 For the ultimate no compromises compact gaming PC look no further than the Obsidian series 250d from Corsair. Click now to learn more. Alright so the last time we talked about Thermaltake's TTE Sports Poseidon line. We were marveling at how inexpensive the Poseidon was compared to competing backlit mechanical keyboards. Now they're back with the Poseidon Z, a keyboard that is functionally pretty much the same thing but comes in at $10 cheaper. So what did they do to reduce the price even further making it one of the least expensive full-size mechanical backlit keyboards on the market? One word, Kale. No not cabbage. Key switches. Our first Poseidon, this one right here, used Cherry MX blue switches manufactured in Germany while our Poseidon Z uses blue switches that are manufactured in China by a company called Kale that happens to use the same color based naming scheme and also have a very similar internal design to their switches because Cherry's patent on their switch design has expired. Alright so then what is the difference? Well functionally not much. The two keyboards are basically the same thing. It's got a fairly plain jane design with no real alterations to a standard 104 key layout. There's a gaming mode button at the top right that disables the Windows key and some media control keys that can be accessed with a function modifier that you'll find at the bottom right. It also features six to eight key end key rollover which I understand what they're saying. It's six to eight key rollover depending on which keys you're pressing but that isn't end key rollover. Hopefully they can get that fixed on their site soon and hopefully one of these days I'll get through a review of a Thermaltake product without finding errors or typos on their Boxer website. But anyway there's cable management down here so the cable can come out the right left. They've also got nice high quality rubber grips on the bottom even on the fold out elevator piece that allows you to incline the keyboard. The whole bottom of it is grippy and thumbs up for that. But let's get into what is the difference. Why is it cheaper? Well because manufacturing in China is cheaper for all kinds of reasons. Cheaper labor and lower costs associated with transporting the switches to the factories where the completed keyboards will actually be assembled just to name a couple. What you trade though in my experience is looser manufacturing tolerances. I've used a couple of Kailh Blue switch keyboards so far and this one is noticeably heavier than any Cherry MX Blue or even other Kailh Blue keyboard that I've used before. Closer to Cherry MX Greens than to Cherry MX Blues just from typing on them and that's the difference. I mean look at this you can probably even hear the difference. Cherry MX Blue, Kailh Blue. Well trust me there you can hear the difference even if you can't pick it up on the mic. One Cherry MX keyboard to another. There will be variants as well but with a newer less proven manufacturer the potential for us to discover significant differences from batch to batch is definitely still there. Okay then Linus is it okay for thermal take to do this? Doesn't it feel deceptive? And you know what? No I don't think so. Honestly I'm pretty okay with the way thermal take is doing it. They're not calling the switch as something that they're not. They're just calling them TTE Esports certified mechanical blue switches. All things that they are and more importantly they're passing at least some of the savings on to the customer in the form of a lower price and a longer five-year warranty period. This contrasts with Razer's approach where they also discontinued all their Cherry MX based keyboards but then charged exactly the same amount for the newer models with Chinese switches. Something that they may feel justified in doing since they're now rating their switches at 60 million keystrokes versus 50 million keystrokes but I would have liked to see a token discount or a longer warranty to go along with the longer rating on the switches or something at least. So there you have it. This video ended up being more about Kail than about the Poseidon Z but that really is the main story here anyway. Thank you for watching guys. Like this video if you liked it. Dislike it if you disliked it. Share it if you thought it was fantastic and other people need to see it and all the good things and all that. Don't forget there is a support link in the video description. You can buy t-shirts. You can give us monthly contribution. You can... I'm sure there are other things you can do. Ah yes you can change your bookmarks to sites like Amazon to one that includes our affiliate code so we get a kickback whenever you buy pantyhose or whatever it is that you need and I think that pretty much wraps it up. Thank you for watching and as always don't forget to subscribe to Linus Tech Tips for more unboxings, reviews and other computer videos.