Analog switches and optical switches have been around for a while. They have received a lot of attention due to the fact that they are so different from standard mechanical switches, but today we will take a deeper look at how exactly they even differ from standard mechanical switches as well all the variations of these unorthodox mechanical key switches that exist. I will talk about how standard mechanical key switches work, how optical key switches work, and how different types of analog key switches work, both optical and Hall’s effect variants (and not analog Hall’s Effect switches).

The way a standard mechanical key switch works at a high level is, you click the key, and the switch, assuming it’s mechanical, physically actuates and sends a signal to your PC telling it that you have clicked that key. If we put this into the context of a game, once your PC receives that signal, the game will pick that up and tell the server that you have requested to do a certain action that the key is supposed to result in, and then that action will occur for you on screen once your PC is updated that the action has been completed. So, before even starting this conversation, it’s important to recognize that whatever speed improvements you make your switches will naturally only affect a very small bit of that exchange, that being the part where your keyboard receives the keypress signal from your key switch. Since that is a small portion of the whole process, performance improvements in actual applications like games are going to be minimal by nature.

Non – analog key switches

But how does the keyboard know that you have pressed a key? It knows because it has a PCB which is basically alerted anytime a key on the keyboard is actuated. When your key is in its default position, the switch is in a position which does not permit the flow of electricity. However, when you actuate a key, it allows two conducting pieces within the switch to touch, which allows an electric signal to pass through and be picked up by the PCB by completing a circuit. An optical switch does the same thing, except rather than an electrical contact, a laser which is blocked by default passes through to the other end of the switch when it is pressed.

Credit: Razer

Since light is faster than electricity, the key switch will technically actuate marginally faster than it would on a traditional mechanical switch. The other reason this is faster than the default mechanical switch is because of the fact that it doesn’t have debounce time. (You will know what debounce time means later) But this is assuming actuation force/distance are both constants here. A very high distance optical switch may still take longer to actuate than a very short standard switch.

Analog key switches

All these switches have two states: off or on. They are quantized – you can’t have a half press. Press or no press. However, for some applications it can be useful to have something that recognizes not only if you have pressed the key at all or not, but also how far/hard you are pressing. That’s what an analog switch is. There are different types of analog switches, but I will explain them all. The first type is one that uses optical technology that I explained earlier. Optical switches have a sensor which checks for how much light is passing through. The more you press the key, the more light will pass through, which is how the analog part of it comes in. The sensor simply detects exactly how much light is passing through in order to detect the depth of the keypress. Razer makes switches like these, in their Huntsman Analog V2 keyboard, and they also feature the ability to adjust what your exact actuation range is – the range at which the sensor will check for the severity of the keypress. The other key switches that are like this are the Flaretech switches on the Wooting one keyboard made by Wooting. They both have an analog actuation range of 2.1 mm and have the same core functionality.

Then there are Hall effect switches. The essence of the Hall effect is that its magnets can enhance a potential difference or decrease it depending on the magnet’s distance from the battery because of magnetic fields. (Closer = greater PE) A potential difference is the difference in charge between terminals of a battery that causes electricity to flow. More electricity will flow if you have a greater potential difference. Imagine that the battery is a sensor beneath a key switch and the stem of the key switch that goes down as you press it is the magnet. The closer you get to the sensor, the greater your potential difference will be. This is also significantly faster than standard mechanical switch technology. The reason is because when you have a standard mechanical switch, the circuit completion method of checking for inputs is somewhat unreliable – especially on short actuation switches, you can cause false keypresses many times due to the accidental completions of circuits that occur with many moving parts. The reason why you don’t get random inputs without you doing anything on your keyboard is because of the fact that a standard mechanical keyboard has to scan for input for a longer period of time to validate that it is not accidental, which vastly increases input lag. This increase in input lag is called debounce time. Since Hall effect key switches are a lot more surefire in their actuation to begin with, you can bypass this additional step, and you get much lesser input lag. As I mentioned earlier, optical and optical analog switches also benefit from this.

An example of a Hall effect key switch are the switches on the SteelSeries Apex Pro. This keyboard also uses the Hall Effect to do this, except rather than having the ability to measure how much you are pressing the key, it simply measures whether you are pressing it or not, however it does so at whatever point you like. The company Wooting also makes Hall effect switches. However, the Hall effect switches that they make are even better than the Apex pro hall effect switches – these are analog too. This is where it gets interesting – these switches are like the analog optical switches in terms of functionality except they have a full range of actuation. I mentioned earlier how the razer analog switches and the Flaretech switches have an analog actuation range of 2.1 mm. These do all that those do except they have a full range of analog actuation meaning that every little bit of the switch travel can be recognized as analog input. This range can also be customized to your liking, depending on whether you want the absolute fastest feather style inputs or if you are typing and would rather bottom out your keypresses. Wooting calls these switches Lekker switches which means something in Dutch. The Wooting Two HE keyboard has these switches.

Does it matter?

This tech is certainly exciting. The most advanced switch I talked about in this article is probably the Lekker switch. As far as I know, you cannot build your own custom keyboard with this since the Hall effect stuff requires a PCB sensor as well as the switches themselves which seems to be proprietary – not by Wooting’s choice but because of other limitations. So in order to answer the question about this being worth it – I would say absolutely. The Wooting Two HE is extremely advanced. It costs 159.99 USD, which is obviously a lot but actually less than things like the SteelSeries Apex Pro despite having superior core functionality. (The Apex Pro does have the extra OLED screen and stuff but that’s probably less important.) Also, most owners have reported that the keyboard is built very well and doesn’t skimp out on everything besides crazy magnet switches. So if you have the budget for a proper flagship prebuilt keyboard, the Wooting Two HE is certainly not a bad idea. It definitely beats out things like the Razer Huntsman Analog V2 or SteelSeries Apex Pro. Not only is the Wooting keyboard cheaper, it also has superior switches with a better actuation range that the Huntsman doesn’t have/analog capabilities that the Apex Pro doesn’t have like I explained earlier. But if you are an r/mechanical keyboards nerd who just wants to build your own keyboard, I wouldn’t suggest sacrificing that desire for this analog stuff just yet – and the reason is because this tech isn’t that practical yet. It is amazing, and can certainly help in certain applications but at the end of the day it won’t transform everything for you as much as an amazing feeling keyboard would. Not saying Lekker switches feel bad, but a custom keyboard with premium switches, lube, and stabilizers is not something any prebuilt can go near. But that’s just my opinion, and only if you are somebody that has an interest in building something yourself. You can’t really go wrong either way. It’s also important to note that a keyboard you build yourself will usually be a lot more than 159.99. The question to hold onto for the future is when these switches will be available to build custom keyboards with.