Gateron Smoothie Review (2026) | Sound Test Included | Keyboard Forge

Let’s talk about the Gateron Smoothie switches!

I’m a keyboard nerd who’s built dozens of boards and swapped switches more times than I can count.

I’ve put these things through the wringer for you.

This Gateron Smoothie review breaks down their specs, performance, and whether they’re worth your hard-earned cash.

Stick around to see if these switches deserve a spot in your next build!

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Switch Snapshot

• Type: Linear
• Top Housing: POM
• Bottom Housing: POM
• Stem: POM
• Initial Force: Not Specified
• Actuation: 40g
• Bottom-Out: Not Specified
• Pre-Travel: 2.0mm
• Total Travel: 3.6mm
• Pins: 5-pin
• Lube: Pre-Lubricated

View at Amazon

Amazon.com

Curious how this switch stacks up against the top-rated linears? Check out our guide to see our current favorites:

• Best Linear Switches

Hands On Breakdown

Gateron was founded in 2000 and is a manufacturer of mechanical keyboard switches and related components. The company has become a prominent player in the mechanical keyboard market and is known for producing high-quality switches.

I stumbled across these switches while browsing on Amazon. I didn’t know they existed before that. For some reason, they kinda reminded me of the Novelkey Creams, so I ordered them to try them out.

I tried these switches as they came from the factory using the following setup:

Keyboard: Neo Studio Neo65

• Case: Aluminum
• Plate: FR4
• Mount: Gasket
• Foam: Poron Case Foam, PE Sheet

Keycaps: Wuque Studio BOW

• Material: PBT
• Printing: Double Shot
• Profile: Cherry

Note: Neo Studio Neo65 doesn’t have RGB. RGB was tested on a Keychron Q1.

Overwhelmed by the anatomy of keyboards? Check these links to learn all about them:

• Keyboard Case
• Keyboard Plate
• Gasket Mount
• Keyboard Foam
• Keycaps
• Mechanical Switches

I couldn’t find a force curve for these switches, but I found numbers to all the important stuff. Here they are:

Colorway:

The switches have the following color scheme:

• White: POM stem
• White: POM top housing
• White: POM bottom housing

I like the way these switches look. White is my favorite color and these things are bright white.

PERFORMANCE | Score: 3.5

Preferences:

The switches I’ve used the longest are the Gateron Oil Kings. So, you can consider them the baseline for what my preferences are.

I like to rest my fingers on the keys when I’m typing. This often leads to keys being inadvertently pressed.

I also type like I’m hammering nails. I bottom out pretty hard when I press the keys.

General:

These switches were very smooth.

These switches felt very light to me. Gateron doesn’t list the initial force, but based on my experience testing switches, I would say these are around 35g initial force.

The rest of the specs confirm that these switches are on the lighter side. Their 40g actuation and 50g bottom out are way too light for my tastes.

Binding:

I did the slow press test on these switches and didn’t run into any binding problems.

Spring Return:

The spring return felt just normal to me. I wouldn’t say it’s snappy or anything, but it also isn’t sluggish.

Actuation:

The switches felt very consistent across the ones that I sampled.

Gaming:

I spent days playing Fellowship with these switches.

For those that aren’t familiar with the game, Fellowship involves moving your character using the WASD keys and pressing a bunch of other keys to use your character’s abilities. Everything felt really responsive to me and I stomped the enemies with no issues.

I really enjoyed these switches. It felt amazing every time I pressed down on them. I didn’t find myself pressing any random keys just to feel the switches, but the switches definitely put a smile on my face every time I did press the keys.

Majority of the time was spent running dungeons on Contender 4/5 difficulty to gear up my character. I chose to start with Meiko ‘cus I’m all about tanks. It took me a while, but I think I finally got the hang of this character.

There’s a lot of key pressing for this character’s rotation. My 1, 2, 3, 4 and WASD keys definitely got a workout. I found myself really growing to like the sound from these switches. They’re much louder than some of my other switches, so I had no trouble hearing them through my headphones.

I did run into a slight issue with these switches. Periodically, I noticed by character wouldn’t move forward when the W key was pressed. I had to press the W key a second time to get her to move forward. I thought this was just an issue with the a single switch, but I swapped the switch out a few times and still encountered the issue.

At this point, I’m stumped on what the problem is. It’s not an key rollover issue ‘cus the Neo65 supports NKRO. Also, I haven’t experienced this problem with any other switches. Maybe it’s an optimization issue within the game itself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Typing:

I’m actually writing this review using these switches right now.

I did a typing test and had all kinds of issues. For whatever reason, I just couldn’t type correctly for the life of me. I had much more mistakes than I was used to.

A lot of my mistakes came from typing apostrophes. These switches were just too light for me and I kept inadvertently typing the letter that came after the apostrophe before the apostrophe itself.

I wasn’t able to comfortably rest my fingers on these switches. The keys started sinking down as soon as I would make contact with them. I found myself consciously hovering my fingers over the keys instead.

Though I struggled with typing on these switches, I found myself enjoying how they feel. It’s too bad ‘cus I would have really liked these switches had I been able to type properly with them.

