What are Topre Keyswitches
For those of you who don’t know what a Topre keyswitch is, the simplest form it is a “semi” mechanical keyswitch. It has a rubber dome with a conical spring that activates your keypress when compressed. This gives you the durability, quality, and tactile feedback of a mechanical while being a little quieter and gentler. While Cooler Master is officially calling the switched on the Navoatouch Hybrid Capacitive switches, they are Topre switches with one change. They worked with Topre to change the stem design to support MX keycaps. This is because between Cherry and the other manufactures making similar designs, most aftermarket keycaps are made to only support MX stems. There are Topre caps made as well, but there are fewer designs and they are more expensive most of the time.
So Capacitive switches or Topre’s are a little different than Cherrys switches because they use a conical spring sitting on the PCB to both give you the feedback needed and to also activate the keypress. When you press down on a Topre switch the spring compresses and makes contact. Over the spring is the electrostatic layer or rubber dome, this keeps everything contained. Over that is the stem and then the housing holds the stem in place. While this is similar to membrane keyboards, the addition of the spring and the PCB both increase the overall quality and also make the keypress feel less mushy. Mushiness is the main complaint from membrane keyboards along with their low durability.