Mechanical Keyboards

Tofu HHKB

UPDATE 14th April 2019 : reviewed another hotswap HHKB – the 1Up Keyboards HHKB Kit

Having received my Tofu HHKB kit yesterday and already having a Tokyo60 in my possession, I felt that I was in a unique position to offer my viewpoints comparing both of the keyboards since they are similar in terms of features and price.

After assembling my Tofu HHKB and flashing my layout on it, which was a pretty straightforward process since I built the Tokyo60 almost a month ago, I gave it a test run and starting typing out my thoughts about both keyboards. First it started off as a few paragraphs, then I realized I had a lot more to say than I initially thought. As I wrote more, I decided to just put the information down as a table (see below). Also, please forgive my terrible photography skills as I’m not a photographer and I don’t have a decent camera – regardless, you can just browse Reddit to see much better pictures of the keyboards.

Tokyo60

For context, I own an HHKB Pro 2 (my first and only Topre board) that I use very often. Since adapting to the layout, I’ve programmed it on all my keyboards since I really enjoy it. When the opportunity to get a custom HHKB that didn’t need any soldering, I jumped on it – which was how I joined the Tokyo60 round 1 group buy. A few months after that, KBDFans (great online store btw) decided to release a HHKB version of its Tofu keyboard I hopped on that preorder as well. Now I own two hotswappable HHKB keyboards.

Tofu HHKB rear

Tokyo60 rear

I love how the Tofu HHKB looks – its minimalist approach with its sleek edges and sharp corners really tickles my fancy. The shiny brass weight at the back really ties it all together, giving a little bit of spice to an otherwise reserved design. I think it looks much better than the Tokyo60 – not that it is a bad-looking board in the first place, it’s just very generic and subdued if you put them side by side. I know quite a lot of people complained about the gaps on the Tokyo 60 since they weren’t representative of the render but I honestly don’t mind them at all. Sure, it sucks that there are ways for your food to get into your keyboard, but honestly – you shouldn’t be eating at your keyboard in the first place.

Tokyo60 gaps

Tofu HHKB gaps

However, when it comes to almost everything else, I think the Tokyo60 has the Tofu HHKB beat. I’m not sure if I received a bad Tofu HHKB PCB (but based on some Reddit comments that I’ve read, I wasn’t the only one) – I had a few loose Kailh sockets that I had to fix in place with some electrical tape (hopefully they hold out and I don’t have to resort to resoldering them in the future). This really affected how I felt about the keyboard – it was like receiving a substandard product. I’m not sure if it’s due to the alignment of the plate/PCB but inserting switches to the sockets was also a bitch to do – I had quite a number of bent legs despite be trying to insert the switches as carefully as possible. I only bent about 5 switch legs when inserting them into the Tokyo60. Also, when I was removing keycaps from the Tofu HHKB, most of the time, the switches would come out with the keycap. This could be due to extra tight keycaps, a tight switch stem, or issues with the tolerances for the switch sockets.

Tofu HHKB PCB

UPDATE 7th October 2018: after speaking to a KBDFans rep, they mentioned that they’ll be sending me a new PCB, so I’ll be updating my review once I’ve received it!

UPDATE 29th October 2018: received my replacement PCB today, assembled the keyboard with no issues – no sockets coming loose and not many issues with bent pins (only bent 3 switches this time around). Everything is working as expected, so the only complaint I have with the PCB is that it is uglier than one for the Tokyo60 (which may or may not be a valid complaint for other people – I’m not bothered by it).

Both keyboards come with underglow RGB support and no way to show the lights. Tokyo60 addresses this with the round 2 extras but I have no idea if KBDFans will be doing anything about it in the future. Also, even though you don’t see the PCB when the keyboard is assembled, I appreciate the design put into the one of the Tokyo60 – it looks great, while the HHKB Tofu PCB I received was plain white with no design at all.

Here’s how the underglow looks like at the moment – essentially useless since there’s no way to see it clearly unless you look in between your keycaps at a certain angle. This will also probably vary depending on the keycaps you have installed.

Tofu HHKB underglow

Tokyo60 underglow

Programming both boards was straightforward (if you’ve used QMK before) so I had no issues there. The weight on the Tofu HHKB also works as a slider that allows you to choose which USB C port you’d like to use (or you can remove it for a lighter board and access to both ports). However, the keyboard didn’t come with a USB C cable which was a minor annoyance, while the Tokyo60 had a mini USB cable bundled with it.

	Tokyo60	Tofu HHKB
Price	USD 159.99	USD 159.00
Appearance	Good, nothing to shout about - a standard-looking custom MX HHKB.	Great, sleek design with sharp corners. In my opinion, a very sexy design, especially with the shiny weight at the back.
Build quality	Good, solid case, no issues fitting together. No issues when removing keycaps.	Good, solid case, no issues fitting together. Weight gives it additional sturdiness. Not sure if it's due to the size of the sockets or the tightness of my keycaps, but removing keycaps pulls the switch out together as well.
PCB	In terms of design, it looks great, Kailh sockets work well without any issues.	Plain looking PCB (not that it matters), but my PCB had issues with 3 of the Kailh sockets being loose (one of them even popped out during assembly). It uses holtites for the switches around the USB ports - which may or may not be an issue for some people (I don't have a problem with it). (Update 29th Oct: received the PCB today, assembled the board with no issues - no more problems with sockets falling out and only 3 pins bent this time around!)
Ease of assembly	No instructions provided, but there were no issues here - very straightforward.	No instructions provided, but there were no issues here - very straightforward.
Ports	Mini USB, left side.	USB C (two ports) left and right.
Underglow	RGB underglow enabled on the PCB, but there's no way to see it. However, an acrylic base is scheduled for R2, so that issue will be rectified.	RGB underglow enabled on the PCB, but there's no way to see it. No idea if there are plans for an acrylic base.
Included accessories	Mini USB cable, screws, GMK stabilizers.	Two blank keycaps (not sure what they are for), brass weight, magnets for the weight, screws, stabilizers (not sure what brand they are but they came disassembled and they don't have any extra legs to clip).
Firmware	QMK.	QMK.

Overall, I’m satisfied with my Tofu HHKB (I really wish the Kailh sockets were soldered on properly – hopefully they have better QC in the future) and would recommend it to anyone looking for a hotswap HHKB custom keyboard. It also has the added benefit of being in stock, while buying the Tokyo60 would mean waiting for it to go live on Massdrop (round 2 just ended). In terms of practicality, they’re both the same – just choose which keyboard you want based on its design.

Other notes:
The Tokyo60 does have more exciting colors, but you’re going to have to wait til next year to buy one.
The Tofu HHKB is available in a variety of colors, with mixed halves as well, but nothing as eye-catching as Akira Red, Rose Gold or Ink.

The Tofu HHKB is my first keyboard with Gateron Greens and I’m really digging them. They are definitely less tactile than Box Navy switches (on my Tokyo60), but with the added benefit of being not as loud. There’s still a satisfying click, especially with /dev/tty MT3 keycaps.

Speaking of keycaps, this is also the first time I’m using MT3 keycaps. I’m using the full-sculpt profile (row 1-5, no row 0 on HHKB) and they’re definitely reminiscent of SA keycaps. I now understand what all the reviews are talking about when they say that these caps cup your fingers. I’ll need to spend more time typing on them to form a stronger opinion but I’m liking it so far. While I’ve spotted some alignment issues (as is expected with dyesub keycaps), they’re not too glaring. My main issue is the text thickness of the characters on the number row – in my opinion they look a little too bold compared to the alphas.

Typing Tests:

Tofu HHKB
Gateron Green switches
/dev/tty MT3 keycaps

Tokyo60
Kailh BOX Navy switches
SA Control keycaps

As requested by a user from Reddit, I’ve taken some shots of the keyboards side by side so you can compare the differences between their heights/angles.

Yesterday I received my newest keyboard – another 40% board – the Daisy. I immediately flashed my preferred layout on it, put some temporary keycaps on and started typing away. Lo and behold, I kept making mistakes. I was thinking to myself, what is wrong with me? Was it the clicky switches that affected me?

