CannonKeys Soleil – Wireless Mechanical Keyboard with Solar Charging
Soleil is a wireless mechanical keyboard designed by CannonKeys and Gondolindrim, promising enthusiast-level quality and customization combined with extraordinary battery life and a sleek design featuring tasteful wood accents. The efficiency-focused ZMK firmware powers the Soleil, and CannonKeys claims it will deliver 12 months of battery life from a single charge.
The main point of Soleil is to deliver premium build quality and worry-free wireless connectivity. As opposed to regular wireless mechanical keyboards, depending on how much you use it, the combination of a 780 mAh battery, ZMK firmware, and the small solar cell above the Soleil’s arrow cluster, the new keyboard should deliver around 12 months of battery life with reasonable usage patterns.
It’s impossible to verify CannonKeys’ battery life claims without testing them directly. The BakenekoGO, another CannonKeys keyboard with ZMK firmware and a much smaller 200 mAh battery, gets around a month of use on a full charge. It’s easy to believe that the Soleil’s solar and ambient light charging could get it to that one-year mark, as long as you keep the backlighting off.
The Soleil follows standard TKL form factor, with an F13 key above backspace and the navigation cluster and arrow keys to the right of the alpha keys, and it uses an aluminium case with walnut or maple accents. The case design, aluminium plate, and top-mount design largely focus on acoustics over providing the same cushioned typing feel.
CannonKeys says that the front height of the Soleil should be around 20 mm, with the space bar sitting at a height of 24 mm — not impressively low, but lower than most prebuilt keyboards — and the fully built keyboard supposedly weighing as much as 1900 g. The Soleil will be available in an anodised black finish with rich walnut accents or an e-coated white with lighter maple wood accents, and it will so far only be offered as a DIY kit, so you will need to supply your switches, stabilisers, and keycaps.
The Soleil will feature a hot-swap PCB with support for both 6.25 u and 7 u space bars, split right shift and backspace, and stepped caps lock, and CannonKeys is currently considering a wired PCB option for those who prefer wired connectivity but want the design of the Soleil; however, this is not confirmed.
The Soleil keyboard will use ZMK Studio for customisation, which is an efficiency-focused fork of the open-source QMK project specifically designed with modern wireless keyboards in mind. ZMK firmware and ZMK Studio should allow users of the Soleil to customise their keyboards significantly with features like macros, ModTap, separate profiles, and additional layers.
The Soleil TKL has not yet fully launched, with CannonKeys initiating the group buy process with an interest check form. The designers are aiming for a Fall group buy, and at a minimum order quantity of 100 units, the Soleil will cost around $450.
Specifications
- Estimated Battery Life: 10 months with normal use
- Estimated Battery Life (with ambient light): 12+ months
- Unbuilt Weight: Approx 1170g (2.6lbs)
- Fully Built Weight: Approx 1900g (4.2lbs)
- Typing Angle: 8°
- Front Height: 20mm (~24mm to spacebar)
- Chassis Material: CNC Aluminum
- Chassis Colors: Anodized Black or E-White
- Accent Material: Walnut or Maple
- Layout: F13 TKL
- Mounting Style: Top Mount
- Firmware: ZMK & ZMK Studio
- Power Source: USB-C & Solar Panel