Cherry MX Brown MX2A vs Drop Holy Panda X Clear
The Cherry MX Brown MX2A and the Drop Holy Panda X Clear are separated mostly by spring weight, 15 g of it at actuation, with the Drop Holy Panda X Clear the firmer press and the Cherry MX Brown MX2A the easier one to hold down. Our switch library links the two to each other for that reason. Play the A/B bursts below to hear them back to back, match the volumes, then read the spec 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 Brown MX2A | Drop Holy Panda X Clear |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Tactile | Tactile |
| Brand rates force at | actuation | bottom-out |
| Actuation force | 45 g | 60 g |
| Bottom-out force | 60 g (our estimate) | 62 g |
| Pre-travel | 2 mm | 2 mm |
| Total travel | 4 mm | 3.5 mm |
| Silent (dampened) | No | No |
| Factory lubed | Yes | Yes |
| MX-compatible stem | Yes | Yes |
| Price tier | Mid-range | Premium |
| Street price | varies | varies |
Cherry advertises an actuation force for the Cherry MX Brown MX2A and Drop a bottom-out force for the Drop Holy Panda X Clear, so the two headline numbers are not measured at the same point. Compare row by row, not brand claim to brand claim. Cherry publishes no bottom-out figure for the Cherry MX Brown MX2A, so the figure marked "our estimate" is our own derivation from the forces that are published rather than a rating. How we derive a bottom-out figure .
Verdict
The Cherry MX Brown MX2A and the Drop Holy Panda X Clear are both tactiles, so nothing separates them at the fingertip until you look at springs and acoustics. The springs are far apart, with the Drop Holy Panda X Clear at 60 g actuation versus 45 g for the Cherry MX Brown MX2A, a gap you feel within a paragraph of typing. The Cherry MX Brown MX2A is the cheaper board to fill by a full bracket, mid priced against premium priced. The Cherry MX Brown MX2A comes out ahead of the Drop Holy Panda X Clear for gaming and for typing, and it is the safer of the two in a shared room, so this comparison has one answer instead of a set of them.
- Overall pick
- Cherry MX Brown MX2A
Gaming, typing and a shared office all point at the Cherry MX Brown MX2A, so printing the same name three times would tell you nothing. One pick it is.
Force curves
Cherry MX Brown MX2A
Cherry publishes no bottom-out force for this switch, so the 60 g at the end of the stroke is our estimate and the run into it is dashed. Everything up to actuation comes from the published numbers. How we derive it.
Drop Holy Panda X Clear
Cherry MX Brown MX2A or Drop Holy Panda X Clear: the long answer
Put the two side by side on paper before you trust your ears. Weight is the loud fact here. At actuation the Drop Holy Panda X Clear takes 60 g where the Cherry MX Brown MX2A takes 45 g, and 15 g is enough to change how the third hour feels. They register at the same 2.0 mm, then part company on depth: 4.0 mm on the Cherry MX Brown MX2A against 3.5 mm on the Drop Holy Panda X Clear. Cherry and Drop are both selling you tactiles here, so each one puts a felt event in the middle of the stroke. Everything else about them is close enough that the spring is the honest tiebreak.
What the table cannot tell you is how either one lands in a room. Put them through the player above and the Cherry MX Brown MX2A lands as soft, slightly sandy mid-pitch tap where the Drop Holy Panda X Clear lands as slightly brighter tap than the standard HPX. The usual caveat applies. Nothing here is a studio recording; both packs are synthesized from published specs, and the players say so.
On the practical side, the Cherry MX Brown MX2A is mid priced, while the Drop Holy Panda X Clear is premium priced. Factory lube on both, so the smoothness you hear in the player is roughly the smoothness you get.
The scoring gives up trying to divide this pair: the Cherry MX Brown MX2A is our pick for gaming, for typing and for a shared desk. On speed, the scoring hands it a lighter spring at actuation. On typing feel, nothing about it gets tiring by the afternoon, which is the whole test for a writing switch. On noise, it is the quieter of the two once the room is listening. That leaves the Drop Holy Panda X Clear to anyone who preferred its voice in the player above, which is a good enough reason on its own. Whichever way you land, listen to both above with the volume trims matched before you spend anything.
There is more on both than a head-to-head can carry. Start with the Cherry MX Brown MX2A page and the Drop Holy Panda X Clear page, or test how your current keyboard performs with our free keyboard tester.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Cherry MX Brown MX2A or the Drop Holy Panda X Clear the better gaming switch?
We pick the Cherry MX Brown MX2A for gaming. The scoring gives it a lighter spring at actuation against the Drop Holy Panda X Clear, and both of those show up in a fast game.
Which is quieter, the Cherry MX Brown MX2A or the Drop Holy Panda X Clear?
They are close. Neither is a silent switch and neither clicks, so loudness depends mostly on how hard you bottom out and the board they sit in. Their character differs though: the Cherry MX Brown MX2A leans toward soft, slightly sandy mid-pitch tap, while the Drop Holy Panda X Clear is slightly brighter tap than the standard HPX.
Which has the heavier spring, the Cherry MX Brown MX2A or the Drop Holy Panda X Clear?
The Drop Holy Panda X Clear, by 15 g. Both figures are published at actuation, 60 g against 45 g, so they are measured at the same point and can be read straight.
Which is cheaper to fill a board with, the Cherry MX Brown MX2A or the Drop Holy Panda X Clear?
The Cherry MX Brown MX2A sits in the mid priced bracket and the Drop Holy Panda X Clear in the premium priced one. We do not hold a reliable per-switch price for both, so the bracket is the honest answer rather than a total.
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