Drop Holy Panda (X) switches in test – The best switches of all time, average or completely overrated?

1 - Introduction and technical data 2 - Unboxing and replacement on the K65 Plus 3 - Practice test and sound check 4 - Gallery and conclusion

Practical test

For the practical test, I had the Holy Pandas in continuous use for several days and put them to the test in all areas of everyday work and gaming. After some initial skepticism and getting used to them, we quickly became good friends, but let’s start with our first impressions. The first few strokes did indeed feel very strange. There is definitely quite a lot of resistance, which I have only experienced with more rustic “clicky” switches beyond MX Blues. In contrast to the Holy Pands, brown Kailhs or Cherries are practically “linear” switches – the difference is enormous. Added to this is the fact that the spring is designed to be very tight, which means that once the “tactile bump” has been overcome, the remaining spring travel is also very reminiscent of the Cherry MX Black, which is also specified at 60g and which I personally consider to be one of the best linear switches for frequent typists. The behavior of the Holy Pandas, that the tactile resistance is applied directly when the key is touched, overcoming the resistance takes almost the entire key travel and you have to hit the key practically all the way to the stop to release it, actually feels like an extremely tactile rubber dome keyboard at first. Only with the smoothness of a mechanical keyboard. What initially felt totally “wrong” quickly turned out to be a pretty ingenious combination.

Productivity
Frequent typists like me should be able to get used to the typing feel of the Holy Pandas very quickly. Especially if you have a preference for tactile switches and slightly higher spring resistance. The typing feel is very precise and due to the high tactile resistance and the late release, accidentally triggered keystrokes, for example by hitting an adjacent key, are virtually impossible. You have to have enormous sausage fingers or really press two keys at the same time. Writing long texts can also be a bit tiring due to the higher resistance and requires some getting used to, as I had already noticed with the black Cherries. Where the Holy Pandas fall down a little, but this may also be due to the relatively low keycaps of the K65 Plus, is stability. The keys feel a little “wobbly”, which I have often criticized with MX-Type switches. In any case, I really liked the switches in everyday use and I will probably test them in productive use for a while longer.

Gaming
However, the complete opposite applies to gaming use. Of course you can play with the Holy Pandas, but as soon as you get into the (semi-) “professional” area, tactile switches with such high resistance and such late triggering no longer really make sense. In faster (by my standards) competitive shooters such as CS2, even I (with my rapidly decreasing reaction time and increasing lack of ambition to hold my own against the younger players) quickly felt the need to switch back to a keyboard with linear switches. I could hardly believe it myself.

Soundcheck

Of course, the obligatory sound check is also part of the review and, as always, was recorded with Elgato Wave DX on the Elgato Wave XLR interface. The recordings are not subsequently amplified. I was particularly curious to see how or whether the sound of the K65 Plus would change by replacing the switches. For comparison, you can listen to the sound check of the K65 Plus with the standard switches here and see for yourself.

Normal typing

5x Space, 5 x Backspace, 5 x Enter

Note

Due to the dark housing, the Holy Pandas in this version only allow the illumination of the keyboard to shine through relatively little and quite selectively. Without translucent keycaps, the illumination quickly degenerates into discreet background lighting. Personally, this doesn’t bother me, but even such minor details should not go unmentioned.