Gateron Cream Soda Review: The Marbly Thock King?

Let’s talk about the Gateron Cream Soda 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 Cream Soda 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: Polycarbonate
• Bottom Housing: Polycarbonate
• Stem: POM
• Initial Force: Not Specified
• Actuation: 56g
• Bottom-Out: 63g
• Pre-Travel: 2.0mm
• Total Travel: 3.8mm
• 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 on Reddit. Everyone was praising their thockiness. Being a thock lover, I knew I had to try them.

They’re pretty hard to find now. Gateron doesn’t even list them on the website anymore. Luckily, I was able to find a vendor that was still selling them on Amazon.

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

Keyboard: Neo Studio Neo65

• Case: Aluminum
• Plate: FR4
• Mount: Gasket

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
• 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:

• Red: POM stem
• Milky: Polycarbonate top housing
• Transparent Light Brown: Proprietary Ink material bottom housing

These things reminded me of the HARIBO Happy Soda gummy candies as soon as I saw them. I think Gateron nailed it with the naming of look of the switches.

That said, I never drink soda and I only eat chocolate candies, so the switches didn’t look that delicious to me.

PERFORMANCE | Score: 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 and I didn’t catch a hint of scratchiness.

They show to have a pretty high initial force at 47g, but it still felt a bit light to me.

All the specs show that these switches are on the heavier side, but for whatever reason, they performed and felt like lighter switches to me. That said, I love the way these switches feel.

I was immediately blown away when I installed them. Just give me the weight of the NovelKeys_ Creams and these would be the perfect switches.

Binding:

I didn’t feel any binding while testing out these switches.

Spring Return:

The spring return felt fast, but not snappy.

Actuation:

Actuation seemed very even across the switches.

Gaming:

I spent days playing Grounded with these switches.

For those that aren’t familiar with the game, Grounded 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 bugs 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 I definitely had a smile on my face every time I did press the keys.

I spent a load of time farming the Broodmother for parts so I could craft the Club of the Mother Demon, Mask of the Mother Demon, Chest of the Mother Demon, and Greaves of the Mother Demon.

I felt myself paying more attention to the clicking of my mouse than to these switches, but that was due to the intensity of the fight and the fight mechanics of the game. After the fights, I went back to noticing how amazing these switches felt.

Typing:

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

I did a typing test and typed faster than I ever typed with these switches. Zero warm-up. I just jumped right into it and blew my record away. I must have been in the zone when I took the test.

I took a bit to adjust to these switches. I was using clicky Kailh Box Jades right before installing these guys. I was having a bit of an issue with over capitalization. I frequently capitalized the first two letters of the word instead of just the first one. I eventually figured it out and stopped doing that.

I was able to rest my fingers somewhat comfortably on these switches. Despite their higher initial force, I still treated them like they were lighter switches for some reason. I kept consciously trying to hover my fingers while typing.

Though, I didn’t struggle with the typing test, I did find myself making a bunch of typos when I first switched over. They typos went away after a couple hours of use.

Overall, I really really enjoyed typing on these switches.

Check out the score I got on TypeRacer:

SOUND | Score: 5

Sound Signature:

These switches sounded amazing. So creamy and thocky. This was the perfect sound profile for me.

Pinging:

I couldn’t hear any pinging at all on these switches. I brought individual switches up to my ear and listened as closely as I could. There was nothing on the downstroke nor the upstroke.

Since I couldn’t hear anything with them up to my ear, it was no surprise that I couldn’t hear anything when I brought my ears down to the keyboards either. All I heard was the creamy thockiness serenading my ears.

Scratchiness:

There was minimal scratchiness with the switches.

Leaf Tick:

I couldn’t hear any leaf tick or crunch from any of the switches I sampled.

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, but they didn’t click into place. They kinda just squished into place. No excessive force or anything needed.

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.

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

Housing:

Housing felt super secure. I didn’t get any wobbling at all.

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. I was kinda surprised at how little lube was used. I could barely tell there was any. The lube was also 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, but I’ll likely redo the lube myself and put the proper amount on.

COMPATIBILITY | Score: 4

Keycaps:

Keycaps went on with no issues. I got the usual resistance when pressing the keycaps onto the stems.

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. They mostly came off without any issues, but a handful did pop out while still attached to their corresponding keycaps.

RGB:

RGB worked less than average on these switches. The milky top doesn’t really let much through and there is an RGB slit, but it’s smaller than normal.

Don’t go after these guys if you’re looking for maximum glow.

PRICE | Score: D

At the time of this writing, the Gateron Cream Soda switches sit firmly in the Premium territory.

These things aren’t cheap. The value isn’t great, but these are definitely premium quality switches. You really do get what you pay for.

It doesn’t look like they’ve ever been on sale before. I picked them up at full price and I don’t regret it at all.

No need to try and wait for a sale. If you like these things, just jump on them. Chances are, they won’t be on sale anytime soon.

Quick Comparison

Here’s how the 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 medium to heavy 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 thock. They sounded so good to me. I won’t ever get enough of this creamy thockiness.

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 on both sides of the stem.

Wrapping Up

The Gateron Cream Soda switches, as they came from the factory, felt almost perfect to me.

I love how smooth they are. I love the way they sound. I love everything about these swtiches.

If only they were heavier by a few grams. 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, these are one of the switches that I’d probably consider as my daily driver. I love them that much.

I’ve been so into tactile switches lately, but these things might just sway me back towards linears.

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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