The original Bakeneko60 from Cannon Keys hit the market two years ago and helped spur on the wave of affordable custom mechanical keyboards. Now, the company is back with its latest release, the BakenekoGO, a cheaper, wireless, and overall improved version of the keyboard coming in at only $80. You’ll need to provide switches and keycaps, but in my estimation, it’s one of the best and most unique 60% keyboards you can buy right now.
Specifications
- Current Price:
- Frosted Polycarbonate Clear: $80 (Cannon Keys)
- Powder Coated Polycarbonate Black: $75 (Cannon Keys)
BakenekoGO - Design and Highlights
Believe it or not, the original Bakeneko, named after the ghostly, sometimes-feline Yokai, was an open source project. Based on the TGR x Singa Unikorn, a decidedly high-end keyboard with a similar design, KKatano developed his own case and released it to the public, a project which is still available on GitHub.
Seeing an opportunity to provide an affordable yet high quality option to its fans, many of which were first discovering the custom keyboard hobby at the time, CannonKeys introduced its own Bakeneko60, followed by the Bakeneko65. These kits delivered everything you would need to build a compact keyboard (60% and 65%, of course), including a cast aluminum case. They were quite popular at the time and I imagine they still are. In my own review, I remarked at their value proposition, especially with modding.
Well, that’s even truer today than it was then. The BakenekoGO is a modified version of the Bakeneko60, carrying through the same overall design but in a “scaled back” package. Except, that’s not exactly true because the BakenekoGO isn’t what I would consider scaled back at all. The biggest difference is that instead of using a cast aluminum case, it uses polycarbonate, available in frosted clear or powder-coated black colorways. In fact, I think the design is undeniably enhanced, yet the shift in case and accessories allow CannonKeys to offer it much cheaper. It is very much the best kind of sequel and over-delivers on expectations.
Like the original, the BakenekoGO features an o-ring mounted design. Unlike gasket mounting, which is now becoming common even among mainstream gaming keyboards, o-ring mounting is still the purview of the custom keyboard scene. Its beauty lies in its simplicity. Rather than rely on individual gaskets that require mounting points to be milled into the case and extra steps for the builder, it uses a large, soft silicone o-ring which wraps around the switches and allows the PCB to be friction fit into the case (pictured above). This simplifies the build process significantly and makes accessing the inside of the case to tweak and mod faster than any other solution available on a keyboard today.
Apart from the o-ring, the keyboard consists of the bare minimum of parts. It uses a non-flex cut hotswap PCB, an FR4 plate to mount the switches, a 200mAh, a USB daughterboard, and a wire to connect them. That’s it. There are no foams to concern yourself with or other advanced features. While both of those things have their place, this keyboard relishes in its simplicity and that it can still deliver such a good typing and gaming experience without relying on those things.
One of the drawbacks to o-ring mounting is that the BakenekoGO only supports clip-in stabilizers. Screw-in stabs won’t work, so if you’re planning on buying some fancy new stabilizers, which are nearly all screw-in, you’re unfortunately out of luck. On the plus side, CannonKeys provides you with a complete set right in the box, so you won’t need to go out and buy a set, saving you another $15-20 on your build.
Another enhancement with the GO is the addition of RGB lighting. There’s still no lighting beneath the switches themselves but there are now a full dozen exceptionally bright LEDs projecting from the bottom of the PCB. With the frosted acrylic case, this makes the entire case light up. It’s visible in all kinds of lighting but really impresses when the lights are off.
Going with the frosted case allows you to see inside and this is somewhat to its detriment. It’s not frosted enough to prevent hotspotting when viewed from the side. And when you do flip it over, you can clearly see the wire and the battery. Ideally, none of this would be visible and all you would see is the light diffusing from the case. It’s not a big deal, though, and I’m actually a bit enamored with how it looks sitting on my desk.
With a 200mAh battery, you would expect battery life to be absolutely minimal. Instead, with RGB disabled, the keyboard is expected to last around a month. If you do run the lighting on full blast, that drops to about a day. Given how tiny the battery is, that’s still impressive.
One of the ways that CannonKeys pulls this off is by utilizing ZMK instead of QMK/VIA for its firmware. ZMK is much more power efficient and only sips at the battery where QMK would gulp it away. ZMK has some major potential benefits to programmability, too, but right now, they’re hard to access.
While CannonKeys is working on a GUI similar to VIA for its key remapping and macro assigning functionality, and ships the keyboard with secondary keys for most of the missing keys, Bluetooth, and lighting functions, making your own remaps is very cumbersome. The team has both written and video guides walking you through the process, but it’s still many steps and requires five to ten minutes to complete even if you’re only changing a single key.