I spent a few minutes on an empty notepad document and analyzed my typing mistakes. They were very consistent: I was typing U instead of I, K instead of L, M instead of N, comma instead of full stop. It was then I understood what was wrong: it was the missing column on my keyboard.

Prior to this, my only experience with 40% boards was the Vortex Core which had an additional column of keys compared to the Daisy. Since it was the only 40% board that I’ve spent the past few months mastering, my muscle memory was already tuned to it. Who would’ve thought one column (which consists of 3 keys) would make such a big difference?

For reference, here is my Vortex Core layout:

Here is my Daisy layout:

I was so used to typing on the Core which was one column short compared to a 60% board, but the position of the home row fingers (ASDF HJKL;) was still the same so it wasn’t much of a challenge. With the Daisy, it was a different ballgame. Because I was missing the ; key, my pinky had to rest on Enter – something I had never done before in my life. Enter was always a key or two away from where my pinky rested, not under it. When using the Core, I located where to rest my pinky by finding the enter, and moving one key to the left.

I guess my mind still thought I was typing on the same board and caused me to make the same consistent mistakes. Since recognizing the problem, I have corrected my hand placement and am almost back to full speed with minor mistakes. I guess even the slightest changes can have a significant impact when you’re so used to doing something one way. And I thought I was done with learning pains. Can’t wait to see what it’s like to type on a Planck!

Not gonna have proper keycaps to fill this board for a while, so I threw on my old DSA keycaps in the meantime. For those of you interested in my Daisy layout, you can find it here.

Just thought I’d post a small update since Vortex posted new firmware for the Core that enables custom remapping via its online layout editor. Thanks to it, I’ve got the keyboard bound to 99% the way I like it.

My previous complaints about not being able to reassign the Fn1 keys and having too many unused keys rebindable have been solved. My only gripe is that I can’t move the default Fn key – I can only assign another key to work as Fn, so I now have two Fn keys instead of one. However, since it’s not that much of an issue I can live with it (I still hope they will fix it in a future update though).

Currently, my Vortex Core has the following layout:

For those of you interested in using this, here’s my layout file for you to flash onto your Core.

On a side note, I’m done with 100% keyboards – I’ve replaced my full-sized SteelSeries Apex M500 at home with a Plum Nano 75. I wanted to give Topre clones a shot and the Plum Nano 75 seemed like a pretty good idea.

For a Topre-clone, I would say it’s far from the stock experience of real Topre (comparing vs the HHKB). I bought the 45g dome version with additional 20g springs and it still feels linear as hell. I can’t imagine what the 35g dome version would be like. I might replace the domes in the future for more tactility, but I’ll stick with it stock for now. Typing on it sounds quite nice – it’s a very ‘ploppy’ sound. It’s hard to describe but you can check it out on my typing demo:

I love its form-factor. The function row over a standard 60% body is perfect for keycap compatibility. The only thing that would make it better would be a HHKB-style bottom row, ala the Eve Meteor.

I appreciated that the stabilizers came lubed with the board though. No rattle at all, and the build quality of the board was solid. The stock keycaps leave a lot to be desired (in terms of appearance). Fortunately, it has MX-compatible stems so I swapped them out with some Tai-Hao Black on White ABS keycaps (costar stabs were a pain in the ass though). The cable channel can be annoying if you unplug it often but since I’m leaving the board on my desktop at home, this isn’t an issue for me.

I bought the non-Bluetooth, non-RGB version so I can’t comment about those features (who needs them anyway?) but overall, I’d say get the Plum 75 if you’re a fan of the form factor and intend on replacing the domes if you’re not a fan of linear typing experiences. Avoid it if you’re looking for an alternative to real Topre – get a real Topre keyboard instead.

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After recording the typing test for the Plum Nano 75 I decided that I would make typing test videos for my other keyboards as well, so if you’re interested in hearing how my other keyboards sound, here they are:

HHKB Pro 2

KBD Fans HHKB

Vortex Core