Closer Examination

The product page for the Akko 3084 World Tour Tokyo on the Epomaker website has three points right under the name, with the first two that it uses Cherry MX switches as well as the Bluetooth connectivity option. The third is "Exquisite Craftsmanship," which is a bold claim. Sure, I can see where the design goes further beyond a typical Sakura keycap set as seen on the Marsback M1, with several Japanese cultural elements integrated here, and a pink keyboard case that matches the design more than the usual black, at least in my opinion. Craftsmanship is a stretch, however, since I would consider attention to detail and art used throughout factors. Datamancer comes to mind first, as does the Varmilo VA87M Beijing Opera we saw recently.

This is not to dismiss the Akko 3084 at all since there are so many neat things to see here that pedantic arguments over marketing verbiage are a waste of time. The 84-key, 80% form factor is foremost among them since it is extremely rare, so much so that I believe I have never before come across it. It cuts down the popular 87-key TKL form factor by truncating all 84-keys together and loses out on the Insert, Scroll Lock, and Menu keys that are not going to be missed by most anyway. This does mean that the R. Shift key is smaller than usual, and the bottom row is also non-standard in spacing. So the stock keycaps are the best option to stick with here, and we see a mix of font sizes even for the single legends, with the alphabet keys having significantly larger legends than the rest. Secondary legends are above the primary ones, although the lack of backlighting really makes positioning less critical. In return, you pretty much get a fully functional keyboard with Fn keys that takes up far less room than others with equivalent functionality. Bezels are smaller than average too, even with the two-piece plastic case construction.

The color scheme is primarily two-tone—the pink case matches a lot of the keycaps and there are the white keycaps in the middle. As with the replacement keycaps seen before, there are still a lot of other colors and designs used in the dye-sublimation process, so this is an attention grabber of a keyboard regardless. Akko has chosen not to put their logo at the top, and it has instead been relegated to the front facing the user, in a slightly darker pink that does not become an eye sore at all. The Mount Fuji design on the space bar keycap will catch your eye from that angle anyway, with the falling petals of the Cherry Blossom trees adorning all sides of the keycap.


Flipping the keyboard around, we see the usual certification sticker in the middle. There are also four long rubber pads, again in pink, to add friction against the resting surface and prevent scratches to the case. Akko has included two separate sets of case feet at the top to allow for a total of three elevation steps, and these feet are large enough to not slip. There are rubber pads on the bottom of the feet too, which is always a nice detail to see.


There are two options for connectivity here, with wireless Bluetooth 3.0 having an on/off slider at the back. Wired mode comes in the form of a USB Type-C port in the top-left corner on the side facing away from the user, towards the source—say, your PC. The included cable plugs in neatly, and the port is not at all recessed, so aftermarket cables will work just fine. You will need a spare USB Type-A port on your computer to use the keyboard in wired mode while also simultaneously charging its battery, and USB 2.0 will suffice as a minimum, although USB 3.2 Gen 1 is not exactly rare these days.


Akko makes the World Tour Tokyo keycap sets in multiple profiles and has chosen to use the popular OEM profile for the stock keycaps. There are the expected six slanted rows of contoured keycaps, and the provided keycap puller works very well, with adequate spacing between the keycaps to fit the wires through. The stock keycaps, as with the replacement keycaps seen on the previous page, are made out of thick PBT plastic (average wall thickness 1.34 mm) with dye-sublimed legends and designs, which makes for excellent stock keycaps that will last the lifetime of the keyboard. Backlighting support isn't much of a thing here, but the keyboard does not support it anyway, so it is a moot point. As mentioned above, using third-party keycaps won't be easy with the modified US ANSI layout accommodating 84 keys in a small footprint.


As far as I am aware of, there are three switch options for the Akko 3084 World Tour Tokyo. All three happen to be from Cherry, including the MX Red, MX Brown, and MX Blue. As such, Akko provides three feedback mechanisms to choose from, and I have the MX Red switches on my sample. In the absence of backlighting and LEDs, it makes sense to use the older switch design with the opaque black housing. There are holes for LEDs, if you want to somehow jig your own, but doing so would not be trivial. The larger keycaps use Cherry stabilizers, but with no lubrication anywhere. The stock keycaps do help somewhat, but it's still a mushy space bar key no matter which way you hit it!


Practically, there are only two keycaps to swap to the replacement options I can see, with the R4 Esc and te R2 Enter being it. So seen above is a look at the keyboard with both replaced, and I randomly chose one of the provided nine keycaps that will work nicely on the Esc key. Personally, I like the stock keycap color scheme itself making a semi-heart shape with the white keycaps in the middle and the pink modifiers outside. With a larger keyboard, there are more options to choose from for the various provided keycaps.