Welcome back to nearlucid.
Today we’ll be looking at the Zoo, a very unique new keyboard from momoka.
This board was sent to us by momoka for review, but as always that will not affect our opinion
or statements in any way.
First the unboxing.
Our packaging is pretty standard, nothing too crazy.
Inside on the top are all of our necessary bits, like the bottom feet, screws, standoffs,
and allen keys, daughterboard and JST cable, and our polycarbonate plate.
Under this is the hotswap PCB with flex cuts.
This is probably one of the nicest looking PCBs I’ve owned.
Finally, the board itself.
Inside of it are the IXPE switch foam, plate foam, and thin case foam.
Thicker case foam will be included in the group buy units.
Onto the specs.
The zoo65 is an aluminum gasket mounted 65% with a bottom right blocker, offering only
a hotswap PCB.
This hotswap PCB is fixed layout and has a daughterboard.
Case color options are black, blue, or dark green, which is what we have today.
A polycarbonate plate is included, and an FR4 plate is also offered as an addon.
QMK and VIA are both supported, and the typing angle is 6 Degrees.
Finally, the price is a very generous 170 dollars.
This is a gasket mounted board, so everything is fairly simple.
In the PCB are C3 stabilizers, lubed with 205g0 and XHT-BDZ.
Going into this polycarbonate plate first are momoka flamingos.
These are only lubed with the included factory lube.
Now that the inner assembly is done, we can start working on the case.
First I’m going to apply the bottom rubber feet.
Next we can take out these beautiful golden screws
and separate the bottom case from the rim.
There’s 2 interesting things to note here.
One is that the top case is only this rim piece, and another is that only the bottom
case has cut outs for the gaskets.
Initially I thought this meant that gaskets were only supposed to go on the bottom, though
this is not the case.
I did apply the top gaskets off camera before recording sound tests.
With the gaskets in, we can connect our daughter board cable,
Insert the case foam, And close the board back up.
On top goes GMK White on Black.
I wanted something super neutral that would best pair with the unique green case.
So the foamless sound signature does end up being pretty thin.
I am starting to think there is a connection between the rim case design and thin sound
profile, because the iskar had a very similar sound profile and also a very similar rim.
Ultimately, I would go heavier on the foam usage for these kinds of boards.
It also might help using an aluminum plate and going for a higher pitched build, but
unfortunately an aluminum plate is neither included nor offered by momoka.
There is also a noticeable amount of hollowness, but momoka is addressing this by making acoustic
changes to the case design and also including a thicker case foam with the group buy units.
I am going to completely disregard the sound tests made with PE foam, because those are,
of course, PE foamed.
Though I'm not exactly sure why hipyo had so much case ping, because mine did not, even
with minimal foam.
Both hollowness and sound did improve a lot with tape mod and plate foam, although I would
much rather have the board sound like this without either mod as they both slightly reduce
flex.
Typing feel is great.
Because of the roominess of the case and the flex cuts in the PCB, there is still a fair
amount of bounce even with case foam installed.
These flex cuts also allow for a lot more local movement than other boards, rather than
the entire PCB moving up and down with the gaskets.
Unfortunately, I would not recommend building without the case foam for more flex as the
hollowness of the base board really warrants the foam.
Stock flamingos are very smooth and snappy.
The dustproof stem design also makes them feel a lot more consolidated than other switches.
The level of design here is seriously impressive for the price.
On the top, we can see the separation of the case into the bottom case and a top rim piece.
The final units will have closer color matching between the bottom case and the rim.
In the future, I hope momoka is able to offer separate rims so owners can mix and match
their case and rim colors.
The side profiles are very basic.
The top edge has a large chamfer, and the bottom has fileting.
Moving to the back, there is a center row slightly embedded into the board.
Here we have cute fish engravings, and momoka branding above our centered recessed USB port.
On the bottom are these shiny golden screws, and a large engraving of a dodo in the center.
Comparing the zoo to other boards in the same price range, like the Ciel and Zoom65, there
is significantly more machining and designing effort, which is greatly appreciated.
However, as a direct competitor to the zoom65, I would like to see some color variation in
the form of an external aluminum weight piece or some very drastic improvements in stock
sound.
Momoka being an experienced keyboard vendor means you can rest assured that the material
quality is top notch.
There are no external or internal scuffs, and the anodization is very smooth and consistent
all throughout.
The only real issues are the color matching between the case and the rim, which is already
being addressed, and the faint machining marks where our back row embeds inward into the
board.
Because of how slight the dip is, the machining marks are more noticeable than usual, even
though they feel smooth to the touch.
this is only visible in certain light.
But of course with such a budget friendly board, there are going to be compromises.
In this case, it’s definitely the sound quality, at least with the prototype.
In the end I am pretty impressed with the Zoo65, mainly with the amount of machining,
and it is definitely a serious new budget contender.
And that's all I have for you today.
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