Check out the score I got on TypeRacer:

SOUND | Score: 4

Sound Signature:

These switches are loud. I started pressing on them before I installed any keycaps and could already tell they would be loud.

They have a clacky sound profile. There’s quite a bit of poppy-ness to the sound too.

It actually sounds pretty good to me, even though I prefer a thocky sound profile.

Listen to the sound test in the video posted up top.

Pinging:

I sampled a couple handfuls of the switch and heard very, very faint pinging on about three of the switches. The pinging came at the bottom out. I didn’t really heard any pinging during the downstroke or upstroke of the press.

I put my ears down to the keyboard and couldn’t really hear any pinging. The clackiness was so loud that it would basically block out any pinging if there were any.

Scratchiness:

Of the switches that I sampled, I would say these switches have below average to the average amount of scratchiness.

Leaf Tick:

In terms of leaf tick, the sampled switches had a steady amount of ticking. It wasn’t all the switches but one out of every four or five had some noticeable ticking.

This ticking can probably be eliminated with some Krytox GPL 205g0 lube. Check out this link to learn about lubes:

• Keyboard Lubes

Microphone Usage:

In the past, I regularly had complaints on Discord about my mic picking up keyboard sounds when I was typing, but I didn’t get any complaints at all during the play sessions where I was testing out these switches.

I even told my teammates to specifically listen for my typing as I mashed on the keyboard for them. They said they couldn’t hear anything.

I also put my phone up next to the keyboard on a speaker phone call and the other side couldn’t hear any keyboard sounds either.

QUALITY | Score: 4

Socket Fit:

The switches installed into the sockets securely. They clicked loudly into place. It was actually pretty satisfying installing these switches.

I wiggled the switches in the socket and didn’t discover any excessive wiggling.

Pins:

I poked around on the switches and didn’t notice anything wrong with the build quality.

The pins were nice and sturdy and I didn’t bend a single one while seating them into the sockets.

Housing:

The top and bottom housings felt tight and locked to each other securely.

Errors:

There were no issues with ghost-typing and all my keys worked on KeyboardTester.com.

Lubrication:

I opened them up to check out the insides. It was kinda surprising how little lube was used. I could tell there was lube, but I had to look very closely.

The lube also seemed uneven on some of the switches. One side would have a thin, thin layer, while the other side looked like it had nothing.

Still, the switches felt super smooth and felt really nice to type on.

COMPATIBILITY | Score: 4.5

Pins:

The switches were 5-pin design and were very secure.

Keycaps:

These switches had MX-style stems.

Keycaps went on with no issues. I got the usual resistance when pressing the keycaps onto the stems. Like the switches into the socket, the keycaps also had a satisfying snap when installed.

The caps sat on each switch securely and didn’t have any unusual wobbling.

Pulling off the keycaps was as easy as putting them on. None of the switches popped out when removing any of the keycaps.

RGB:

RGB worked awesome on these switches. The light diffuser really helps the RGB glow.

You won’t be disappointed if you’re an RGB fan.

VALUE | Score: B

At the time of this writing, the Gateron Smoothie switches were right in the middle of the Budget range.

These things have great value. I was surprised at how cheap they actually were. They punch way above their weight at this price point.

I believe I have seen them on sale before. There’s not much more you can save on their cost.

If you like these things, just jump on them.

Quick Comparison

Here’s how these switches stack up against some similar options:

Who Are These Switches For?

You’ll love these switches if you’re a typist looking for a light to medium actuation point. I had a bit of an adjustment period with tons of mistakes, but if you’re used to switches like these, you’ll likely be fine with them.

These things are also for those that are into clack. For being clack, they sounded really good to me. Still, I prefer my switches on the thocky side.

These switches are also for the lazy tinkerer, just toss them in your board and forget about them. They already offer a great experience straight out of the box. No need to waste any time lubing them on your own unless you really want to even out the lube between the switches.

Wrapping Up

The Gateron Smoothie switches, as they came from the factory, totally surprised me.

I love how smooth they are and I didn’t mind clackiness for once. I love the value you get for these switches.

If only they were heavier. This is purely based on my preference for heavy, heavy switches. I just prefer to have to very deliberately smash down on the keys to have them register. Weird, I know.

That said, unfortunately, they will have no place in my daily driving rotation purely based on the fact that the springs are just too light for me. However, I would highly, highly recommend these to anyone that likes lighter switches.

So, you ready to give them a spin? Grab a pack and upgrade your typing today!

Amazon.com

How We Tested and Our Methodology

Keyboard Forge is a 100% independent publisher.

We purchased these switches with our own funds and were not paid by any company or manufacturer to influence our opinions or decisions.

We conducted numerous hours of hands-on testing with these switches in both gaming and typing environments. Majority of the gaming testing was done playing a variety of Steam games. Majority of the typing testing was done writing articles for Keyboard Forge.

We hope this review helps you get a better understanding of these switches. Feel free to reach out to suggest switches to review in the future.

Thanks for the support!

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