Ultra-thin mechanical keyboards now available on Alienware laptops
Gaming brand Alienware has announced that buyers of the m15 R4 and m17 R4 notebooks will now be able to opt for an ultra-thin mechanical keyboard as an option.
The solution was developed in partnership with Cherry, a renowned creator of mechanical switches. The project took about three and a half years to complete – during this time, about 160 prototypes were produced.
The original Cherry MX switches are 18.5mm high. In the case of Cherry MX Low Profile, this value is 11.9 mm. And the new switches, called Cherry MX Ultra-Low Profile, boast a height of just 3.5mm.
Cherry MX Ultra-Low Profile travel is 1.8mm. The switches are said to have been tested with 15 million operations. Plus, the use of RGB backlighting is allowed.
The thinner design allows the new switches to be used in notebooks without changing the original design. In the Alienware m15 R4 and m17 R4 laptops, using this keyboard adds $ 150 to the price.
The illustration below shows the construction of the Cherry MX Ultra-Low Profile:
