Disassembly

Disassembly involves three sequences of screws. The first holds the bottom panel to the rest of the keyboard, and there are several screws that need to be removed from the bottom, including one under every rubber pad at the top and one under the warranty sticker. Once done, you will have to dislodge the ribbon cable, which has a waterproof film coating on it, to fully take the bottom panel off. You can do so without unscrewing the plastic casing cover, but it is easier if you do and needs to be done to re-install it anyway. Here is the second set of screws, which when removed shows a double-layered, thick silicone gasket to keep any liquids that fell through away from this area which houses the control components. Zalman has seen fit to insulate the MCU fully, which makes identifying it without taking it out near impossible. All this in a part of the bottom panel piece, and you can see they have added more insulating goop around the cover to further add to the waterproof design.


The third and final set of screws keeps the layers in place in the top piece. From bottom to top, we have an aluminum stiffening plate, the "PCB", which has a hydrophobic film on it and helps send the connections to the MCU when it detects a keystroke, and the rubber dome layer, which provides the tactile feedback and when depressed actuates a signal in the layer below. Zalman is using an injection-type rubber dome, which is a step above the usual pressed silicone rubber domes and will help add to "durability and keystroke consistency", in their own words. Given the limited time of testing for reviews, this is out of the scope of testing here.


The four indicator LEDs are on the top panel piece with a transparent housing plate to keep them intact, and the "switches" themselves are mere injection-molded plastic pieces which serve to depress the rubber domes below.

Before we take a look at the driver, be advised that disassembly will void the warranty and that TechPowerUp is not liable for any damages incurred if you decided to go ahead and do so anyway.