Cherry may be down but it isn't out with two new 'more than magnetic' TMR gaming keyboards
During this year's CES, Cherry announced two keyboards with tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) switches. Both TMR boards will be part of the company's peripherals sub-brand Cherry XTRFY—better late to the party than never turning up.
According to Cherry, the new MX 8.2 Pro TMR keyboard is "more than magnetic"—whatever that means. What I can tell you is that it "delivers ultra-fast wireless performance," alongside lower power consumption, and the flexibility of hot swappable switches. So, if TMR isn't your thing for whatever reason, the MX 8.2 will allow you to swap between both magnetic and mechanical switches. If you stick with the Cherry MK Crystal Magnetic switches, you'll enjoy "ultra-smooth linear input with 0.01 mm precision" alongside an 8,000 Hz wireless polling rate.
The wireless, tenkeyless MX 8.2 Pro TMR keyboard will cost about $250 when it releases on January 29, though it won't be lonely in the lineup for long. The K5 Pro TMR keyboard—a follow-up to the wired Cherry Xtrfy K5V2 from 2024—will drop later in the Spring. This 65% board will also offer MK Crystal Magnetic switches, plus a polling rate of up to 8,000 Hz. Pricing has yet to be confirmed.
Magnetic tech isn't exactly new, as many gaming keyboards and controllers have been using Hall effect switches for some time now. However, while TMR grants a greater, more refined degree of precision than the Hall effect, it does also cost a far prettier penny. That said, Monsgeek is one company that already offers TMR keyboards, so Cherry is hardly the first to do so.
As for Cherry itself, this TMR news may indicate the company is not content to sit mouldering away on the tree. For one thing, though we do like its switches, it's been a minute since one of Cherry's boards featured among our picks for the best gaming keyboards. When compared to some of our favourites, Cherry's more recent offerings have struggled to keep up in terms of affordability and feature set. TMR boards are a step in the right direction—though also a bit of a surprise given the financial trouble the company has recently been in, suffering a net loss of around $23 million back in November last year.
Does that mean Cherry's flirtation with mechanical induction switches is over? Potentially. Touted as a cheaper, analogue alternative to TMR during Computex 2025, I admit I'll be a little sad if the Cherry IK switches never make their way to market.
Perhaps rather than a new era of induction switches, this is Cherry's 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em' era.