Not All Linears Are The Same!
Figure 1: Not even all of these (mostly) KTT-made linears are the same! After all of my years of collecting, reviewing, and obsessing over switches, I can say with certainty that linear switches are the most misunderstood of all of the switch types. No, I’m not talking about mechanically either, as all of the claims of them “just going straight up and down” are somewhat kind of true. (Not too much though, don’t get that excited.) The part that is often misunderstood, though, is usually in what is being implied when people say that these switches just go straight up and down – “All linears might as well be the same.” If the title of this article didn’t make that obvious enough to you, I find that sort of idea to be completely and utterly wrong. The people who make these implications wouldn’t say that a Cherry MX Black is the same as a Novelkeys Cream switch? They also certainly wouldn’t ever claim that every Gateron-made linear is the same as every fancy TTC one out there...
May 29, 2024
The board is totally still usable, but one very important key will register multiple presses on a single press, this isn't because of the manufacturing or quality, I had an accident and the fault is my own... I broke it.
Anyways, I attempted to purchase a replacement (as I really really really love this layout) and ended up getting the same exact model from Amazon. The new one arrived and I took it out of the box, used it for 5 minutes, put it back into the box and sent it back. The switches on the newer model that I received from Amazon were dull, squish, and not clicky at all. It was night and day, I even pulled off a couple of the keys to make sure there wasn't a mistake or something.
So, this board is great, but it's clearly hit or miss on the quality side. If I could go back in time and prevent myself from ruining my MD version I would... but I don't know if I am willing to risk another purchase due to the disparity in quality between the two.
tl;dr: love this layout, great board if you get a good one, getting a good one is a roll of the dice it seems.