Introduction

The original plan for my first Building a Keyboard article was to cover six Gateron switches. However, I found it quite hard to get a hold of two specific Gateron switches for that series. For the other two, Epomaker suggested reviews of two keyboards with those switches soldered on, which also seemed like a good idea to look at what else the Akko brand offers in terms of pre-built keyboards with different designs. The first of these additional articles came in the form of the Akko 3108DS Matcha Red Bean, a full-size keyboard that used the nice Gateron Pink linear switches in my sample. The final switch of this series, the Gateron Orange, is the subject of this review. The keyboard we are looking at today is more a vehicle for the same. Thanks again to Epomaker for sending a review sample to TechPowerUp.


If you are having déjà vu here, let me clear it up. We have already looked at the Akko 3084 keyboard in the World Tour Tokyo series earlier. The Akko brand makes several different form factors, including this 84-key version, and uses them as a base for various themes. The former was for a Tokyo theme with several cultural items integrated into a whole family of products. With the 3084 Silent BT, things are simpler, and yet we get a couple of new things here. The switches on offer are no doubt the biggest difference, but the astute viewer might have noted backlighting in the image above. Let's go through all the features in this review, including whether the "Silent" is justified, as we begin with a look at the specifications below.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

This is actually not as glamorous a themed keyboard from Akko as the others thus far, but packaging gets a similar experience with a two-piece box that comes inside a plastic wrap. The outer sleeve colors are more subtle to match the keyboard itself, having a gray background and the company logo and product name alongside a render of the keyboard on front. The sides are in a light blue, and we see a sticker for the switches of the sample inside.


There are no seals here, with the inner box simply sliding off the outer sleeve. The inner box, also made out of cardboard, has a simpler design with a mostly black color scheme. The Akko logo in a radiant purple greets us on the front, and a double flaps on the side keep the contents inside in place during transit. Opening the box, we see the keyboard inside two layers. The top layer is a molded plastic cover that can be used as a dust cover as well, and then there is a soft foam wrap all around the keyboard for further protection in transit. This is complemented by cardboard on all sides, also as a barrier to keep the accessories neatly tucked away. A QC sticker and manual are underneath the keyboard. Not only more detailed but also supporting multiple languages out of the box, including English, the manual is better this time around. The other accessories are actually inside a separate cardboard box, not just underneath folded cardboard as with most keyboards.


Akko includes a nice metal wire keycap puller with the logo on the handle and wires long and thick enough to easily remove keycaps for replacement and/or cleaning without the risk of scratching their sides, as is the case with the cheaper plastic-ring pullers most others include. We also see a detachable USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable in gray to match the keyboard, which points towards Type-C connectivity in wired mode and for charging for wireless mode. It should not surprise you anymore, but there are more Akko logos on the cable connector housings.


Given the 3084 is an 84-key, 80% form factor keyboard, we do not get a lot of room for novelty keycaps. However, this has not deterred Akko from including two separate sets of replacement keycaps. Each set contains replacement arrow keys, both Enter keys for whatever reason (no numpad here, remember), an Ins key, which again is confusing since there is no Ins key by default on the keycap, and an Akko logo keycap that can perhaps be used as a novelty Esc key. The two arguably useless keycaps are quite confusing, and as seen above, the two sets end up being blue and purple. The keycaps themselves are thick PBT plastic (average wall thickness 1.38 mm) with doubleshot injected designs and unfortunately no backlighting support.