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Welcome back to nearlucid. Today we’ll be taking a look at the ciel, a 60% board based
on the bakeneko, a well received budget option in the hobby. This proto unit was sent to
us for review, but as always that will not affect our opinion or statements in any way.
Let’s get to the unboxing. I have some extra parts here that won’t be included with the
group buy version. Group buy units will come in shipping boxes
like this, with slight variations depending on the vendor. When the goal is cutting down
costs as much as possible, I don’t personally mind, especially since there is a lot of protective
foam included. First is a daughter board and its screws, JST cable, and 2 different sizes
of o rings. Only one will be included in the group buy units.
Next is the board itself. After this are the two PCBs, one hotswap and
one soldered, each with their own JST cable. Of course, I’ll be using hotswap.
Finally we have the two plates. These are both aluminum, one is a prototype 6061 and
the other is 5052, which was the finalized design. The group buy units will only include
the finalized plate design, except in 6061 Aluminum.
Let's talk about some basic specs. So this is an aluminum O ring gasket 60% keyboard,
offering both soldered and hotswap PCBs that support tsangan bottom, split right shift,
split backspace, and stepped caps. The only notable differences from the bakeneko are
slight changes to the back profile, absence of the bottom engraving, and the addition
of an internal brass weight, which should make it feel much more premium.
The USB-C port is centered, recessed, and does use a daughterboard. An aluminum plate
and hotswap PCB are included, but there are FR4 plate extras and soldered PCBs that are
going to be sold at the same time as the group buy, which is likely right now.
Colors available are burgundy, blue gray, pinkish lavender, black, and e-white.
And since this is the bakeneko we’re talking about, the price is a modest $180, and $190
for e-white. Today we have a burgundy ciel with an aluminum
plate and a hotswap PCB to build.
Now for assembly. I’ve already installed some durock v2 stabilizers,
lubed with 205g0 and XHT BDZ. For the switches, we’re going to use alpacas,
because I have some lying around and I think it would be a good idea to test some pretty
standard JWK linears first. I also don’t expect this board to be very flexy or deep,
because of the aluminum plate, so I want to commit fully to the clacky high pitched sound.
These are 62 grams and have a polycarb top, nylon bottom, and pom stem.
For keycaps I’m going to use GMK White on black. It’s basically the only thing I own
that will match with this really nice burgundy color, and should help it pop out quite a
bit. As for the layout, I’m opting for a 7U spacebar and a split right shift.
This is not only a great beginner option because of price, but also because of its quick and
easy assembly. So I've actually never worked with an o-ring mount before, and it’s quite
a unique concept. After putting together the inner assembly, we wrap this single large
o ring around the edge of it. All we need to do to get the inner assembly into the case
is installing the o ring, and pushing the inner assembly in. This makes the entire assembly
friction fit into the case, making it super easy to take out and mod. And with the only
contact points in the case being the ring itself, there should be a ton of room for
flex, but also hollowness since the inner assembly is very acoustically isolated.
The o ring is a little bit finicky around the backspace stab and sometimes doesn’t
want to stay down, so I would recommend inserting the top and then pushing the bottom of the
inner assembly.
Let’s take a listen.
Really nice and poppy, but also really quiet. There is also quite a bit of hollow sound,
especially if you pick the board up and type on it, but this is already a known issue with
the bakeneko and if it really bothers you, you can use a deskmat and put some foam under
the PCB. Tape modding also helps with the hollowness a little bit, but not significantly.
Even though this is O ring mounted, it’s still pretty stiff because of the aluminum
plate. If you really push on it, you can see the flex, but this won’t be something noticeable
if you’re typing on it daily. Of course, if you prefer the softer typing feel, pick
up an fr4 plate extra alongside the board.
The design is incredibly basic, and obviously, this is a cost cutting measure. The entire
board is a single piece of aluminum, with the bottom half being angled and slightly
embedded within the left and right bezels. On the back, we have the recessed USB port,
and the bottom half is angled inward, which I like. There isn’t an engraving on the
bottom like the bakeneko. The only engraving in the group buy version is a simple cloud
on the internal weight, which isn’t on my prototype unit. This is kinda strange, considering
most boards, even super budget options like the nk65 would have at least some sort of
outside branding. I would prefer to see at least a simple logo on the bottom. Though
there are recessions for feet here, my packaging didn’t include any, so I would just pick
some up on amazon. I also suggest picking a keycap set that’s pretty saturated or
bright just so the build doesn’t look incredibly boring, like mine.
Getting nitpicky with the actual material quality, I think the anno is great, and really
consistent looking across the entire board. I only had one scuff on the exterior, and
since this is a proto, I’d presume it’s because of handling by the people that had
the unit before me. There shouldn’t be any scuffs of this size on a production unit.
Additionally, if you prefer hotswap, I would consider the ciel over the bakeneko simply
because the ciel hotswap PCB has multi layout support while the cannonkeys bakeneko PCB
does not.
So with the bakeneko at $120 already being quite a steal, the ciel simply bumps this
bar up a little bit by adding some premium feeling heft and a slightly altered design.
If you’re in the market for a budget board with a pleasant feel, clacky sound signature
and easy assembly, the ciel is definitely it.
Thanks for watching this episode of nearlucid. If you liked this video, drop a thumbs up.
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