keyboards

Contents

• Owned Keyboards
• Owned Switches
• My Thoughts
  • Generic Chinese Brands
  • Yunzii
  • CannonKeys
  • Meletrix
  • Akko
  • Overall Thoughts

Owned Keyboards

This table is listed from first owned to most recent.

Owned Switches

I prefer tactiles and value silent typing, so I run silent tactiles (Akko Penguin) in my daily drivers.

My Thoughts

My first mechanical keyboard was a Corsair Strafe. After having some of the keys stop working and with cleaning being so annoying, I became much more interested in custom keyboards. Since then, I haven’t even considered any typical consumer keyboards.

Generic Chinese Brands

I started custom keyboards in 2021, which I feel is when Chinese brands started the race to the bottom for low priced, decent/good boards. My TM680 was $84 barebones, you could get a much better kit for ~$50 fully built now.

The biggest downside is a lot of cheap kits don’t have QMK/VIA. I didn’t really care about this until I got my Bakeneko65, my first board with VIA compatibility. It really is a game changer.

TM680

The TM680 was my first custom board. I bought it when I went to college, because all I had at the time was a Surface Pro 6 with the crappy keyboard cover.

Looking back, it wasn’t really that good, but it was still better than most gaming keyboards of the time (which have improved a lot).

Original Specs:

• Akko Matcha Greens and a set of Miku keycaps from Aliexpress

Yunzii

IF98

My first upgrade from the TM680, and my first 1800 layout (which is now my favorite layout). Amazing keyboard for $100 fully built. Stock is fine, but I ended up swapping keycaps and switches. After upgrading to the Brutal V2 1800, I ended up selling this to a friend.

• Downside of this purchase is that a 3-mode pro version came out right after I bought it.

Spec History:

• Stock
• TTC Bluish Whites + NicePBT Galaxy

KC68

I obtained from a mystery box sale on Yunzii’s site. I haven’t really used it much.

• Cheap, small, and 3-mode so it’s useful for testing on other machines

Spec History:

• Outemu Mute Limes + CannonCaps Minty

CannonKeys

My go-to store. Great keyboard, keycap, and deskmat quality. Frequent sales with good mystery boxes and high discounts.

Bakeneko65

I purchased via mystery box and recieved gray B-stock. Nice keyboard that just works. It’s small and portable, so I used to bring this to work often.

Now, I mainly use it with super light Gateron Clears for rhythm games.

Mods:

• Tape mod (decrease noise)

Spec History:

• Akko Penguin + PBT Salt Lakes clones
• Gateron Clear + NicePBT Pelo

Brutal V2 1800

One of my current daily drivers. Sturdy and heavy premium keyboard. No unnecessary bells and whistles, just a keyboard that works.

• Purple finish looks great paired with NicePBT Galaxy keycaps
  • Not so much with others, but I bought this to use with the keycaps I already owned
• The rubber feet that come with the board are terrible
  • They tear off easily from sliding the board around on my deskmat. The board is very heavy, so it makes sense why.
  • I added some leftover feet from my Zoom65 V3, which are much larger and stay on.

Spec History:

• Akko Penguin + NicePBT Galaxy

Meletrix

One and done, not impressed with the Zoom65 V3.

Zoom65 V3

Purchased through CannonKeys. I was interested due to its unique features, such as the different mounting options.

Cons:

• Somehow easy and hard to disassemble at the same time
• Poor design choices and durability
• Power/mode switch in a braindead position (under the plate, under the right shift? Really?)
• Ribbon cables make modules fragile, hard to install, and get in the way of putting the top cover back on
• Crappy web software for controlling modules

Pros:

• PCB offers regular and split space on the same board
• Overall aesthetics are premium
• Mount choice is cool. I use the magnetic mount option.

TL;DR: Keyboard with premium looks and cool gimmicks, but the internal design is shit.

Spec History:

• Akko Penguin + NicePBT Nigiri

Akko

My favorite brand for switches. They have my personal favorite, the Penguin Silent Tactiles. I’m so happy with these that I don’t really consider trying any others.

Although I’ve only had one of their keyboards, it left me quite impressed. I can firmly say I recommend this brand to anyone looking for a new keyboard or parts.

Mineral 02

One of my current daily drivers. Purchased for use at my new job. I now swap between this and the Brutal V2 depending on the week.

Pros:

• I really like the cutouts with transparent parts for LED shine-through.
• I like the layout, giving me the same 1800 as my Brutal V2 but with a few extra keys and a full-size 0 on the numpad.
• Very easy to disassemble and do maintenance on.

In all honesty, I have come to prefer this keyboard over the Brutal V2 1800. There is very little difference in typing experience, I just like the look of this board a little more.

Spec History:

• Akko Penguin + PBT Salt Lakes clones
• Akko Penguin + PBTFans Calkis

Overall Thoughts

For anyone looking for new switches, I can absolutely vouch for Akko’s switches. They are excellent for the price and I’ve been using them for years. You can likely get an even better price ordering off of AliExpress.

Keyboard sound is debated a lot, but from my experience the sound mostly comes from the switches. If you want quiet switches, Akko Penguins are great tactiles. I’m sure Akko also has silent linears if you prefer them.

For anyone looking to get a new keyboard, I recommend checking out:

• Akko
• CannonKeys
• Yunzii

in that order. For a fully built kit, go with Akko or Yunzii. For more premium kits go with CannonKeys.

For anyone looking for keycaps, I can recommend:

• CannonKeys
• KBDFans
• or whatever’s on aliexpress

Really, just get anything that looks nice and is PBT. Never will I ever recommend ABS keycaps, unless they’re strictly for the accents (like in PBTFans Calkis). Anyone who prefers ABS (a strictly inferior material) is delusional.