aware of that.


The Cherry MX Board Silent naturally uses Cherry MX switches, and these come with options of Cherry MX Silent Red or MX Silent Black. This particular sample came with the less common of the two, and we see the MX Silent Black non-RGB version with a black opaque housing and a silver-colored stem here. This is slightly confusing since Cherry has introduced another switch with a silver-colored stem since, the MX Speed Silver, and having seen both, I can tell you that the shade is different with this being a darker color here. The larger keycaps use Cherry stabilizers as well, although one of these under the 0/Ins key of the Num Pad was slightly loose out of the box. It took five minutes to fix, but that was with prior experience, me having dealt with this before. I will give Cherry the benefit of the doubt here and say it came loose during shipping, but that would also mean product packaging can be improved upon. Also note that if you are planning on replacing the keycaps for some reason, the Caps Lock switch is off-center, as is the stem on the stock keycap, so that will be one you will have a hard time replacing, while the rest of the keyboard follows a "standard" spacing.