People who have spoken with my about keyboards know I have had quite the number of very underwhelming o-ring mount boards and have been on the hunt for one that finally meets the expectations of a desirable o-ring sound profile. The Bakeneko was ultimately mediocre and the Frog Mini Leggera while pretty, was very hollow and resonant on its sound likely due to a less dense grade of aluminum or poor case treatment. I had my eye on a few good contenders like the Cat:(, the Sebas, and the Bongoneko, but never pulled the trigger due to the aesthetics of those boards being a little too loud for my taste, or in the case of the Bongoneko, being basically an Aliexpress Unikorn. The Kronos was always in the corner of Unikey’s website in my peripheral, but I never really considered it fully because translucent PC was never really my preferred aesthetic. Eventually, however, a friend listed it for $200, about 80% of the original price, for some emergency funds, and I decided to bite.

Design/Aesthetics

The Kronos is not too far from a Tofu when it comes to aesthetics, albeit with thicker bezels likely to lower manufacturing failures. The interior chamber that you can see from the side gives it the illusion of a more unique side profile, but ultimately it is a simple 7° wedge case with a fun little weight design of Saturn on the back. As a result of this simple design, the case also sits at a very comfortable 17.4mm front height which makes typing effortless, and is probably my most comfortable board in terms of front height and angle. It also doesn’t seem to have any metallic threaded inserts, which while it isn’t as big of a deal in this board given it only secures the weight and daughterboard, is still something I feel worth mentioning to avoid cracking.

Assembly

As with all o-ring boards, assembly is as simple as MX Blacks on an Aluminum Plate in a PCB with a big squishy ring surrounding it and connecting the JST to it prior to inserting it into the board. I did notice, however, that the standard 50A durometer o-ring did cause the PCB assembly to wobble in place, but swapping to a slightly stiffer 60A o-ring I had from 4pplet made an immediate improvement.

PCB and Firmware

The PCBs offered are the fairly standard 60% o-ring compatible PCBs designed by Gondolindrim flashed with QMK, needing a JSON you have to find on Keebscape’s website to use VIA. Both PCBs have mostly the same layout options available with solder also including ISO capability as is usual. However, both PCBs are notably forced to 7u bottom row only, which likely isn’t a problem for most people, but I could see some people having a preference for a 6.25u row, or the 64-key arrow layout, but at which point you can also probably hunt for a PCB (like CannonKeys’ default Bakeneko PCB) or already have one on-hand if you know your layout is very particular to support and drop it in. The PCB also features a wealth of underglow options that make up a pretty decent amount of light when lifted from the desk, but is otherwise a very appropriate amount of glow even in harsher office lighting.

My only personal complaint other than the requirement of a JSON is the use of Kailh hotswap sockets which are nearly nothing but frustration, since the contact leaves are so tight and very easily bend that I experience more broken Kailh sockets than bent switch pins, and just make the process of inserting switches so much more tough than it should be.

Typing Experience

As with most o-ring boards, the typing feel is always a perfect blend of just bouncy enough to have give, but not too firm to be stiff. Along with the aforementioned 7° typing angle and very nice 17.4mm front height, typing on the Kronos is probably among my most comfortable of my collection. As far as sound goes, the sound is pristine. With the god-given true combo of MX Blacks on an Aluminum plate, the Kronos gives a very sharp, full and poppy sound that is just about as good as it gets. I was surprised that there wasn’t really any plasticky note out of the sound as I had always been worried about with PC boards, but surprisingly it remains pretty clean and more focused on the PCB and plate combination. Going from the default 50A o-ring to a 60A gave the sound a slight boost to the deeper end and made the entire sound slightly more full while the upper end remained bright and lovely.

Overview

The Kronos was a bit of an unexpected gem and I almost feel bad separating it from its original owner, but damn do I love it. With a neutral keycap set, it makes the board a really sleek and simple design, ever-complimentary regardless of LED setting. With the very full and bright sound that requires no modding whatsoever, it simply gets brought up to the upper eschelon of sounds in my collection, going toe to toe with the likes of my Arc60 and F1-8X.