Gateron North Pole V2 and New V2 thoughts

I wanted to share my experience with these switches since I wasn’t seeing much about them, especially for the latest revision, the “New V2”. There’s some helpful videos on yt that explain what’s up with the versions and the terrible naming. Short version is the V2 came out with dampening at the bottom of the switch, this was not well received, so then came the New V2 with that dampening removed.

I wound up test driving both the V2 and the New V2 and found them both to be very pleasing switches. In fact, I was pretty torn between the two and in the end I got a full set of both versions. Side by side the auditory difference isn’t night and day. They’re both on the bassy, or thick end of the spectrum, and even the non-dampened New V2 isn’t a particularly distracting switch. I’ve seen it mentioned before that the V2 isn’t really a silent switch, but it’s pretty close to being one. I definitely found this to be the case, and it is why I went ahead and got a full set for a future office setup. They are definitely quiet enough to not raise much, if any attention and the feel is almost as good as the New V2.

The feel, or i guess more specifically the liquidy travel and lack of wobble is what won me over with both switches. I tried two other linear switches besides the North Poles, and the Gaterons were the most tight feeling by a wide margin. They pretty much killed the Gazzew Boba Gum and LT for me since the wobble on the Gazzews was crazy jiggly by comparison.

In the end the New V2 was the winner. The harder bottom out just felt a tad better and I found myself coming back to them the most. If you’re thinking about the New V2 I can’t recommend them enough. No scratchiness, virtually no wobble, and a thick sound that doesn’t distract unless you’re really banging away at them. If you’re looking for a silent linear, the V2 is definitely worth a try. For me, they are on standby for this exact reason. I often hear the V2 bottom out described as “gummy.” I feel like that’s a bit of a stretch. If you were tapping a hard surface with a pen, and then slipped a piece of fabric on the striking surface, that’s the feel of the dampening.