Cherry Announces Viola Switches for Mainstream Keyboards

The German Cherry has announced a new switch at CES: the Viola. This is intended for cheaper mechanical keyboards, has a new, patented self-cleaning system and can be hot-swap without soldering.

The Viola switch has an actuation force of just under 46 grams, up to the actuation point at 4 millimeters deep. After that, about 76 grams is needed until the bottom-out. Cherry calls this system ‘crosslinear’. It is not yet known how the switches sound. They are also RGB compatible and have the standard cruciform stem that most keycaps fit on.

Cherry deliberately doesn’t give them the MX name, since this switch must differ substantially from siblings such as the MX Brown, MX Blue, MX Red and so on. With these switches, Cherry is aiming for the segment under 100 euros, which is not included with the existing switches. It also mentions in marketing material that it wants to compete with rubber dome keyboards, among other things.

The lower price is also reflected in the design of the Viola, which is much simpler than the MX switches. The switch is so simple because the electrical contacts have been moved to the pcb, which also makes it possible to hot-swap the switch. Cherry showed a demo unit at CES. The first products with these switches should appear on the market later in 2020.