Mythbusting: Truth about mechanical and optical switches
Hello.
I think there isn't enough detailed information about the differences in these 2 types of most common switch types aside from marketing stuff and hence some misunderstandings from general users. Wanted to make this post to help explain and clear up some things for anyone who is interested. If you have anything to add or if you think im wrong and dumb, feel free to comment!
- Opticals faster, lower latency because light and stuff.
+Yes, but no. There is no difference in terms of in the switch itself, both acts just as a circuit breaker. You can use either switch on either pcb with little modification, for example i put mechanical switches in Lamzu Maya X and it works:
Lower latency mostly comes from well implemented MCU. So in theory either switch can have lower latency than the other one depending on the MCU.
This is how a mechanical one works, 1: you press down with your button, 2: this part allows it to bend, 3: leaf makes contact:
Because of this, when pressed leaf microscopically vibrates for about 1-4 ms. That would cause it to register more clicks than desired so to solve this mouses need to implement a debounce time that works as not registering any click after the first one for couple of miliseconds(some mouses have the option to change this from software).
This is how a optical one works, 1 and 2 is the same, 3: the leaf goes down, doesn't make any contact but allows the light from the led(white piece) to pass through so the photodetector(white piece on the other side) can detect it and complete the circuit:
Because of this, opticals doesn't need any added debounce time.
- Mechanicals will double click eventually, no way around it.
+ Yes. Though this issue blown out of proportion because in the past some mouse companies made mechanical switch mouses with no debounce delay in order to advertise 'faster clicks', so you can have a mechanical switch working properly for very long time if everything properly implemented. And if it does start to double click this is easily solvable. Overtime with usage the leaf inside will microscopically will bend upwards. Hence causing those vibrations i mentioned to happen for longer and more distance. But there is a easy solution to fix this without replacing or desoldering the switch, you can just bend the leaf downwards.
- Opticals last longer.
+ Yes. But not by much actually. Mechanicals have 4 contact points and oxidation can happen over time. While opticals have 2 so less chance for it to happen.
- Differend brand and model switches makes a huge difference in terms of feel and sound.
+ Not exactly. Most commonly found switches are the same inside, the difference is material compositions and quality of these said materials and tolerances. These do make a difference however, your mouse shell and pad will make much bigger change. Even if you get 2 exact same switch and put them in the same mouse, high chance they will sound and feel different.
So, yes opticals are better on paper but mechanicals also has some advantages, they aren't completely worse in every aspect:
= Mechanicals uses less battery because they don't have a led that always on.
= Optical switch leaf doesn't make any contact on the way down, so that causes it to make that 'pingy' sound some people hates and nothing to do about it, not much space to modify inside because need to mind the light.
= You can easily repair or tune the how soft/hard it feels and sound of the mechanical switches by bending the leaf (or the parts that leaf makes contact) inside.
All these differences are miniscule other than feel and sound, and that mostly comes from your mouse's shell. And remember, average human reaction time is 200ms and there is a lot of added latency coming from your whole pc chain. So as much as companies like to advertise '80% FASTER CLICKS' they are actually talking about difference between 0.2ms and 1ms. 1 Milisecond is 1 in 1.000 of a second. So don't believe everything brands and brand affiliated people say on the internet, most of the time they are just trying to get more money out of you. In the end, what matters most is your preference.
Hope i was able to provide useful informations. Have luck and good funs!
Posted Jul 29, 2026, 1:11 PM UTC