Introduction

If you asked me to name one company in the keyboard space that I was really excited about, it would probably be Akko. The Chinese peripheral brand has been growing from strength to strength in the past couple of years, having ditched all "borrowed" keycap designs in favor of original concepts, coming out with premium DIY keyboard kits, growing its own in-house developed switches, and even obtaining licensed IP to come out with new and interesting themed keyboard designs, all while retaining its core attraction of value for money. Indeed, every single Akko review to date has featured a new design and there are more featured in our "Building a Keyboard" series too! A lot of these reviews were based on an older base keyboard that did need some updating to keep up with newer keyboard releases, and Akko did just that as seen in the review of the impressive 3098B series. Today we examine a latest gen Akko 5108S keyboard thanks to Mechkeys having kindly provided a review sample to TechPowerUp!


As with every other Akko keyboard, the last three digits in the keyboard number represent the number of keys of the product. As such, this 5108S unit is a full-size keyboard with 108 keys in the US ANSI layout. We also notice the unique theme of yellow and white employed here, which is relatable to most folks here as representing the whites and yolks of eggs—specifically, one particular lazy egg called Gudetama. It's a Japanese cartoon character that's become extremely popular in east Asian for its proclivity towards procrastination, as well as various difficulties surviving modern-day life—there's even a recently released Netflix show worth the watch! As such, note that this particular keyboard review will cover both the base 5108S keyboard experience in addition to how well, or not, Akko has implemented the Gudetama license. We begin our coverage with a look at the product specifications in the table below.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

Themed keyboards typically come with matching packaging, and the Akko x Gudetama 5108S keyboard is no different. The product box uses a two-piece packaging with an external sleeve that embraces the Gudetama colors and design fully, to where there is no doubt as to what keyboard is inside. Indeed, it's not often that the licensed IP gets full coverage here with Akko's own branding relegated to the sides, where we also see more information about the actual switch used here. Slide out the inner box to reveal a similar black box with purple Akko logo on the front as with previously covered Akko products.


There are side flaps and double flaps in the middle opening which reveals a foam sheet and the keyboard underneath with more foam around it for added protection. There is also a thin foam wrap around the keyboard to keep it dust-free out of the box, and a hard plastic cover which can double up as a dust cover when the keyboard is not in use. Akko also includes a multi-language user manual here (online copy here) which I recommend going over to know about the various pre-programmed functions and customization options available. The rest of the accessories come inside another cardboard box, as seen above.


Akko goes further down the theme route with a color-matched keyboard cable too going from USB Type-A on the PC side to Type-C on the keyboard side. We also get a nice metal wire-style keycap puller, as well as a separate metal prong switch remover tool, indicating the keyboard supports hot-swappable switches. Rounding off the accessories is a set of seven replacement novelty keycaps in the 1u size that have the Gudetama character in various states of not wanting to do anything based on the day of the week starting from Monday and ending in a sleepy Sunday. These are thick PBT keycaps (average wall thickness 1.35 mm) with dye-sublimed legends/designs for added longevity. The use of black lines on the white base to mimic egg whites is a clever touch, given the limitations of dye sublimation where you can only have darker colors on a lighter base.