Proper earlier than the mechanical keyboard interest exploded in the course of the pandemic, Andrew Kannan launched the Satisfaction 75 whereas nonetheless working as an engineer at Klaviyo. Although it took a short time for the primary manufacturing run of 200 models to promote out, the Satisfaction has develop into considerably of a basic. Since then, Kannan co-founded CannonKeys collectively along with his spouse, Ana Clara Oliveira, expanded the corporate right into a full-scale customized mechanical keyboard store and launched fairly a couple of extra profitable keyboard designs of its personal.
On Thursday, CannonKeys is launching a brand new tackle the unique Satisfaction 75, opening up preorders for the Sat75 X. It provides plenty of fashionable conveniences to the unique 75% design (like a hot-swap PCB, a gasket mount and pre-soldered knob) after which places these into an injection-molded polycarbonate physique.
There are three colours to select from for now: cloud white, octo purple and stratus grey, with the final two being translucent. Most significantly, although, there’s a small LCD display screen that options Bongo Cat and that counts the phrases per minute you write. What extra might you ask for?
At a worth of $111 for the board, this can be a enjoyable and straightforward method to get into constructing a customized mechanical keyboard with out breaking the financial institution. You’ll nonetheless want switches and keycaps, however a minimum of in the intervening time, CannonKeys affords an entire set with PBT keycaps and an 80-pack of linear or tactile switches for a complete of $150. As is usually the case with new keyboards, it’ll be a short time earlier than these ship, with preorders anticipated to reach in early 2025.
Again in 2019, the unique Satisfaction began at $400; CannonKeys is clearly making an attempt to achieve a really totally different market with this new launch.
“When we started CannonKeys, it wasn’t meant to be a full-time job or grow to where it is today,” Kannan informed me after I requested him concerning the origins of the corporate. “It was really just that I made these keyboards, and I wanted to sell them and share them with others — and it seemed that there were a lot of other people who are interested in them. So it grew some legs from there, and then, before you know it, we had employees and we had a team.”
It was really the catastrophe that was Apple’s butterfly keyboards on its MacBook laptops that received him to take a look at different choices, together with ortholinear keyboards. So he constructed his personal from the bottom up. Because it seems, that wasn’t the precise type for him. “But at that point, the maker bug had hit,” he stated. “I had seen that it’s possible. You can get this thing done. There’s people who will help you. And that’s when I was like, well, if I don’t like ortho, let me try to make something that I will like. … The Satisfaction 75 was actually also the first keyboard I ever designed full-on with a case and everything.”
At first, the couple ran CannonKeys out of their house in Windfall, Rhode Island, all whereas Oliveira was concurrently engaged on her doctorate at Brown. CannonKeys employed its first worker in 2021, and after first storing a lot of its stock in what was generally greater than half a dozen rented U-Haul containers, the corporate now operates out of a small warehouse.
With the Sat75 X, CannonKeys is, in some methods, reacting to a altering market. Not too way back, there weren’t numerous choices for somebody who wished to construct a customized mechanical keyboard on a funds — say beneath $150. There have been some classics, just like the Tofu and CannonKeys itself provided the Bakeneko at that worth vary, however selections had been restricted.
“You would have things at that lower price point — like zero to $150 — and then you would have things at $400 plus, and that middle ground was missing,” Kannan stated. That vacuum was shortly stuffed however a few of the bigger, extra vertically built-in corporations like Keychron and Akko, for instance. “Now there’s way more consumer choice, and I think that’s a great thing for the hobby as a whole, and it’s good for our business as well.”
However, Kannon famous, that additionally means there’s no level for CannonKeys to simply comply with different corporations like Meletrix, which makes the favored Zoom keyboards that retail for round $200 to $250.
“We’ve always wanted to make things that resonate with people and are interesting and unique. But I think now, in today’s market, that’s even more important,” he stated. “The whole idea behind Sat75 X was it needs to be more approachable.”
And I feel CannonKeys succeeded there. The worth level is nothing if not aggressive, particularly for a small firm. CannonKeys supplied me with a pre-production pattern of the stratus grey model of the Sat75 X, in addition to a set of its NicePBT keycaps and Keygeek linear switches.
The entire level of a customized mechanical keyboard is, nicely, that you simply get to customise it. CannonKeys despatched alongside plate foam and a silicon plate, which, along with the big silicone dampener on the backside of the case, made for fairly a pleasant sound signature that was neither too muted nor too high-pitched. CannonKeys additionally plans to promote FR4, aluminum and clear PC plates and extra gaskets.
Clearly, a plastic case on a $111 board isn’t going to really feel as premium as a metallic one which’s giant and heavy with additional weights that retails for $500+. Nevertheless it doesn’t really feel low-cost, both. I feel the big silicone dampener actually helps there, however for builders who like a louder, extra clacky sound, eradicating that may undoubtedly assist them form the board to their preferences (in addition to selecting a special plate).
The best way I constructed it, the board ended up feeling fairly stiff, which might not be to everybody’s liking. I feel it might be simple sufficient to deliver again a few of the flex by selecting a special construct, although I don’t suppose the best way the PCB was constructed (which it shares with the extra premium Satisfaction 75) is about as much as ever provide the most cushioned typing really feel.
At this worth level, there are a couple of trade-offs as nicely. There isn’t any wi-fi choice, for instance, and no LEDs to gentle up your keyboard. If these issues are necessary to you, this merely isn’t the keyboard for you.
As anyone who tends to journey with an exterior keyboard, I can see myself packing this one going ahead. It’s gentle, very nice to sort on and never too loud.
On the finish of the day, constructing the Sat75 X was additionally a superb reminder of how a lot enjoyable it may be to construct a keyboard from the bottom once more. A whole lot of the boards I’ve examined not too long ago had been pre-builds, and whereas I do are likely to mod them and check out totally different switches, for instance, it’s not fairly the identical as constructing one thing from the bottom up (having stated that, I like that this can be a hot-swap board, as a result of having to solder each change simply sounds tedious).
In as we speak’s world, there aren’t numerous day-to-day objects that we get to construct and modify ourselves (outdoors of the occasional IKEA bookshelf). There’s nothing extraordinarily troublesome about constructing a customized mechanical keyboard, however it’s fairly satisfying.
