Switches
A tactile switch carries a bump on the stem that you push past, placed at or just before the point the key registers. You feel the key engage rather than inferring it.
A tactile is not harder work than a linear overall, it is unevenly distributed work: light at the top, a brief rise, then lighter again before the bottom. Which is why comparing tactiles on actuation force alone tells you very little.
The word covers an enormous range. Some of these have a bump you would struggle to notice; others feel like a fault in the key. The published figures give you the one real clue: a wide gap between actuation force and bottom-out force means a steep climb after the bump, and a narrow gap means the switch stays close to its starting weight the whole way.
12 of the 48 switches indexed here, from 35 gf to 59 gf. 7 have at least one force figure left blank, because the sources disagreed or published something impossible.
HMX
A very light tactile at 35 gf that still bottoms out around 52, and that wide gap is the whole point: the bump arrives early and gently, then the press firms up underneath it. Unusually forgiving for a tactile, where the common complaint is that the bump costs too much effort. HMX's material choices give it a dry, sharp sound rather than a muted one.
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HMX
The tactile of the Retro set and the odd one out: 36 gf to actuate but 55 gf at the bottom, a 19 gf climb that is the steepest in this batch, over only 3.0 mm of travel. A light bump followed by a firm floor. Pre-travel is 2.5 mm, deeper than the 2.0 mm its linear siblings use.
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Gateron
A tactile from Gateron's drinks series, light for a tactile at 40 gf and short overall at 3.4 mm. The polycarbonate housing runs top and bottom with a POM stem, the pairing Gateron reaches for when it wants a brighter sound than nylon gives. Two figures are missing on purpose: no vendor publishes a bottom-out force, and the pre-travel both of them quote is shorter than an MX tactile bump can physically sit, so it is left out rather than repeated.
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KTT
A light silent tactile at 40 gf, which is unusual: most tactiles start heavier because the bump needs force behind it to be felt. The compromise here is a gentle bump rather than a sharp one, so it reads as texture in the travel rather than a distinct step. The same POM and TPE stem as the Phantom does the silencing. The vendor's spec block lists two actuation figures, so only the 40 gf from the product name is recorded.
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Wingtree
A tactile at 42 gf actuation and 50 gf bottom-out, with the longest travel in this batch at a full 4.0 mm and a short 1.8 mm to the bump. All-nylon housing. The Light in the name is relative to the rest of the Torrero range rather than to tactiles generally: 42 gf is mid-weight for a tactile.
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Cherry
Cherry's silent tactile, and a departure from the company's reputation for restraint: 45 gf with a 1.9 mm pre-travel and a bump you can actually feel. Cherry's silencing is built into the stem and housing rather than added as pads, which is why it does not feel as damped as most silent switches. Factory lubed. If Cherry MX Brown always felt vague to you, this is the same idea done properly and quietly.
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Gateron
Named after the tea, and part of the run of Gateron switches aimed at enthusiast taste rather than the retail shelf. 48 gf with a bump leading into a 55 gf bottom-out, on the full 4 mm of travel, so it feels roomier than the shorter-travel tactiles here. Middleweight, unfussy, and easy to live with over a long day.
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HMX
A medium tactile at 48 gf rising to about 55 at the bottom. The bump sits early in the travel and is pronounced enough to be unmistakable without the sharpness some tactiles use to prove a point. Shorter total travel at 3.4 mm keeps the press feeling tight. A reasonable first tactile for someone coming from linears who wants to feel where the key registers.
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Gateron
A low-profile tactile on Gateron's KS-33 platform, so it is not an MX switch and will not fit MX keycaps or a standard hot-swap socket. Everything is shorter than MX: 1.7 mm to actuation and 3.0 mm to the bottom, against roughly 2.0 and 4.0 on a full-height switch. At 50 gf it is the middle weight of the three KS-33 flavours indexed here, and it ships factory lubed.
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Gateron
The heaviest tactile in the Smoothie line at 55 gf, with an all-POM housing and POM stem. POM against POM is the self-lubricating combination, which is why the Smoothies are usually sold on smoothness rather than on a sharp bump. Bottom-out force is not published for this switch.
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Gateron
The tactile version of the same silent housing, at 55 gf with a short 1.5 mm pre-travel, so the bump arrives early and the key registers soon after it. Tactile and silent is a harder combination than either alone, because the dampening that kills the noise also blunts the bump. This keeps enough of it to feel deliberate. Heavier than the Pink, and the right choice if you want feedback from a switch nobody else can hear.
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Gateron
At 59 gf this is one of the heavier tactiles in the index, in an all-nylon housing with a POM stem. Nylon on both halves is the quietest and deepest of Gateron's common housing choices. Total travel is 3.4 mm, noticeably short, so the switch reaches the bottom sooner than an MX-standard 4.0 mm. Bottom-out force is unpublished.
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Brands represented here: Cherry, Gateron, HMX, KTT, Wingtree.