Disassembly

Here's a neat feature—the space bar key is on a support plate that unscrews from the main PCB to reveal a total of four switch slots. Indeed, Epomaker and a few other brands have used this design to good effect by having a shorter space bar and more discrete switch actions for smaller form factor keyboards. The GK96S keyboards go with a full-size space bar and two stabilizers on either side, which makes sense.


There are two sets of screws on the Epomaker GK96S/GK96LS, one with a flat silver Philips head and the other with a flat black Philips head. The former set keeps the support plate and PCB in place, so there is little to gain from removing those. To actually see the PCB, we have to separate it from the plastic case piece, so you need to access the ten black screws. These are between/underneath specific keycaps, as seen above, and I will again point out that you may end up removing the keycap and switch both, so be careful when inserting back the switch lest you bend the metal contacts. Once done, carefully lift the PCB/support plate off the case, and having some empty switch sockets here provides more grip to do so.


An internal cable connects the PCB to the battery held in place inside the plastic case. If you missed it in the specifications table, all GK96S keyboards support Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity. Epomaker includes a generous 4000 mAh battery here (as opposed to 4400 mAh according to some online documentation), which is great in an age where wireless mechanical keyboards barely break the 1500–2000 mAh mark. Once dislodged, we can physically remove the case altogether, which gives us a better look at the PCB in all its matte black glory.


The previous keyboard I just finished testing used Cherry MX switches with Gateron hot-swap sockets, and I now have this Epomaker keyboard offering Gateron switches with Kailh hot-swap sockets! The PCB is chock-full of components, not the least of which are all the sockets themselves as there are also all the RGB LEDs and controllers. Speaking of which, powering the keyboard is an Weltrend WT59F164 RISC architecture 32-bit USB microcontroller with 64 KB of onboard flash memory and 8 KB of SRAM, which also doubles as the RGB LED driver. There is also a Cypress CYW20730 Bluetooth 5.1 transceiver chipset for the onboard wireless connectivity option, and as is the norm these days, the PCB itself has multiple layers.

Before we move on, be advised that disassembly may void the warranty and that TechPowerUp is not liable for any damages incurred if you decide to go ahead and do so anyway.