Cerakey’s Nada 65 Panda keyboard is a work of art, excellently blending ceramic and panda aesthetics with an unreal acoustic experience thanks to the Celeste Blue Linear switches. If you’ve been eyeing Cerakey and its ceramic keycaps for a while, I highly recommend opting for the Nada 65 – it is ready to go and needs no configuration out of the box. I sincerely hope that Cerakey makes another keyboard featuring their amazing keycaps. The Nada 65 is an excellent entry into hopefully a future of additional keyboards featuring ceramic keycaps!
Ceramic keycaps are a niche addition for one’s mechanical keyboard – an already niche product with a diehard and dedicated group of mechanical keyboard fans who desire little else other than have the perfect keyboard for their office space. I am one of many on an eternal quest for the thock, or the creamy deep sounds emitted by a mechanical keyboard. This quest is one I will probably be on for the rest of my life, since every switch, keycap, and keyboard material sounds different despite being made up of a litany of variations of materials.
Earlier this year, I reviewed Cerakey’s Ceramic Keycaps V2. In my original review (which I highly recommend you review before you continue further), I gushed over the glossiness, chilliness, deliciousness, and thockiness of the keycaps on several keyboards. I recognized that they might not be the best for gaming, let alone magnetic switches (read: magnetic switches are too sensitive for the heaviness of heavier keycaps), but there’s nothing quite like transforming your keyboard into something as beautifully stunning featuring ceramic keycaps.
Since reviewing the Cerakeys in July, I couldn’t help myself. I’ve bought an additional set of the V2 keycaps and have been using them as a daily driver for work and gaming. I’ve committed to the practice of using ceramic keycaps just about every day, unless I am reviewing another keyboard. I’ve opted to stick with these keycaps because of wanting to practice what I have been preaching. I will state the obvious: I would not recommend these keycaps for higher intensity gaming, but for just about everything else they’re a joy to use.
There’s just one problem, though: Cerakeys’ keycaps remain keyboard accessories. You couldn’t get a prebuilt keyboard featuring these delightful keycaps…until now. Cerakey has finally heard my prayers and has collaborated with a keyboard manufacturer to bring a prebuilt keyboard with ceramic keycaps to consumers, thus removing the hassle of putting keycaps onto a keyboard and trying to configure things just right. Even better – it’s panda themed!
The Nada 65 Panda is the first mechanical keyboard made and offered by the Cerakey crew, and it’s a stunner. It’s beautifully designed to highlight the panda aesthetic of white, black, and green, all the while highlighting best acoustic elements that ceramic keycaps can offer. It’s a 65% keyboard, meaning that it’s relatively small thanks to the lack of function keys (no F row) and no numberpad. But, it has the essentials – it has your alphanumeric keys (in black), arrow keys and modifiers (e.g., delete, PgUp, PgDn; in white), and the escape/enter keys are in green. It also comes with additional Panda-themed keycaps that can be swapped out if you want to add some additional imagery to your setup.
I know I’ve mentioned my general dissatisfaction with 65% keyboards in previous reviews – they’re the hardest to use for most workplace and gaming environments given that the Function keys are usually hardbound to specific operations/functions. Also, 65% keyboards are compact to the point of there being literally no breathing room, leading me to make far too many typing errors than I would prefer. I have big hands, folks – I need the space.
The keyboard’s plastic case is shiny and offers quite a bit on the acoustic side of things, but there’s something about plastic that doesn’t quite fit with the ceramic aesthetic of the Cerakey keycaps. The plastic case feels sturdy enough, but I would have preferred a matte material as to ensure that the sole source of shininess on the Nada 65 was coming from the keycaps. Heck, something slightly harder (like a brushed aluminum) would have made this keyboard ooze premium appeal without the keycaps. The underside of the keyboard has three metal backplates that are just gorgeous, though. I know custom backplates are rarely seen (who turns their keyboard over, you know?), but it’s a nice touch to add to a keyboard to add to its premium aesthetic. These backplates seem to add some weight that’s evenly distributed across the entire 2lb keyboard, which is nice, too.
The Nada 65 features a gasket mount along with multiple layers of foam, poron, and silicone that absorb higher-pitched keyboard sounds. When pressing firmly down into the keyboard, there is no give – it’s a solidly built unit that absorbs sound quite well while also producing deep thocks thanks to the Nada 65’s custom switches.
The Nada 65 comes with Celeste Blue Linear switches already slotted into the keyboard, no assembly required. The Celeste Blue Linears are made by Gateron and unique to the Nada 65 at this time – they’re unavailable for individual purchase. These switches are made of a nylon bottom case, PC top case, and a POM stem. Harder stems with softer housing materials (in this case, Nylon and PC) more often than not yield a thocky sound profile – these switches are sublimely thocky. They have a midrange pre-travel (2.0mm), a decent total travel (3.6mm), and require 55gf of actuation force to get them to activate. The heavier spring and higher actuation force are perfect for the additional weight of each individual ceramic keycap. If you recall from my earlier Cerakey review, 40gf is pretty much required, with 45gf being the most preferable. When using a ceramic keycap, 55gf of actuation force ends up being closer to 45gf thanks to the weight of the keycap, so keep that in mind if you’re curious about the Celeste Blue Linear’s heavier actuation force.
