Software

There is no dedicated software driver support for the Akko 3084 Silent BT 5.0 keyboard—all functionality is hardware based. As such, I have chosen to combine the Software and Performance pages into one.

Performance

The keyboard supports the typical 6-key rollover Bluetooth and NKRO in USB wired mode, which tested successfully using Aqua's test. Switch Hitter confirmed no chatter with these keys either, and as is usually the case with most mechanical keyboards today, the right Win key is replaced by an Fn key. Also seen above are the 84 functions that get dedicated keys on the base layer, which includes everything from an 87-key TKL (US ANSI) keyboard sans Scroll Lock, Insert, and Menu.

The keyboard lights up, at least as best as it can with the stock keycaps not backlighting compatible, in a white wave effect when first connected and powered. You will miss it if you blink, especially in a well-lit room in daylight, but it still does enough to tell you visually that the keyboard has been recognized and set up by your OS. In a darker environment, things fare better with what ends up being accent lighting here.


The manual does a decent job walking you over the sparse, integrated lighting controls. You can toggle through some static, dynamic, and reactive lighting effects. All of these are with the white onboard LEDs, so there is no reason to mention color fidelity or light bleed here.


Epomaker hosts an online manual for the Akko World Tour keyboards as a whole, and most of it applies here as well. If anything, the manual is missing the backlighting on offer here. So even though you have most of the required keys by default, Akko includes volume control and media playback, in addition to some functionality shortcuts, such as pulling up your default email client and media player, but also locking Win key and making R. CTRL the Menu key. There is no means for key mapping other functions, but there is on-the-fly macro recording. Holding down Fn + Win for 3 seconds initiates macro mode, although there is no visual indication of this. Fn + Esc then starts the record process, meaning Fn, Esc, and Win can't be assigned macros. The manual again goes over the process, but pressing Fn + the desired key next clears the previously assigned function, and the recording is then written over. Repeating the steps in reverse closes it, and you can of course clear macros and go back to the default programming. I wish there were onboard profiles to make this process more practical, and also note that the Win lock is done with Fn + Tilde (~), not Win again as suggested in the image above.

As the name suggests, the Akko Silent Bluetooth 5.0 supports wireless connectivity through Bluetooth 5.0. It works really well and is also backwards compatible with BT 3.0 devices. You can also pair with up to three devices and switch between them. The included 1800 mAh battery is a lot when lighting is off, which is the default manner in Bluetooth mode on the keyboard. I did not run out of battery life at all, with Akko rating a battery life of 90 hours without lighting, but turning on the lighting definitely lowers it by an order of magnitude. Breaking in took less than a day, with the lack of spacing between the arrow key cluster and alphanumeric section being the main hurdle to cross after using a mixture of 60% and some TKL/full-size keyboards. I do like these truncated form factors a lot, including the 96% variant (also known as 1800 compact) which adds a numpad.

Bluetooth usage was absolutely fine, and battery life without lighting on can be on the order of a week depending on your usage. Charging is on the slower side, taking only 500 mA over USB 2.0 according to my testing, so it's an overnight thing. I will note that simply turning the switch on the back to on will not suffice for Bluetooth pairing as you need to hit Fn + Tab for it. Oh, that reminds me that there is actually a pink LED underneath the Tab key that lights up when the battery is low or charging, with one of the indicator LEDs in the top-right corner otherwise dedicated to the pairing and connection status.


Ah, we finally get to the switches, and the Gateron Orange switch in particular. Remember the Gateron Yellow? It was my favorite switch of the four tested there, having a smooth linear action with a slightly heavier actuation force of ~50 gf compared to the Cherry MX Red. The best way I can think of to describe the Gateron Orange thus is the Gateron Yellow with a tactile bump. The bump comes up quicker than you would think and is slightly heavier than the Gateron Yellow, too. My best estimate would be ~1.5 mm at ~60 gf, and then the actuation itself comes in closer to 2.1-2.2 mm, so there is a significant gap between the tactile feedback and actuation. As per usual with such switches, the force required to hit the tactile bump is higher than the actuation force itself. In this case, the actuation force is not that much lower at ~55 gf, and peak force for bottoming out at 4 mm is about 65 gf. What this results in is a tactile switch with a fast, heavy bump before the very likely scenario of bottoming out since the subsequent forces are lower and only slightly higher. The tactile bump is also not that pronounced, and really not even that much smoother than the Cherry MX Brown. Unfortunately, this means the Gateron Orange is not as good an alternative to the Cherry offering to me as the Gateron Pink and Yellow switches were in the linear switch regime.


As always, the sound of a keyboard is based on more than just the switch type. So when comparing sound clips, consider the keyboard as a whole. In this case, I have provided above an example sound clip of me typing on the Akko 3084 Silent BT 5.0 keyboard sample at ~105 WPM as it comes out of the box with the Gateron Orange switches. For context, you can find sound clips from other keyboards here, including those with tactile switches. I did bottom out here, which, as mentioned above, is hard to avoid, and you can also hear the ping off the steel plate that may not be to your liking. The stabilizers do rattle, which is mostly due to insufficient lubrication and them not being the best stabilizers in the world by any means.