

The GMK QMX clips are a new product that essentially silence the “Clack” you get when bottoming out on a keyboard. There are already quite a few products on the market that accomplish muting this sound with some degree of success, most notably Elite Keyboards Landing Pads and 0-rings, though both drastically change the feel of the keyboard as well when implemented. The QMX-Clips had a much less drastic change in terms of feel, yet muted the sound just as well.

You can see right off the bat that the GMK switch is easily the most engineered product of the lot, but is it really that much better? Based on feel alone, I think so.

Now, before going any further there is one glaring limitation of the GMK QMX-Clips. They are only compatible with PCB mounted keyboards, not plate mounted keyboards. Unfortunately 90% of the keyboards on the market are plate mounted, so these clips won’t even be an option for most people. I am assuming the upcoming UNIQEY keyboard by GMK will be PCB mounted, and that these switches are custom tailed for that keyboard.

The QMX-Clips come in a nice box and include a tool that doubles as a keypuller as well as a tool that helps you install the clips.

The clips are quite easy to install by hand, but the tool helps ensure that you don’t put extra pressure on one side of the clip and accidentally break it during installation.

The design of the clips is very simple. The plastic clip snaps onto the bottom of the switch, and the top includes a thin rubber layer that dampens the keycap strokes. The design work extremely well. I went as far as testing it with keycaps from GMK, BSP, and all the popular Signature Plastics (SA, DSA, DCS) profiles with no issues. The huge benefit of the clips is that they are quite thin, making the length of the keystroke feel as close to stock as possible. The hard rubber also helps then not feel “mushy,” unlike both of the other alternatives. From a side by side comparison, you can really tell how much thinner and less obstructive the QMX Clip (red) are than o-rings (yellow) and landing pads (brown)…

Now, as far as how they worked/sounded I was very impressed. I am normally not a fan of linears, but I really enjoyed MX Blacks with the QMX-Clips on them, with MX Reds pulling a close second. Based on a combination of performance and feel alone, the QMX-Clips smoke the competition. I do admit that “feel” is an extremely subjective topic, but they had much less of the “mushy” feeling that often gets associated with o-rings and landing pads, and felt quite a bit more refined to me. The downside, again, is that they aren’t really going to be compatible with many keyboards on the market. Here is an example of me “trying” to put them on my plate mounted KUL…

Sadly I just can’t see any good way to modify them to work with plate mounted keyboards. I will bring this up to GMK though with hopes a plate mounted option could come in the future, as these really are a great little product.