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Background:
In the first few months of 2023, Durock first released the Black Lotus, which became a fairly successful switch. Then Durock followed up with the Blue and White Lotus switches. Both released on June of the same year.
Around May of 2023 a member of my local community ran a ‘pasabuy’ for these switches. Up until that point, I’ve heard nothing about them and I don’t think any PH vendor was selling these switches at the time. Not knowing anything about them, I joined regardless.
Pricing & Availability:
These switches looks like they’re staying in-stock for a long time. Pricing typically hovers around $0.56 per switch. Converting that to Philippine peso, that’s around ₱32, though Philippine vendors have these switches below that price as far as I’ve seen.
Package:
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I received both switches in a plastic tupperware, with both switches in sealed bags. On the sticker label, there’s a Lotus logo and Durock’s logo.
Appearance & Materials:
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JWICK is using a 4-latch housing with a 5-pin bottom. Using a new optimized mold to reduce possible housing and stem wobble. The spring is 18mm in length and is gold-plated. It features a removable LED diffuser.
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The Top housing is a translucent pink color. It's made from a custom polycarbonate and UPE blend. Unlike the Blue Lotus, micro-scratches can hardly be seen. Notably there are hollow cut-outs in the interior, near the rails, on both sides.
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For the bottom housing, it’s a solid white base, and is made out of nylon. The massive pin on the center of the housing is flat in comparison to some other switches like White Jades that have an indent in the center pole.
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The stem is made from POM and is a solid white color. Its total length is 13.4mm, and is 1.8mm thick. The end of the pole looks like the end of a stylus pen. Another notable remark about the White Lotus is the angled legs in contrast to the Blue Lotus’.
Tactility & Feel:
In contrast to its stronger counterpart, these switches have a lighter, well-rounded P-shaped bump paired with a spring that bottom out to 56g. - It’s light to use and non-fatiguing. It’s also pretty smooth feel-wise at stock. There’s about 2mm of pre-travel and a total travel of 3.7mm. It’s a long pole while almost having a full 4mm bottom out.
One of the Lotuses’ strong points is having a really good tolerance for wobbliness. The LED diffuser also helps minimize the housing wobble to a certain extent. There's some minor stem wobble, but it’s really stable when keycaps are on.
Sound:
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They sound pleasant to use in different boards and configurations. Not exactly quiet due to being a long pole, but it does sound softer compared to its stronger counterpart. It’s slightly high pitched. Bottoming out produces a clack-like sound, while the reset is fairly quiet.
Leaf ticking is a prominent issue though. Spring ping isn’t much of a problem, especially when it's being drowned out by leaf ticking, but the spring ping can occasionally be heard.
Mods:
The switch comes factory lubed. Cleaning it and re-lubing it makes the switch a much better experience. It makes the switch noticeably smoother, and slightly quieter. Applying thicker lube to the corners of the top housing can also help reduce some amount of ticking.
Applying the leaf shroud mod is more effective in removing the ticking. It doesn’t completely remove it, but it becomes very inconsistent and barely audible at regular use.
Adding films isn’t necessary as they have little to no wobble overall. I can’t tell if adding films changes the sound though.
I recently bought a break-in machine and these were one of the switches I tested it on. With 93k actuations, breaking in these switches is literally unnecessary, but I did it for curiosity’s sake. The only difference that I observed was that the ticked is more prominent.
Durability & Quirks:
They’ve held up pretty good actually. None of the switches have had any problems so far like leaf ticking, actuation issues, and chattering.
The pre-lube for each of them haven’t dried up as of writing in March. The copper pins or legs have aged though, but so far so good.
My only concern about these switches are the clips that secures the switches to the plate itself. They’re noticeably weak, a bit more than the ones on the Blue Lotus. They keep popping out of my portal keyboard that has a solid blocker.
My Thoughts:
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Compared to its stronger tactile counterpart, I found that I enjoyed the light tactility more because I haven’t used light tactiles for such a long time. I still have the same sentiments from the Blue lotus to the White lotus though. Especially the ticking.
They’re good quality light tactiles that are long poles with a 3.7mm travel distance. But they feel like average long pole switches with lighter tactility, and the factory lubing and the leaf ticking breaks the switch for me. If anything I’d recommend these switches to people who’re looking to tinker with switches.
While I do enjoy the White Lotuses more, I think that lubing, and leaf shrouds are important mods. Modding these switches is a must in my opinion, unless you’re someone like me who wears headphones all the time.
Quick Comparisons:
Comparisons aren’t in-depth and are just quick observations.
- Pewter
- Spring pings more consistently but also slightly quieter in comparison
- Less defined tactility
- More stem wobble
- Softer bottom out
- Cotton Candy
- Scratchy housing
- Little to no pre-travel
- Slightly more stem wobble
- Tactility feels similar between the two
- Slightly higher pitched and hollow-ish
- Akko Orange
- More stem and housing wobble
- Longer travel distance
- Tactility is weaker
- C3 Dragon Fruit
- Tactility feels more exaggerated
- Leaf ticking is more noticeable
- Sounds and feels like acrylic
- Has a longer bottom out
- Stem wobbles more
- similar pre-travel
- Birthday Cake
- Little to no noise (spring ping, scratch, leaf ticking)
- Sounds cleaner and has a poppy sound
- Bump feels less defined
- Smaller pre-travel
- Bamboo
- No spring ping and scratchy noise, some minor leaf ticking
- Typing feels tighter, same with tolerance
- Tactility is rounded and more pleasant
- Bottom out is clackier
- Bottoms out faster
- No pre-travel
More Information:
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More Sound Tests:
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