In short, you’ll need to make a GitHub account, copy, or fork, the key remap project from CannonKeys, link that account to the keyboard editor, make your changes in the editor (which requires multiple menus and clicks), save those changes, go back to GitHub, run the workflow to compile it, download the firmware, and copy/paste it to the keyboard. None of it is hard if you follow the guide to get it set up for the first time, but it’s a lot of steps for something you can do in seconds with VIA. In time this should change but for now, you’ll have to go through the process if you want to customize keybinds.
BakenekoGo - Assembly
Building the BakenekoGO is exceptionally easy. You’ll need switches and keycaps and will also want to prepare your stabilizers ahead of time. Note that the stabilizers included in the kit need to be clipped to remove the small forked feet that tick on the PCB.
With that done and materials acquired, you simply press the clip-in stabilizers into place, line up the plate, and begin inserting switches. Keycaps can also be added at this point since there’s no top-case to contend with. When that’s done, you can screw the PCB daughterboard into place and connect the batter and daughterboard to the PCB. Finally, you wrap the o-ring around the outside and press it into the top of the case.
That’s it. This is a build that can be completed in around 30 minutes after stabilizers are prepped.
For my build, I used Gateron Smoothie switches and NicePBT Shinbun keycaps. Apart from aesthetics, the Smoothies are, well, smooth thanks to their factory lubrication process and have a crisp sound profile. The keycaps, on the other hand, are thick-walled and very well made. NicePBT make some of the best keycaps for the price. At $22 for the switches and $80 for the keycaps, the total cost for the build pictured here was $182.
BakenekoGO - Typing and Gaming Impression
While aluminum cases are great in their own way, thick acrylic is a genuinely excellent material for a keyboard case. Not only does it look great when all lit up and diffuse, it doesn’t allow for hollowness or pinging within the case. Sound waves hit the material and deaden out, allowing you to hear the full sound of the switches with an added hint of deepness.
While soft and bouncy keyboards are all the rage right now, the BakenekoGO strikes a great middle ground between sound, feel, and ease of building. The friction fit of the o-ring and the soft silicone it’s made from allow it to give under your fingers for a soft typing experience. It’s most visible around the outside of the keyboard nearest to the ring but you can also observe it when typing normally, so the effect carries throughout the keyboard. Since there are no flex cuts, the sound the keyboard produces is very full.
I have greatly enjoyed typing on the keyboard. I liked it so much that I took the time to learn all of the default keymaps before attempting the software, even though changing them is usually the first thing I do. And believe me, when you earn your living by typing articles all day, the last thing you want is to be slowed down and having to read a manual to figure out where a particular key is. But here, the typing experience sounds and feels so good that it was worth it.
The layout won’t be for everyone. Ultra compact keyboards like this have an inherent learning curve and, at least for a while, you’re going to have to put the time into memorizing your keymaps or the ones that came with it. Once you do, it becomes much easier to use. For the uninitiated, I recommend changing your Caps Lock key to access a secondary layer and putting some of the missing keys along the right-hand side, as seen above. This will help you avoid having to stop and reposition your hands to achieve its full functionality.
The Gateron Smoothie switches matched very well with the build. At only $0.30 a switch, they’re affordable and deliver the smoothness and high-pitched clack of a great long-pole switch. I love the effect the case has on their sound.
Compared to the original Bakeneko60 and Bakeneko65, the out of box experience is so much better. While those keyboards were impressive, they really required modding to sound their best. With mine, I added the tape mod to add pop and stuffed each case with polyfill to fill out their sound. Here, you don’t have to do any of that. You don’t need foams, you don’t need tape or silicone or polyfill. All you need is switches, keycaps, and lube on the stabilizers and it sounds and feels great.
For gaming, the keyboard also works very well. The 60% layout is popular among gamers for a reason. The small form factor allows you to keep your hands closer together, which is more comfortable, and frees up desk space for big mouse swipes. As always, you won’t want to play competitive games using the Bluetooth connection as it’s only only 125Hz (versus 1,000Hz on most gaming keyboards), but it’s fine for slower-paced titles. I generally stay plugged in if I’m not traveling.
Typing Demo
The following typing demonstration was posted by Merkeebs. He is an up-and-coming creator that makes excellent videos on mechanical keyboards. Please visit his channel and give him a subscription.
Final Thoughts
Between its excellent typing and gaming experiences, easy build process, and newfound wireless and RGB capabilities, the BakenekoGO is an improvement on the original Bakeneko60 in just about every way. Its compact layout won’t be for everyone but if you take the time to program it, it’s perfectly functional and exceptionally space-saving. Easier programming is a must-have that CannonKeys is currently working on, but if you can get past that, this is a unique and uniquely great pick for a custom mechanical keyboard kit.
The product described in this article was provided by the manufacturer for evaluation purposes
