Introduction

Akko has been on a roll lately with its keyboard designs, so much so that it's quickly becoming one of the more recommended brands by keyboard enthusiasts for custom keyboard designs at a really good price. It started out simple, but then quickly went off the rails with original designs and even in-house switches. Some of its keycap sets are no doubt inspired by others, which gives people an excuse to dismiss the brand entirely. It is a legitimate concern, but there are enough differences to where they can be considered different enough. Today is not a day to talk about those nuances, however. Today, we talk about something unlike anything else that is completely original to Akko.


I would encourage reading our review of the Akko Monet's Pond set, which sets a base for why I was interested in covering the King Koi reviewed today. With Monet's Pond, the company sought to bring a popular tourist spot in Japan to your desk. There are vibrant colors throughout, and the Koi theme is prevalent alongside more elements of Japanese culture. There is also the use of the Hiragana script for no other reason but as a design choice, which is getting far too common for my tastes on aftermarket keycap sets. Akko is a Chinese company, however. It complemented the World Tour Tokyo theme with the World Tour Beijing I have not covered, and there will soon be another one closer to home, too. So when I saw a local-to-them version of the Koi theme, I had to get it in to examine in this review beginning with the specifications in the table below.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

For once I have a shipment directly from Akko only containing the keyboard, so we begin with the shipping packaging itself since Akko operates a web shop and directly purchasing this keyboard will have it arrive at your door just like this. Akko clearly has cardboard boxes that are custom fit to their keyboard product boxes, but I would have liked it slightly larger. A one-inch gap on all sides would have been good, with the gap filled with packing peanuts, for instance. As it turns out, you now rely on the courier being lenient and careful since the thin outer box only provides minimal protection by itself.


Themed keyboards, especially if part of a whole series, usually have matching packaging. This holds true for the Akko 3108v2 King Koi with its two-piece packaging that comes inside a plastic wrap to begin with. The outer sleeve is where we see most of the colors, or lack thereof, since the whole theme is far more subtle than the Monet's Pond one. A lot more white here adds further contrast to the pond design. The box makes it clear that this is a Chinese theme first and foremost, down to the use of an older script as an artistic choice, where 錦鯉, which means Koi, is the relevant part. On the back, the company logo is seen alongside a large render of the keyboard theme on front, as well as another render of the actual keyboard with more writing that is basically an old Chinese proverb befitting the theme instead of the usual technical specifications. A sticker on the side mentions the switches for 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 front, and two double flaps in the middle and two side flaps 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, and then there is a soft foam wrap all around the keyboard for further protection. This is complemented by cardboard on all sides, also 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, this manual is better than some of the previous showings from the brand.


The other accessories are actually inside two separate cardboard boxes, not just underneath folded cardboard as with most keyboards. Inside the smaller of the two boxes, Akko includes a nice metal-wire keycap puller with their logo on the handle. The wires are long and thick enough to easily remove keycaps for replacement and/or cleaning without the risk of scratching the sides as with the cheaper plastic-ring pullers most others include. This smaller box also contains six replacement keycaps, all 1u in size and matching the theme of the keyboard. There are four with Koi fish moving in different directions, and two others with the same older script writing that I realized only later where the other way round. When together, it is the same 錦鯉as on the product box, which in turn means Koi. These are thick PBT plastic keycaps (average wall thickness 1.38 mm) with dye-sublimed designs, allowing for the use of more intricate designs irrespective of the two colors chosen for the base and legends.


Given the Akko 3108 is a full-size keyboard, we do not get a lot of room for novelty keycaps. The second, larger box is where we see a detachable Type-A to Type-C USB cable in white to match the keyboard, which points towards the use of Type-C connectivity on the keyboard. It should not surprise you anymore, but there are more Akko logos on the cable connector housings. With notches which are presumably used as guides for the physical connection on the keyboard, the Type-C housing is also shaped differently.