Disassembly

Given the hot-swappable switches here, I wanted to begin this section with a look inside the Akko CS Crystal switches that came on this sample. This is a linear switch with a full polycarbonate construction on the housing and stem alike. It uses a relatively long 18 mm steel spring and I did not notice any lube pre-applied on the stem or spring alike to where users may be inclined to do so themselves. The switch design is otherwise identical to other such Cherry MX-style switches in that the stem pushes the copper contacts in the bottom housing together to initiate switch actuation that is then read by the microcontroller on the keyboard.


Disassembly of the keyboard is quite simple owing to the acrylic case being just screwed together from the back. The provided Allen key will be useful here to remove the screws following which you can simply lift off the top case panel for a close examination of the thick CNC-machined acrylic used here. The paint coat is applied everywhere to where it feels quite solid and not prone to scratching off with daily use. The bottom case panel has a daughter PCB with the Type-C connector and you need to dislodge the internal cable going to the primary PCB to fully separate the two. At this point, you can also add in the foam sheet from earlier although I personally thought it dampens the sound and typing feel too much for my liking.


The reason why Akko did not pre-install that EVA foam sheet is because this keyboard uses a gasket mount which already has some decoupling from the case and good support when typing on it. There are silicone gaskets all around the plate as seen above and these sit in crevices machined into the bottom case panel.


At this point you can choose to remove all keycaps and switches to further separate the plate from the primary PCB itself, and this would allow you to also potentially replace—there is support for screw-in stabilizers here—and re-lube the stabilizers too if needed. The PCB itself is white in color with good solder quality and a cutout to accommodate the daughter PCB, although now I am not sure why it wasn't simply integrated on the same PCB. We see the use of CIY hot-swap sockets as well as an Akko-branded USB microcontroller similar to other recent Akko keyboards. Likewise, the RGB LED controllers are also bereft of any markings to help identify them. A look from the side shows the use of a typical multi-layered PCB as well as a foam sheet between the PCB and the plate. As mentioned before, this is one of very few keyboards that allows you to disassemble and modify the keyboard without voiding warranty—within reason anyway! I will still note that TechPowerUp is not liable for any damages incurred if you decide to go ahead.