Introduction
In many group buys, the end product will sometimes be at its best in the first run but after that QC is not usually the highest of priorities. After all, the first run is to build customer base and a reputation. But, will the Tokyo60 retain its great and strong QC from the first drop and branch out with new colors? well only one way to find out...
When you first receive the Tokyo60 that, 1 you paid a lot for and 2 waited 4-6 months for. you will be greeted by the very plain looking box that Massdrop does for their CTRL and ALT keyboards the only exception being is the size of the box being smaller than the usual and the outline of the keyboard and the texts and that's all and a brown thin box that holds your acrylic mid piece diffuser along with its screws if you chose it as one of your options. while i appreciate the idea of minimalist designs, it feels a little bit too minimalist. the lack of foam protecting the case and the dent that appears on the box itself serves as a reminder that a little bit extra for closed cell foam would have been a better bet.
As you open the main box, you will be greeted with WHITE and some foam covering and enclosing the pre-assembled case in the color that you chose in my case, I chose INK as mine for the purple-ish blue color just to change things up a little bit from the ever so monotonous Black and White and shades of both, after lifting up the bottom separator you will be greeted with the pcb wrapped in anti-static bubble wrap, the keycaps if you have ordered, in a not so shameful way of foreshadow, a really nice braided USB Mini B cable and a bag of switches of your choice assuming that you paid for it... Overall it is a great packaging, but the keycaps could have been better placed in some container instead of a plastic baggie to hold them together....
you will be greeted with WHITE and some foam covering and enclosing the pre-assembled case....in a not so shameful way of foreshadow, a really nice braided USB Mini B cable
Initial Impressions
As you unwrap the foam by pulling the case from within the thin veiled foam like a Christian wedding, depending on the color that you chose, it's a mixed bag. And if you chose the INK color, well bad news for you... no, like as in FUCKING CUNT BITCH ASS WHO THE FUCK DID THE ANO bad. as many people have been reporting that the color of the case is off, and in my case (get it?), not only is the color off, the entire bottom and top piece lacks the semblance of consistency almost as if they never bothered with understanding what is batch production in anodizing 101, several spots on the case is not even properly anodized leaving raw aluminum to be exposed and the bottom plate is in a lighter bluer hue when you compare it under a bright light... but at the very least the diffuser came in perfect condition. But for paying over RM800+ not including taxes it feels worse than getting a normal HHKB because at the very least you can be damn bloody sure that it will be consistent (to a certain extent) but this.... is hideous... you can be damn justified to feel ripped off. Its official my friends, it is now color gate.
Moving on from the Color-Gate, the pcb is next, well in a word, its great but not the best that it can be. some great use of masking of black and white including the use of the copper base layer. But….since its given to me in 2019….. I would like to say this now before anything else……ITS MINI BBBBB?, its 2019 and its still not type C? I mean its cheaper by a few cents but really? I didn’t forgive the HHKB for not updating their controllers with type C, but this…. This is just obscene. You have a cutout perfect for type c cables and ports but the PCB is a different story… really sad (I CRI EVERYTIME).
some great use of masking of black and white including the use of the copper base layer
But moving on from the effervescent wailing of a 19-year-old who can’t seem to be bothered with the finals exam approaching in like banks chasing student loan debt on a college student in the USA. the build process is somewhat OK, but considering you can get the TOFU from KBDfans for the same price… I don’t like it, for a good reason. There is no Instruction manual nor is there any paper that tells you to follow a link to be there. Its these small and seemingly useless things that defeats the main goal of the keyboard itself, at best printing a leaflet only costs a few cents and shouldn’t stop you from making a good product better, I mean look at rama works for example, they package everything. Granted I will like to see them use paper or something other than plastic next time around but this. It will be nice if you guys can change that.
Now moving on towards the meat and consistency of the review. The assembly of the Tokyo60 is relatively easy and it took 30 minutes for me since there Is no soldering required but newcomers to the DIY space will find it challenging and hard to know what to do in the first place. And since nobody decided to specify where is the assembly guide well follow this link and the answer you seek shall be answered Link to Review.
One thing of note and reminder is that everyone should be doing first is to clip and lube the stabilizers this is primarily to help the rattle that every keyboard will have and to make the key press much sharper which is nice to the touch.
What I Think and feel
When you look at the Chamfered edges of the case, you suddenly feel weirded out… like “Holy Hell, is there any need for that much Chamfering in the first place?” well like that market housing boom in 2006, the answer is always YES, granted some people will find it not appealing, but I think it’s a really nice contour to the shape it makes it look rounded while remaining cheap. Flashing the keyboard is a pain in the ass. You first will need to flash the pcb to QMK with a QMK firmware… and attempt to try and flash it with QMK Toolbox. And then later finding out that it is not detected. And then later you find out that you haven downloaded and installed the proper repositories and drivers for your pc. And then you do that and then you finally are able to flash it properly. All in all a tedious job that is only comparable to studying for your math test. But like that math test, you only needed to do it once and then its smooth sailing from then on, you can customize however layout you want you can change what each layer will have. But for now I am sticking to the stock layout.
