Closer Examination

This is my second Akko 3098 keyboard after the Black&Pink 3098 from last year. These have a lot in common, including the use of 98 keys on Akko's take of the 96% form factor. What we thus get is a compacted full-size keyboard that pretty much retains everything. In this take, we only lose Menu, Home, End, Print Screen, Scroll Lock, and Pause Break from the standard 104-key full-size US ANSI layout. The arrow-key cluster is between the alphanumeric section and numpad, with everything aside from the smallest of bezels separating the three clusters a single bank of keys. Bezels are smaller than average, especially with the arrow keys offset downward slightly. This not only makes the Akko 3098B shorter than the 3108v2/v3 series, but narrower and slightly thinner.

The keyboard uses a black two-piece plastic construction with a three-tone keycap set. There are two base colors—black and the gray employed by the majority of the stock keycaps. The legends are all doubleshot injected in the same saturated yellow as on the replacement keycaps to make this the advertised Black&Gold color scheme, with the injection done in a seamless fashion for cleaner aesthetics. An Akko logo has been put on the bottom-right corner facing the user, which is the only branding in use. There is per-key RGB backlighting even though the keycaps are opaque, so legend placement on the keycaps is not going to matter much in that regard. The numpad still has single legends only, which happen to have been placed in the top center. The alphanumeric section has secondary legends above the primary ones on the numbers row, and everything is placed centrally on top even here. The typeface is quite neat, and larger than usual, especially for the single-legend keycaps and given there is no limitation owing to LED placement underneath, which happens to be north-facing for those who care.


Turning the keyboard around, the usual certification sticker is the middle, as are four long rubber pads on the corners for friction against the resting surface and to prevent scratches to the case. Akko included two separate sets of case feet at the top for a total of three elevation steps, and these feet are large enough not to slip. The rubber pads on the bottom of the feet are a nice detail. Also note that the feet are part of an already raised segment of the bottom plastic panel, so even the default elevation is steeper than usual.


The Akko 3098B differs from the previous-generation 3098 by offering hybrid wired and wireless connectivity on top of dual OS support, with the slider switch on the back used to switch between the OS layouts in the wireless modes or USB for wired mode. There is Bluetooth 5.0, which is backward compatible with Bluetooth 3.0 and 4.0 on this Beken model, as well as the aforementioned 2.4 GHz connection via the provided dongle for wireless use. For those who prefer wired mode, there is an extremely inset connector in the middle on the back, but the guides on the cable connector housing of the case make using anything else but low-profile aftermarket cables difficult. This prevents the cable from slipping out easily. There are also three built-in cable-management channels—the default in the middle and two longer channels for the left and right. Nibs in these channels retain the cable, though they might cut into its plastic insulation. As such, a braided cable would have been nice. This cable is the standard 6' long and plugs into an available USB Type-A port on your computer. The connectors are gold-plated for oxidation resistance, and USB 3.2 Gen 1 (USB 3.0) is recommended.


Akko makes several keycap sets and has in this case chosen the ASA profile, which is Akko's proprietary take on the all-spherical SA profile (hence ASA) in that it adopts a similarly rounded profile and less aggressive contouring coupled with larger top surfaces for finger support, but isn't as tall or angled from the side. If anything, the ASA profile is closer in height to the popular OEM profile, so much so that you get the better support for most people without the massive elevation steps of SA between rows. The provided keycap puller works very well, with adequate spacing between keycaps to fit the wires through. As with the replacement keycaps on the previous page, the stock keycaps are made out of thick PBT plastic (average wall thickness 1.42 mm) with doubleshot injected legends and designs, which makes for excellent stock keycaps that will last for the lifetime of the keyboard. Backlighting support isn't much of a thing, so the lighting on the keyboard will be for accents around the sides of the keycaps only. Third-party keycap compatibility is not the highest since the modified layout results in shorter key spacing, but many aftermarket sets these days do cater to this form factor.


The Akko 3098B comes in three different switch options, all from the Akko CS (Custom Series) family of switches. These are the CS Jelly Pink and Jelly White (linear) and Jelly Blue (tactile) for two forms of feedback mechanisms. We examined the CS Jelly Blue or, rather, the re-colored CS Jelly Sponge separately before, so I was happy to see my sample come with the CS Jelly Whites instead. As the name suggests, this is an all-white translucent switch when installed, with a pale white housing and a brighter white stem that has walls around it for added dust and spill resistance. The switch itself is compatible with backlighting, with a cutout for north-facing LEDs, and the Akko writing on the bottom faces the right way up in this configuration. The larger keycaps use plate-mounted stabilizers, and these have been pre-lubed, albeit quite heavily. The switches are unlubed, although Akko now sells pre-lubed versions of these switches, too. Thankfully, the amount of lube on the stabilizers isn't so much that it detracts from the typing experience.


Retained from the previous-generation Akko 3098 keyboards is the hot-swap switch socket from TTC. An included switch remover would have been nice thus, but using my own allows for one of these CS Jelly White switches to be pried out for a closer examination. The socket also reveals compatibility with 5-pin mechanical switches, so this is a welcome improvement from the previous-generation 3098 series that used 3-pin sockets, which meant clipping 5-pin switches as with some popular Gateron offerings. The Akko CS Jelly White is a 3-pin mechanical switch and looks quite nice by itself.


Here is a look at the keyboard with most of the replacement keycaps, although Print Screen, Scroll Lock, and Pause/Break don't make much sense for the base layer unless you re-map the keyboard, of course. Ultimately, this allows for the addition of far more of the "gold" in this Black&Gold color scheme.