part · switch

HMX Cloud Linear

Spec sheet

Type: linear
Top housing: nylon
Bottom housing: nylon
Stem: mixed
Spring: 42g actuation · 50g bottom-out
Travel: 3.9 mm
Factory lubed: yes
Released: Sep 1, 2023

Light linear with an LY stem in PA12 top and PA2.0 bottom housings. Voiced as a clacky, high-pitched poppy linear; popular as a budget pick for builders chasing a clean top-out without a deep thock.

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Mentioned in 3 articles

Cherry MX2A switch cross-section, side view — top housing with stem hole, cruciform-mount POM stem column drawn in cherry-red splash, 5-coil spring, bent-leaf contact, and bottom housing with pin contacts; a thin dashed callout traces from the stem-housing interface to a magnified circular inset showing the new factory grease ring with scattered lube dots.

Deep Dives

What Cherry's MX2A revision actually changed

Cherry's MX2A landed in 2023 with a real engineering update — factory lube, tighter tolerances, the same 100M-press lifespan. The reason the discourse cooled isn't that the switch failed; it's that the enthusiast slot it aimed at was already claimed by the time it arrived.

thockMay 10, 20267 min read

Exploded-axonometric silhouette of a mechanical keyboard switch on a dark background — top housing, stem, spring, and lower housing separated by thin gap lines, with a single pale-cyan accent dot anchoring the stem.

Deep Dives

How HMX took over the mid-tier linear slot

Two years ago HMX was a name on a vendor page nobody pronounced confidently. Today the Cloud sits second on our W19 tracker and lands in half the $120 prebuilts the scene argues about. The rise wasn't an accident.

thockMay 10, 202612 min read

Guides

Lubing 101: what matters, what doesn't, and where to stop

Lube moves the sound and feel of a switch in ways nothing else in the build can. It also chews up a Saturday and ruins switches when applied with the enthusiasm the rabbit-hole crowd recommends. Here is the version that earns its keep.

thockApr 30, 20267 min read

HMX Cloud Linear appears in editor-curated build sheets.

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