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Glove80 Keyboard new Silent Switches | Plum Blossom vs Red Pro | Typing test | My thoughts

I recently reviewed the glove80 keyboard, the switches that I have used for 5 months are the Kailh's Choc v1 Red Pro, but I was waiting on a new set of switches released around a month ago, these are the Kailh's silent Choc v1 Plum Blossom

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By Christian Arzu
7 min read
Glove80 Keyboard new Silent Switches | Plum Blossom vs Red Pro | Typing test | My thoughts

Contents

Table of contents

YouTube video

Disclaimer

  • I’m not sponsored by Moergo (I wish I was, and that they would send me free stuff 🤣)
  • I bought the keyboard with my own money and they haven’t sent any products for me to test that would bias my judgement
  • So the review in this video is 100% mine, since I’m not getting anything in exchange, so you’ll get my honest and personal point of view

Image purchase receipt, in case you don’t trust me

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Sound test comparing plum blossoms and red pros

  • You’ll be able to listen to the difference between the 2 switches in the video
  • Bottom line: the plum blossom switches are silent, and the red pro’s are not silent

My thoughts comparing both switches

  • In the video, I talk about how I felt that the red pro switches slowed me down while typing
  • I felt the plum blossom switches way more comfortable to type
  • They also feel way more stable, and the reason for this is that they were designed that way
  • Also keep in mind that these plum blossom switches were specifically designed for the glove80
  • The image you see below is not for the plum blossoms, but you’ll be able to read the off-center design, which adds the stability I’m talking about
  • This image was found here

Image Cherry blossom switches banner

  • On the image below you’ll be able to see the technical differences between the 2 switches (image found here)
  • The main differences are:
    • Both of them are linear switches, but the plum blossoms are silent, and personally I love silent switches
    • The other difference is actuation force, the plum blossoms are around 10gf heavier (more on this later)

Image Notice the technical differences between the 2 switches

  • Personally, I feel the plum blossoms way more stable to type on, the feel smoother, they are silent, you feel more of like a response from the switch after typing, I don’t know, I just love how they feel, but there’s a big but here, more on that at the end

I removed the palm rests

  • If you notice in the video, I don’t have the palm rests attached anymore, there’s 2 reasons:
    • The keyboard is way smaller, like around half its size, so its way easier to carry around. With palm rests I feel it looks way too big
    • It allows me to reach the numbers easily. When I have the palm rests attached, my palms are resting on them, so it’s harder for me to reach the numbers, I have to lift of the palm and then get to the number row, I don’t experience that without the palm rests, I just type numbers easily

Should I try the voyager?

  • I’ve heard so many people recommend the voyager, I like the fact that it’s a really small and compact keyboard, it’s really easy to carry around
  • I’ve thought about it, and I think there’s a few things I’ll be missing:
    • Bluetooth support to connect multiple devices:
      • With the glove80 I can connect to my work (ex work) and also the personal computer, I just press a key and it switches 3 things, my monitor, my mouse is also switched to the other computer and the keyboard, I wouldn’t be able to do this with a voyager, as it doesn’t have Bluetooth capabilities, unless I use a KVM switch or something
    • I would be missing keys, I’m used to all the keys that the glove80 has, because I have them mapped to different functions, for example, if I tap the right_arrow key, it’s going to switch me over to the skitty-notes app on the right. Also for example, if I type left_command it sends cmd+c to copy, and with left_option it sends cmd+v to paste. To get a better idea on all the different keys I use, and what I use them for look at the image below

Image Some of the keys that perform particular actions

  • To learn how I do all my different mappings, including when I type left_command it sends cmd+c to copy, and with left_option it sends cmd+v to paste, how I switch between apps, change system settings, switch between tmux sessions and way more, check out my karabiner-elements video:

Which switches should you get

Make sure you read this entire section, I’m not using the plum blossoms anymore

  • I have only tried 2 switches, the red pro and the plum blossoms, out of those 2, in the video I recommended the plum blossoms 100%
  • I love how the plum blossoms feel when you type and their stability, and the fact that they are silent
  • bbbbbbuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut
  • After using the plum blossoms for around a month, my fingers started to hurt, at first it felt like my fingertips were getting numb, I felt them tickly
  • First I thought it was the palm rests, since I had removed them, so I added them back, but the pain didn’t go away
  • Then I started to feel pain in the entire finger, in the joints, felt like arthritis, maybe MF just getting old and weak
  • So I decided to switch back to the red pros, and after a few days of use, the pain is not there anymore. I still feel some residual pain, but is going away, it feels 90% better now
  • Keep in mind that I come from a magic keyboard, which is really soft and for weak hands, so if you also have bitch’s hands, don’t get a man switches, If you like silent switches, I would probably recommend you to get the cherry blossoms as they’re similar to the plum blossoms, but softer or if you don’t like silent switches, probably get the ones I’m using right now, which are the red pros
  • I cannot 100% recommend the cherry blossoms, because I haven’t tried them, I’m just guessing, but if you’d like me to test them and compare them to the red pros and the plum blossoms, leave a comment in the YouTube video "Please Stephen, send him the cherry blossom switches"

Image Cmon Stephen

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