Onwards to the typing feel. In lawyers wording, “I am not contractually obligated to state on how it performs or feels I am neither affiliated with any competitors or companies that have ties or vested interests on the mechanical keyboard market, and my sole opinion is that it is good.” In my actual opinions however, it’s a lot more complicated.
When you look at the Chamfered edges of the case, you suddenly feel weirded out… like “Holy Hell, is there any need for that much Chamfering in the first place?
Lets start with what I went with, I went first with a unlubed, un-modded Tokyo-60 paired with Gateron silent reds and stock keycaps. The sound it makes when you type on it is without question a lot more solid and dense than you would expect from a 1.5mm thick integrated top mount plate that is screwed with the PCB. Yes it is integrated top mount, for beginners it means that the Mid plate is part of the top case, while tray mount is just a tray mount which is separate from both halves of the case. While this makes manufacturing cheaper since there is less parts needed overall, you are stuck with the initial material of choice, which this is the biggest downfall, the Tokyo60 uses aluminum for its case which by proxy the plate. Which overall isn’t too bad but it could be better with a steel or brass top half that way it will make it stiffer for everyone to enjoy, but then again it will add to the cost and nobody wants that. When you assemble it you will also notice that there is a gap and then a cutout which makes for an even bigger gap in the bottom of the case which for what purpose I do not know but it is interesting to see something like this. Which makes it sound hollow when you knock on the bottom of the keyboard. But unlike the TOFU HHKB it has considerable less reverb and ping mostly because it has a smaller gap and uses denser materials.
But after modding it namely with lubing the modifier keys and stabilizers. It suddenly turns more in line with the sound signature of an m60-a it no longer sounds like tofu, there is no reverb to be found at all. Just a nice thocky and deep spacebar. Onto more specifics, I got some Gap seal foam tape, and sandwiched it inside the spacebar keycap and into the giant hole in the case itself, while this will remove RGB lighting onto the side that is facing you, in reality it doesn’t make a difference in my opinion since I have a wrist rest always with it. Onwards to the switches, Gateron silent reds, it is not by far the best switch I have ever tried. Namely due to some inconsistent switches that I came across with some of the internal dampeners MIA so much so that if you press the top part of the keycap, you will inevitably hear clacking instead of a dampened one, this is either that my keycaps is a bit wonky or the most likely, the dampers are quite shorter compared to the competition I mean its really smaller compared to what cherry has to offer or what Zeal PC did with the Healios. Overall I will give this advice, if you aim to get a nice switch, try it first in a keyboard meetup nearby and just choose the one that you like the most. in fact it turns into one of the most satisfying typing sounds that i have heard from any keyboard that i own
Overall, I really like how Massdrop and Tokyo Keyboard has managed to make a convincing product that doesn’t relatively break the wallet (it will if were being honest). But frankly I like it, in fact I will like to go on record to say this is in fact a Cut Price, daily usable Rama Works M60-A sure they are not the same, I mean really I cant say that a 200 US dollar keyboard kit with the most vanilla of keyboards is going to compare to a 300+ to 800+ keyboard that has type C even and SMD RGB led but look at it this way, both have a hot-swap PCB, both are HHKB layouts, Both sound great with the right switches and keycaps and isn’t that the main important points of those keyboards? I can understand the frustration of the lack of SMD leds but then again who is going to use it in the end, a beginner in the scene might not necessarily want leds shinning on the sides and bottoms of the BOB keycaps that they just got do they? And besides if you want to make it hot swappable, there is always Holtites. Given that’s just nitpicky on details but so what?
Would I recommend one over a M60-A? well given that the M60-A is effectively twice the price of a Tokyo60 I would only say this, it depends on what you aim for, really and I mean that. If you want a beautiful product in the end and you don’t care too much about money or you just want everything included with great packaging and you have the patience then get the M60-A but if you are just starting out and want to get your first custom mechanical keyboard in a nice HHKB layout without breaking the bank and you still have the patience higher than Gandhi during the peaceful rebellion of india, well I’d say go for it. But if you don’t have the patience nor the willingness to pay so much. Well the TOFU hhkb is there just nab it off of KBDfans… that just leaves you the choice, M60-A, Tokyo60 or TOFU?
that just leaves you the choice, M60-A, Tokyo60 or TOFU?
All in all, if the Tokyo60 is a car, then it is like a Lancia or Alfa Romeo. They are definitely not the most powerful, its certainly not the most versatile and heaven forbid you call the QC quintessential to 1960’s Italy, all the looks but doesn’t come out properly. But, they make up for it in personality and most importantly of all, the looks. And my god does it have the most beautiful Shade of purple