Akko Black&Gold 3098B Keyboard

[VSG]

Akko has updated its popular 3098 keyboard family with the new 3098B, which brings with it a slew of new features that make this 95% form factor all the more attractive. There are multiple wireless connectivity modes, hot-swappable switches, RGB lighting, and software drivers on top of several different colors and designs.

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[TheUn4seen]

This might be the ultimate keyboard, at least for me. I bought an Akko 3098 after you first reviewed one - only version in stock at the time was the "Ocean Star", soldered blue switches, no backlighting. I changed switches to Gateron brown, soldered LEDs, cut some foam for sound dampening and transplanted most keycaps from my old Logitech G710+ for the translucent legends. Getting used to the numpad location took some time, years of using full sized keyboards really burns into muscle memory, but after this period going back to 104 key layout seems unlikely for me.
This is a good upgrade. While I do prefer the OS-agnostic "old style" Akko macro implementation and am not all that excited about wireless - although I have to say that giving an option to avoid Bluetooth is a huge plus in my book -, such upgrades show that the company continues development of a good product.

That's mine. The keycaps are not uneven, it's just a phone camera being a phone camera, easily overwhelmed by backlight reflections.

 

[VSG]

This might be the ultimate keyboard, at least for me. I bought an Akko 3098 after you first reviewed one - only version in stock at the time was the "Ocean Star", soldered blue switches, no backlighting. I changed switches to Gateron brown, soldered LEDs, cut some foam for sound dampening and transplanted most keycaps from my old Logitech G710+ for the translucent legends. Getting used to the numpad location took some time, years of using full sized keyboards really burns into muscle memory, but after this period going back to 104 key layout seems unlikely for me.
This is a good upgrade. While I do prefer the OS-agnostic "old style" Akko macro implementation and am not all that excited about wireless - although I have to say that giving an option to avoid Bluetooth is a huge plus in my book -, such upgrades show that the company continues development of a good product.

That's mine. The keycaps are not uneven, it's just a phone camera being a phone camera, easily overwhelmed by backlight reflections.
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Yeah I am happily recommending this keyboard series to anyone who is interested in a full-size form factor. Very hard to beat this at the current price.

 

[AsRock]

Yeah I am happily recommending this keyboard series to anyone who is interested in a full-size form factor. Very hard to beat this at the current price.

Full size ?, don't look like it. but i guess you mean as it has the typical amount of keys of a full sized keyboard. fail for me as they moved the keys and not added more keys which i have much more interest in.

be a nightmare to game on that being a lefty.

 

[VSG]

Full size ?, don't look like it. but i guess you mean as it has the typical amount of keys of a full sized keyboard. fail for me as they moved the keys and not added more keys which i have much more interest in.

be a nightmare to game on that being a lefty.

Full-size in terms of functionality, which this 98-key unit pretty much does. Of couse it's a single bank of keys smooshed together, so it takes a bit of time to get used to the lack of gaps as well as some shorter keys.

 

[noel_fs]

keyboard casual here but that seems like a great value for the quality

 

[VSG]

keyboard casual here but that seems like a great value for the quality

Absolutely, it came real close to getting my Editor's Choice award too. I still can highly recommend it.

 

[Anderich]

Has anyone remapped the "home" and "end" keys on the 3098B? Is there a way to do this using Akko's software or do you need to use something third party?

 

[AndreiD]

Had the 3068B and had to return it, the software was awful and the latency noticeable in all modes (including wired). It also had some YiChip MCU weirdness where if you hold down the Caps Lck button the backlight will start flickering. Maybe I'm spoiled by VIA, but I genuinely found AKKO's Cloud Driver to be atrocious, it's the same driver that's found in some other cheap Chinese hotswap boards like the Epomaker EP84 (which is why I believe it has a YiChip MCU, even with the AKKO branding).
Another thing I found quite badly thought out was the switch on the bottom of the keyboard, it made foam or silicone modding the keyboard quite annoying and it felt very flimsy to me. Additionally the way they build the keyboard, with a plastic skirt around the base is quite poor in my opinion as that plastic skirt will creak and feel quite cheap if you put pressure on it.
Also fair warning for anyone reading, the 3068B doesn't have any silicone dampening in the case (some newer batches might have it) and it sounds very hollow and clacky with AKKO CS Jelly switches.

If they improve the build quality a bit and just put a decent MCU in them, they'd be as close to perfect as a pre-built can be.

 

[4TonMantis]

Has anyone remapped the "home" and "end" keys on the 3098B? Is there a way to do this using Akko's software or do you need to use something third party?

You can use SHIFT + 7 on numpad and SHIFT + 1 for home and end. Very useful as I was missing having those keys.

 

[psyko12]

How about the pause break key , I wanted to remap it to one of the 4 buttons above the numpad since I already have those functions in the numpad area. Is this possible ?

Oh sorry btw using a 3098N model. Same layout. Not sure about the software tho. Thanks.

I've managed to remap it using Sharpkeys an opensource app, it creates the mapping via registry tho. Unlike the provided software that can save to onboard memory.