A switch I had heard about a while ago came from one of my favorite switch manufacturers. I’m old school here, folks, I love Zeal. The Zealio V2 switches are, in my opinion, S-tier switches. High tactility, a variety of spring weights that customize that tactility, a neutral sound, and they’re smooth. They’re also expensive. Still, I’ve got them on two of my hand-built boards, and even have used some of the Zealio V1s, which I’d describe as what tactile switches with pre-travel should feel like, notchy and sharp.
So, it was with this admiration that I went into Zeal’s most innovative switch, the Clickiez. It’s a linear switch with a trick up its sleeve. On the back, where there would normally be a space for an LED shine-through, there is a leaf of folded metal with little “teeth” on it to catch the switch stem. This is like the tactile bump created by Alps-style switches. It’s sharp and extremely tactile. In the base configuration, it clicks. Open the switch up and move the leaf, and you can make it a tactile switch with no click. Remove it, and it’s a linear switch.
It’s the most versatile mechanical switch on the market.
And it kind of sucks.
The Good Stuff
Before we get into the negatives, we have to discuss the good parts about this switch. I love a clicky switch. One of my few soldered boards (vs hotswap) uses Box Jade switches. Yes, really. I have a bin full of Box Jade switches because 1) I love clicky switches, and 2) I like to use them on “accent” keys, for a click when pressing the escape key or the function key on some layouts. I love high tactility switches, with my favorites being Zealios, Boba U4Ts, Box Royals, and even some less conventional tactiles, like the Baby Kangaroos. In my opinion, light tactility is just scratchiness (Cherry MX Browns have entered the chat), and linears are for games and people who think bottoming out is a good sound and feel. You know, weirdos.
I. Love. Tactility.
And these switches have it in good supply. There is a high snappy tactility right at the top of the press. That click is right there. Unlike Cherry MX Blue-style switches, with a click jacket, these click by snapping a metal leaf against the body of the case, like old Alps switches did. It’s a snappy tactility that comes from overcoming a spring. It’s similar to the feeling of a clickbar-based switch, like Box Jades, only more pronounced. To fans of high tactility, this sounds great, I know it did to me.
Sound recording of a Hibi June with Zeal Clickiez 40g switches
After that, you have the customizations. You can make the switch have an even higher tactile point by moving the leaf forward. This will get rid of the click, but make the tactility much higher, with a harsh snap, but no click sound, as the back of the leaf is already supported on the edge of the switch. And, of course, there’s linear. I’ll never get the appear of linear switches, but if you want a lightweight 40g linear switch, this is an expensive and time-consuming way to get that.
You can also tune that click sound with lube. I found that, these were best with a bit of lube on the stem, as usual, and just a very light layer behind the leaf. You can also put a little on the leaf, if you want to decrease the harshness of the tactility slightly.
Thanks to the size of the leaf and the plastic used, the click is deeper than the clickbar or click jacket sounds produced by other clicky switches. And, once the switch is mounted in your board, the plate material itself and the foam—if any—you’re using can modify the sound. If you want to tune the sound of your click, these are a fantastic switch to choose.
Deep click sounds that will be less obnoxious or harsh, high tactility, and customizability, what’s not to love?
High Actuation Force, Low Spring Strength
Don’t even get me started on the tactile mode. It’s like a light switch. It’s on or off. The force required to get past the tactility point is over 110g. My scale reported it around 113g. That’s more than my 100g Aliaz. It’s insane. You go from slamming your fingers on these switches to actuate them right into the bottom out. If you don’t have repetitive stress injuries yet, write some documentation or a blog post on a keyboard with these, and you’ll quickly have sore joints.
For the sake of my fingers, I did not write this review with the Clickiez switches. I used Boba U4Ts and Gateron Quinns, on two separate boards.
These needed a lighter leaf spring. You can actually open them up and take some tweezers and smooth out the “teeth” on the bottom of the leaf slightly. This can give you an easier to actuate switch. Unfortunately, unless you’re very careful, every switch will feel slightly different, and that’s not much better than slamming your fingers for each switch.
These are clear housings, but that leaf will block some RGB shine through. You also can’t thread an LED through them. That’s definitely a drawback, just not an important one given the issues the rest of the switch presents.
It’s a linear switch without the click leaf
Finally, they’re expensive. You can get some of the best tactile switches ever made, the Boba U4T for $0.65. It’s not a cheap switch, it’s on the expensive side, but not too bad. Gateron’s Baby Kangaroos are around $0.60. Those Box Royals I like? $0.50/switch. And Zeal’s own Zealio switches? Around $0.91. That was the bar for a switch the mechanical keyboard community deemed “too expensive,” opting for less expensive (but perhaps less tactile) switches like the Boba U4T. The Clickiez, when they’re not on sale, are $15 for 10. Yeah, you read that right, $1.50/switch. They’re currently on sale for $1.20/switch. At a standard price over double that of a higher-end switch, it’s an extremely high cost to take on to try these innovative switches. You’re getting a lot for that price, but are you going to like what you get? Probably not.
When you’re sitting there with sore fingers from their poor design, you’ll regret paying over $100 to load up your keyboard with these things. Let alone the time you took hand lubing them all.
I spent so much time trying to make these perfect, and nothing I did could fix them. After spending what I did on them, I am a little crushed. I think I’ll keep them as accent keys for things like escape keys, maybe a number pad, that kind of thing. I’ll just have to remember to use the 55g springs in some of the switches, depending on the stabilizers I use. Which, spoiler alert for a future review: avoid GMK’s QMK stabilizers, you’ll thank me later.
Overall 2/10 — Virtually Unusable
I love Zeal. I’ve been going to them for expensive but wonderful switches for years. When I decided to make my first “high end” custom board, it had to have Zealios. I’m sad to say they failed to make a good switch here. The idea is solid, the execution needs work. A second version of these could be much better. I’d recommend a slightly heavier spring and a little less “tooth” on the click leaf to produce a tactile event that doesn’t require biceps on your fingers to actuate. That would also reduce the bottom out. In fact, I’d even consider pairing it with a double stage spring, something that will snap back at a linear rate with a quick poppiness. I think that would add to the fun of a clicky switch.
I hate to hate on these switches. They’re innovative, from a trustworthy company, and they do have a quality, even refined sound to their click. With a small change to the click leaf and a slightly higher spring strength, I think they’d have enough to make the best clicky switch around. As is, I’ll be sticking with my Kailh Box Jades when I reach for a clicky switch, at least when I’m making an entire board out of them.