I am obsessed with the Celeste Blue Linear switches, just simply obsessed. I’ve been a fan of heavier switches since converting to Ceramic keycaps, using the Akko Creamy Yellow Pro V2s, KiiBoom Matcha Latte V2s, and most recently Meletrix’s Black Arowana switches. The Celeste Blue Linears are just as heavy as these competitors and are perfect for use with Cerakey’s keycaps. If anything, they bring out each individual thock and make these keycaps audibly shine. The Celeste Linears truly thock!
The Celeste Blue Linears are great for a smooth typing experience, albeit one that is tailored for heavier keycaps. They manage to walk the fine line of being smooth yet subtle, even when pressing a key all the way down. The resultant pushback when releasing a key is satisfying, too. Each switch feels stable, reactive, and smooth. The larger keycaps (namely the shift and backspace) have a slight mushiness to them but it’s not spongy to the point of impacting my ability to maintain a constant typing speed.
I loved the combination of the Cerakeys with the Celeste Blue Linears. If I could use one switch as my daily driver to complement my Ceramic Keycaps V2s, I would no doubt request the Celeste Blue Linears. The biggest issue I have right now is that Cerakey isn’t yet selling these switches – they need to. I’m debating taking this keyboard apart and using these switches on my daily driver keyboard going forward – I love them that much. Owners who use ceramic keycaps need these switches.
On the LED side of things, the white keycaps have a light transparency (the same transparency I mentioned on my original review). The back keycaps have no such transparency, meaning that the south-facing RGBs’ are diffused around the keycaps. Cerakey claims that the Nada 65 has “enhanced RGBs,” but they seem just as bright as the standard RGBs on some of my other keyboards. There are also some LEDs on the side of the keyboard case, but they’re not as bright as the LEDs underneath the keycaps.
I’m going to be honest, though: The appeal of the Nada 65 isn’t the LEDs. It’s the Ceramic keycaps that are perfectly complemented by amazing switches and a great color scheme. To that end, the Nada 65 is one of the best keyboards I have used to date.
Before I move onto assessing this keyboard for office use and gaming, I want to call out the remainder of the keyboard’s features that are becoming increasingly standard in the mechanical keyboard space, namely tri-mode connectivity, battery life, and QMK/VIA support. The Nada 65 can last beyond 200 hours (LEDs off) or around 30 hours with LEDs on a single charge, but I would be surprised to see folks use this keyboard wirelessly.
How does the keyboard shape up, then? In short, the Nada 65 is a delightful 65% keyboard to use for most office tasks and light gaming. It’s not the top-tier workhorse keyboard for all workstations nor a keyboard for intensive gaming. If I can make it work for all-purpose work and gaming, though, you should be able to suffice just fine.
In my testing, the Nada 65 excelled in the lighter gaming space, specifically those that require fewer but meaningful inputs. Games like TeamFight Tactics, Parry Nightmare, and Toads of the Bayou fit the bill perfectly, along with Civilization. Every input I made in these games had weight to them because of the keyboard’s acoustics.
Medium-intensity games such as League of Legends, Ninza, Duck Paradox, and Cult of the Lamb proved to be a decent gameplay experience, albeit not ideal. The compact nature of the keyboard led me to make far too many input mistakes. Higher intensity gaming was a struggle, though – I couldn’t keep up with the greater demands for faster inputs. This isn’t to say that you can’t play games like Counter-Strike 2 or VALORANT on this keyboard – it’s more saying that you’re better off with another keyboard if your primary gaming needs skew competitive or of higher intensity.
Before I conclude this review, let’s talk about price. The Nada 65 is currently retailing for $159.00. The Ceramic Keycap set sold by Cerakey is $140, for reference, and it doesn’t come with a keyboard. For ~$19 more, you get a prebuilt 65% keyboard, amazing switches, and unique ceramic keycaps to boot. It’s an excellent entry point into trying out Cerakey’s keycaps and having things ready to go the moment you receive the keyboard.
Cerakey’s Nada 65 Panda keyboard is a work of art, excellently blending ceramic and panda aesthetics with an unreal acoustic experience thanks to the Celeste Blue Linear switches. If you’ve been eyeing Cerakey and its ceramic keycaps for a while, I highly recommend opting for the Nada 65 – it is ready to go and needs no configuration out of the box. I sincerely hope that Cerakey makes another keyboard featuring their amazing keycaps. The Nada 65 is an excellent entry into hopefully a future of additional keyboards featuring ceramic keycaps!
