Background:
In May of 2022, Geon on his discord server announced his new switches: Geon Clears and Geon Blacks. Both manufactured by Tecsee. Geon and his team were looking into what product they can have shipped along with keyboard kits at the time. The census was that switches would be the most viable option. Both of them became available to purchase around June of the same year.
Pricing & Availability:
Availability might be limited for a lot of people. For South East Asia the primary vendor is the global Geon store. On there, these switches can either be bought factory lubed or dry. Availability for said variants may depend if other vendors carry it or not.
Pricing per piece is $.50 (₱28) dry and $.51(₱30) for the factory lubing. For 10 pieces it's about $5 (₱288). For seventy pieces, they cost around $35 (₱2,000) more or less. Not including shipping.
Packaging:
I can’t comment about the original Geon box packaging as I bought these switches in the aftermarket. There’s no Philippine vendor as of writing. I met up with the seller in a keyboard meetup hosted by keyboard modders and content creators: Merkeebs and Strikemods.
From what I’ve seen Geon packaging for these switches look standardized. It’s a box that houses 35 switches with a small cut-out to see the contents inside.
Appearance & Materials:
Geon clears are manufactured by Tecsee, and are an MX-style switch. Meaning it has 4 latches that’s protruding from the top housing. The spring is 23mm long, has 2-stages, and bottoms out at 60g. The full travel distance is 3.5mm. It also supports LEDs and surface-mounted LEDs.
Top housing is a gray polycarbonate, with the Geon branding on the nameplate. There’s not much to say about it other than the area where the leaf sits. It looks more secured to both the White and Blue Lotus switches.
The bottom housing is very similar in color to the top housing. The material used is nylon. The mast on the exterior of the housing has an indent compared to the flat mast of the Lotus switches.
The stem is made from white POM. Its total length is 13.5mm, and the thickness of it is 1.9mm, making it a long pole switch. The end of the pole is flat
Tactility & Feel
The tactile strength falls around medium. With that, it has a rounded P-shaped bump. It’s located at the very top, and as soon as you press it, you’ll feel the tactile feedback immediately. There is some scratchy feeling to it. On the pre-lubed one, I assume the scratch won’t be present.
There is a little bit of wobble from the housing, but it isn’t a problem at all if that’s your main concern. It’s really stable and well put. Especially with keycaps on.
Sound:
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They’re high pitched, clacky, and pretty loud. The bottom out gives off a loud, clacky, long pole sound. The reset sound is fairly poppy. They sound pretty neat and clean at stock, I can’t complain.
I’m happy with the dry configuration as is. There are some inconsistent and minor spring pings and a tiny amount of scratchy noise, but for the most part, they’re good.
Mods:
For lubing - I used tribosys 3404, I avoided lubing the legs and the top housing. Manually lubing makes the overall experience feel softer and smoother, sound and feel-wise. I think lubing isn’t necessary, it’s a choice of how you want to tune it. No comment on the factory lubed version.
For adding films - The switches doesn’t need films as the tolerance for the housing and stem are good as is, it may alter the sound a bit though.
Durability & Quirks:
Disassembly for the clears is fairly easy with a metal switch opener. The top housing’s clips are decently strong. They’re not too tight nor do they easily bend.
Depending on the keycaps, the switch might come off with the keycap when pulled. As is the case for Swagkey’s Graphite keycaps. This shouldn’t be a problem for other brands like: GMK, ePBT, PBTfans, and XMI. It’s most likely the stems on the graphite keycaps being tighter.
I’m not the second owner of these switches, and I don’t know how many times they’ve swapped hands or have been used, but as far as I’ve had them, they’re good. I haven’t encountered any issues like chattering or a switch suddenly not registering anymore.
My Thoughts:
For the price Geon is selling these switches, they’re a really good and quality option amongst the sea of tactile switches out there.
Quick Comparisons:
Comparisons aren’t in-depth and are just quick observations.
- Corsa
- Slightly weaker tactility
- Some scratchy noises
- Wobbles more
- Some ticking
- Root Beer Float
- Bottoms out fast
- Spring is lighter
- Tactility is ligher
- Has leaf ticking
- Green Jacket
- Similar springs
- Tactility is sharper
- Sounds clackier, bottom out sounds harder in comparison
- Azure Dragon v1
- Louder and brighter sounds; more clacky
- Sounds and feels more ‘compact’
- Lesser wobble
- Snappy return
- C³ Kiwi
- Lighter spring & Shorter travel
- Weaker tactility & isn’t instant
- Ticking is present
- Has pre-travel
- Zaku II
- Tactility is slightly lighter
- More clacky at stock
- Has spring ping
- Lighter spring
More Sound Tests:
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