Cherry MX Blue MX2A vs Kailh Blue
The Kailh Blue and the Cherry MX Blue MX2A sit in different price brackets, which across the 70-odd switches a board needs is a bigger difference than most of the spec sheet. Our switch library puts these two on each other's shortlist, and the player below is the fastest way to settle it: match the volumes, then work down through the table and the verdict.
Hear them back to back
simulated from real specssound loads on your first tapShortcuts: press A or B anywhere outside a text box to fire that burst. Use the volume trims to loudness-match the pair before judging which sounds better.
Spec by spec
| Spec | Cherry MX Blue MX2A | Kailh Blue |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Clicky | Clicky |
| Brand rates force at | actuation | actuation |
| Actuation force | 50 g | 50 g |
| Bottom-out force | not published | not published |
| Pre-travel | 2.2 mm | 2 mm |
| Total travel | 4 mm | 4 mm |
| Silent (dampened) | No | No |
| Factory lubed | No | No |
| MX-compatible stem | Yes | Yes |
| Price tier | Mid-range | Budget |
| Street price | varies | varies |
Cherry and Kailh both advertise an actuation force, so the two headline figures in this table are measured at the same point and can be read against each other.
Verdict
Stroke character is a tie. Two clickies feel alike under a finger, which pushes the decision onto the rows below the type row. Price splits them too: the Kailh Blue is the budget friendly option while the Cherry MX Blue MX2A sits in the mid priced bracket, which adds up across a 70 switch board. Weight is hard to separate here: each is rated 50 g at actuation, and that is the only measuring point with a published figure for each. Split by use: the Kailh Blue for gaming, the Cherry MX Blue MX2A for typing and a shared office. Read that office call as relative: the Cherry MX Blue MX2A clicks too, just less insistently.
- Gaming pick
- Kailh Blue
- Typing pick
- Cherry MX Blue MX2A
- Office pick
- Cherry MX Blue MX2A
Force curves
Cherry MX Blue MX2A
Cherry publishes no bottom-out force for this switch, so the dashed end of the curve is an estimate, not a spec. Everything up to actuation comes from the published numbers.
Kailh Blue
Kailh publishes no bottom-out force for this switch, so the dashed end of the curve is an estimate, not a spec. Everything up to actuation comes from the published numbers.
Cherry MX Blue MX2A or Kailh Blue: the long answer
Money separates these two more cleanly than any spec does. The Cherry MX Blue MX2A is mid priced, while the Kailh Blue is budget friendly. Lube is on you with both of these, which is a real cost in time whichever one you order.
The specs are the smaller half of this pair, but they are not nothing. Type is not the difference here. Both are clickies, and each announces actuation to your finger and to the room at once. Weight looks like a tie, 50 g each at actuation, but without a bottom-out figure for each of them there is nothing to check it against. Both run to 4.0 mm, but the Kailh Blue counts the press at 2.0 mm where the Cherry MX Blue MX2A waits until 2.2 mm. Same family of stroke, so read the detail rather than the headline.
Sound decides more of these arguments than force curves do. Put them through the player above and the Cherry MX Blue MX2A lands as high-pitched two-part click with a faint upstroke rattle where the Kailh Blue lands as bright budget click-jacket rattle. Either way, both of these are heard by everyone in the room, so the choice between them is a choice of tone and not of volume. These demos are synthesized from published specs and documented character rather than studio recordings, which every player on the site says plainly.
Answer the use case and the switch follows. Games point at the Kailh Blue, because the honest answer is that either would do, and it wins on a margin too small to feel. Writing points at the Cherry MX Blue MX2A, since the click keeps a long session in rhythm, assuming nobody nearby objects. A shared room points at the Cherry MX Blue MX2A, as neither of these belongs in a quiet shared room, and this is only the less punishing of the two clicks. Do the listening first. It costs nothing and it changes minds more often than a spec table does.
There is more on both than a head-to-head can carry. Start with the Cherry MX Blue MX2A page and the Kailh Blue page. If you are here to check the board you already own, use our free keyboard tester.
Frequently asked questions
Cherry MX Blue MX2A or Kailh Blue for gaming?
We pick the Kailh Blue for gaming. Honestly either is fine here. It takes the nod once the scoring is added up, and only just.
Which is quieter, the Cherry MX Blue MX2A or the Kailh Blue?
Neither, honestly. Both are clicky switches that announce every keystroke, so neither belongs in a quiet shared space. If noise is the deciding factor, a silent tactile is the better direction entirely.
Which has the heavier spring, the Cherry MX Blue MX2A or the Kailh Blue?
Neither, as far as the published numbers go: both are rated 50 g at actuation, the only measuring point with a published figure for each. Bottom-out is where two switches matched at actuation often diverge, but neither switch here has a published bottom-out figure at all. Treat this as a tie on the spec sheet rather than a proven match in the hand.
Which is cheaper to fill a board with, the Cherry MX Blue MX2A or the Kailh Blue?
The Kailh Blue sits in the budget friendly bracket and the Cherry MX Blue MX2A in the mid priced one. We do not hold a reliable per-switch price for both, so the bracket is the honest answer rather than a total.
More comparisons
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Or browse every switch comparison on the site.