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Coming in marginally less wobbly than that of previous Kailh Box switch iterations, these have a potentially noticeable but likely unproblematic amount of N/S and E/W stem wobble for the vast majority of users out there. Traditionally, the area around the nameplate region is significantly more packed with components and design structures which would otherwise interfere with the large stem size and design here. I received both BOX Jades and Navies so naturally the first thing that I did was open up the bags and test them out individually, comparing them to their counterparts the BOX White and Pale Blues. I’m not entirely sure how this similarity in performance was reached out of all of those on this list, but who am I to judge. Externally, there is not all that much more to note about the top housings other than their iconic winglatch style attachment mechanism and inverted ‘Kailh’ nameplate identical to that of a slew of Box style switches before these.
Opening up this Box mechanism, from which this switch derives its name and not the dustproof style stems, we are greeted with an as-expected sideways leaf design and factory lubed neon green activating lever. Now, the build went much as expected except when it came to the more open portions of the plate, being manufactured in a softer material (I believe the plate was Delron, which is similar to acrylic but with a bit more flex). Paired successfully to Windows with Bluetooth dongle and a MacBook Pro onboard Bluetooth and no latency or lost keys in my usage. This image also demonstrates the ‘hollow sider rail’ design common to that of other, previous Kailh Box style switches.Both of these sit on the same side of the stem, with the Box activating mechanism being on the more recessed side as can be seen below. Finally arriving at the bottom housings for the Mute Jades, these yet again appear to be similar or identical in nature of that of other Box style switches that I am aware of, yet we will visit these details for posterity. As funny as it may be, though, to some degree I actually personally prefer these minority ‘variant’ switches a bit more as they sound much more like what I would think of as a “muted Jade” switch than what appears to be the actual intended product. One rather subtle point that I do want to note, though, is that there is a pretty noticeable spread in sound of these switches across the batch that I received from Novelkeys. Stopping by the Box Mute Jade stems, these grey (and not green) stems come unlubed from the factory and appear no different from that of other Box style stems which I’ve seen prior.
Aside the quite reasonable pricing and assumed constant availability via Novelkeys, this represents a real switch-up in MX-footprint based technology and is a novel means of changing the performance characteristics of switches that simply hasn’t been done before. Perhaps some of my disappointment in how these turned out was based in the fact that a small portion of my batch seemingly deviated from expectations due to batch variability and instead produced something much more in line with what I had thought Box Mute Jades would be instead of their intended performance. As well, the noted point above about slight improvements in stem wobble between the Mute Jades and Box Jades also appears to hold true here as well. per switch I think that they’re worth exploring purely for curiosity’s sake, completely ignoring the fact that they could be a precursor to a new switch or even potentially usher in a new set of ideas for modifying existing switches.In this video, Mike happily shared that the Box Mute Jades had not only completed production but were being shipped to Novelkeys via air-mail, with an expected arrival time sometime in December. Zeal and crew kicked off the custom switch scene many years ago with their iconic Zealios switches and the story of switches today couldn’t be told without them. Beyond these two features, and looking internally to the base of the bottom housing, it’s worth noting several channels and mold design features which do not appear to have any functionality as well as a complete absence of slider rail receivers. Strangely, as well, there appears to be a minor amount of either factory grease or lubricant present though the functionality that it provides is still a mystery to me.
Perhaps in time I will devise a way to go about measuring these features, but for the current moment I wanted to partially address why you don’t see them here in this review. The final, and most interesting component of the top housings is the singular, white dampening rod which can be seen in the bottom left-hand side (viewed internally) or bottom right-hand side (viewed externally as a closed switch) that extends from the exterior to the interior of the housing.
Divinikey has been a huge help to me and my builds over the last year or two of doing reviews and they’ll definitely hook you up. All of the sharpness, pointedness, and in-your-face-ness of the original Jade switches feels completely missing and not toned down in the Mute Jades.
Next to this is what appears to be a thickened bottoming out pad which sits directly underneath that of the activating lever in the Box mechanism of the bottom housing. This padded region does also appear to shorten the extra stage of material around the left most PCB pin, which is traditionally similar in size to that of the right most one. The next announcement regarding the status of the Box Mute Jade switches skipped entirely over the hopeful October deadline and landed on November 23rd, 2021 with Novelkeys’ “Updates with Mike | Fall 2021” announcement. Advances in technology within the MX-style footprint are not only few and far between, but rarely focused on something like this.In terms of topping out and bottoming out feeling, the Cherry MX Blues do marginally outpace the Kailh Box Mute Jades, though this is not entirely surprising given the hobby’s general fondness for Cherry nylon housings. Do I think it has significant potential to be improved in the years ahead to provide something truly unique? In terms of stem wobble, these two switches are also surprisingly close to one another, both slightly edging out previous Kailh Box switches designs by a thin margin.
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