At the beginning of the new year, we must not only have a good outlook, but also upgrade our equipment again. This year, we once again started the "Annual Lunar New Year Shaft", which is the Qinglong Shaft and Golden Dragon Shaft from the head peripheral switch manufacturer Zhengpai Kedian (TTC).
The author received a New Year's gift box version, with bright red packaging throughout, and the two dragon shaft IP mascots on the front are quite festive. Opening the interior, in addition to TTC's traditional chocolate and shaft links, this time there are also additional custom keycaps and mouse pads exclusive to the Year of the Dragon. Compared with the gift configuration of the previous two years, this year once again made me realize the sincerity and best wishes of TTC.
Let's take a look at the metal keycaps that appeared for the first time in the gift box**, this time TTC and my most familiar old friend Zomo jointly launched the New Year's Zodiac metal keycaps. Since it's produced by Zomo, you don't have to worry about the details of workmanship, as long as you appreciate the appearance. One thing to say, this Year of the Dragon keycap is different from Zomo's previous co-branded style, and the design concept is relatively serious and neutral, which is in line with the image of the vast majority of "dragons" with a special status in the minds of Chinese people.
Next is the main debut, and the beginning of Mr. Yu's New Year's speech still begins. The blessing set still uses the previous 5+5, the configuration of the central axle tester + keycap, and the blessing version is still available in ordinary e-commerce channels, of course, the local tyrant can also consider the 110 serial version of the premium version. As a special version of the OG, each one has an individual number, which also highlights the identity of the high-end shaft, and of course, it will be higher.
Compared with mass production switches, the TTC zodiac switch series generally appears in the hands of mechanical keyboard enthusiasts, mostly for the purpose of collection, but this does not prevent it from becoming a great control switch body. Let's take a look at the TTC Qinglong shaft, a Lego-style structure, a linear fast shaft made of shaft core POM material (49gf on-pressure, 1.08mm trigger stroke 38mm total stroke, life 100 million times). The unique dragon pattern, with gold-plated long springs, double gold contacts and anti-corrosion electroplating coating, opens up the gap between the materials used and the mass production shaft.
TTC Jinlong shaft also adopts similar materials and processes, but as a paragraph shaft body, there are slight differences in parameters (40gf on-pressure 53gf bottoming force, 2.).2mm trigger stroke 34mm total stroke, life 100 million times). At this stage, the large paragraph shaft body in advance has begun to become popular, but the abruptness of the paragraph is a problem that many shafts have not solved, and the golden dragon shaft will gradually increase the pressure from the beginning to the end, thereby increasing the roundness and transition between the paragraphs and the feeling of solidity.
With the popularization of hot swapping, changing switches is no longer a barrier to customization, and choosing the right switch body will also greatly affect the state of the entire keyboard. The difference between different shafts is affected by too many factors, and anyone can fight, but the laborious work of loyalty to independent numbering and high-end manufacturing is indeed only possible for old manufacturers to do for a long time. If you are interested in Dragon Axis, you can wait for the follow-up non-OG version, and I believe that the replacement of the slight reduction will also be the best choice in 2024.