I couldn’t find too much about these boards. They seem to be relatively new to the scene, released fairly recently (?). I find it quite refreshing that both are in-stock.
Both feature some sort of gasket or flex-y mounting. Sequence is more ‘traditional’ with the tried and true gummy o-ring, which I have yet to try, but am looking forward to try something with flex. Babylon has an intriguing mount system but actually seems to feature less flex than the Sequence.
I like that the Sequence has other materials for the plate and o-ring you can buy with it to have some fun with different configurations.
Anyone own one or both of these boards and care to share their thoughts? (Price difference aside)
His post definitely got me curious in the Babylon. I think if you have never tried a “Bakeneko” style mount, the Sequence would great. I don’t personally have one, but I have heard good things.
Since I have bakeneko style board already, the Babylon peaks my interest more. That and like those side bezels.
I just did a Sequence build over the weekend, and it’s really nice (typing this using it). The fit and finish is fantastic (purchased the e-white version). The low front height and middle-ground angle make the typing experience quite nice. Aesthetically, I love the top-to-side proportions as well as the roundover on all of the edges – it has a timeless simplicity to it without looking cheap in any way. Overall, I’m very happy with the board.
The main reason I purchased this board was for the ease of swapping builds which the mounting style excels at. I already had this on my Bakeneko60, but this will be its upgraded replacement. This allows me to test out new switches or configurations without much hassle.
It is very comparable to typing on my Bakeneko, and from what I gather, a standard 65% gummy o-ring experience. Being such, it has a softer feel, but it’s not all that bouncy nor flexy (moreso around the edges, but that doesn’t really translate to anything meaningful during use). My configuration is a hotswap PCB with an FR4 plate which is mostly responsible for the feel. Had I gone with a plastic plate, or even sourced a flex cut Bakeneko65 style PCB, it would change things up. If you are looking for a definitively bouncy or flexy experience, the Sequence isn’t your board.
Also, out of the box, these types of boards with no weight to break up the case, have some hollowness to them. It’s easily remedied with some foam or polyfill (I cut out a piece from a microfiber cleaning cloth for my Bakeneko).
One thing to note: Parallel Limited is waiting on the VIA team to merge in their branch, and they haven’t publicly given out the VIA json draft definitions. I think the board is flashed with a QMK hex anyway, but you can easily configure it using the QMK Configurator (GUI). They will provide the VIA hex and layout json when it’s officially in the repo.
Really appreciate your thoughts and the heads-up on the VIA branch merge pending. Would be amazing if they offer some flexy PCBs too in the future. The Sequence sounds like a solid board overall.
I also like the bezel proportions on the Sequence and the rounded edges. It gives it a clean balanced look without pretentiousness. That is something I prefer the Sequence for over the Babylon.
I picked up a Sequence for the same reason. Nice round edges and an overall balanced looking board. I haven’t built it yet, but man the Space Grey they went with looks so gooood. This will be my second gummy o-ring board because of the ease of testing out configs like @fatalruin mentions (wow fatal we have similar taste in boards! lol!) and the overall clean feeling. I’ll shoot some pics of the build in here if I get around to it soon!
I have the sequence in dark gray and the portal in green. LOVE both of them. The carbon fiber plate in the dark gray sequence is definitely a winning combo, especially with some corsa switches
This is nicely written. I just got my sequence(bottom in the picture) yesterday, it has thicker bezels and the finish is much better than paint bakeneko(top). I also like sequence’s side profile better.
As a general PSA on the Sequence that I forgot to mention previously: the JST cable is rather short, and while awkwardly positioning the PCB assembly vertically to plug it in with my fat fingers, it rotated and slipped out of my hands nicking the left top edge as it fell. All kinds of sadness and rage followed, lol. I hope to find a product (paint in some form) that matches and can cover up my shame.
Congrats to the several new Sequence owners in this thread!
Still in the process of lubing switches for my Babylon, haven’t had much time to focus on it cause of work. I’m off today cause of rain so I’ll hopefully be getting it built. Will report back once I do so we can get a decent comparison between the two!
Only thing slightly disappointing about the techno violets and corsas I have are that they are very “loose” when it comes to keycaps rattling back and forth. I believe it’s due to the stem wobble. Compared to my gateron milky yellows, the tecsee switches are just so loud and rattly when you lightly run your fingers across the top of the keycaps. The gat milky yellows are nearly silent when you do the same thing. that translates into more “clunky” sounding noise when typing. I might try filming them to see if that helps, but I doubt it would since it’s not housing wobble that’s the problem, it’s stem wobble. Other than that, they are super smooth and I love the sound of the long pole bottoming out.
I lubed my Corsas today and found them to be a bit crunchy and pingy. It turned out that leaf ping is huge in the Corsas. All my time in this hobby I’ve never lubed the leaves of any switch before, but after doing some research on the Bolsa Supply Discord, it’s recommended to lightly lube the leaves!
Tested on a few switches and it’s a big difference IMO! Gonna open these back up tomorrow and give all the leaves a light coat of lube. Otherwise, they’re a nice switch!
Yeah I do remember reading something about them being pingy, I don’t really notice it but maybe I’ll try lubing a few just to see how it feels afterwards. Thanks for the heads up
Finally got my Babylon all built up! I did it with FFFF linears (all nylon housing JWKs), TX stabs for 1.2mm PCBs, & the POM halfplate I ordered from GreenDoor Geeks. With the halfplate I had to do the hybrid mount, as using gaskets on just the top case wasn’t holding the plate tight enough. Probably works better with the stock FR4 plate. Overall though I am very happy with the sound & feel of the board! It’s more bouncy than flexy in the hybrid setup, it was both flexy & bouncy with the float mount but the spacebar sounded terrible cause the plate wasn’t held tight enough. I haven’t tried just gaskets yet. Definitely can recommend this one!
Edit: Now I got a little typing done on the Babylon I can for sure say this thing slaps! Very nice & soft typing feel, with more of a slight bounce than flex. Sounds great, very creamy, marbly sounding without any type of foam or sound dampening. Also looks pretty damn good to IMO!
So reading through this thread it’s looking more & more to me that both are very viable, comfortable, good quality boards. I guess we could add the Portal to this list also as it is just a suped up Sequence. If you’re trying to choose between these I’d say use your available funds as the guide cause you really can’t go wrong either way!
Kirball did an unbox and typing test on the Babylon in the past week or so. It’s on YT. He seemed excited about the designer’s approach, and the typing test sounded very consistent across the range fwiw.
