Disassembly

Given we have hot-swappable and thus removable switches with the Z15, I wanted to see what makes the Kailh Speed Silver and Speed Bronze switches tick. Amazingly, this is also my first time with the Speed Bronze switch, so EVGA definitely has some rarely used switches here. Both share a lot in common with each other as well as other similar mechanical switches by using the Cherry MX crosspoint stem design with a see-through top housing for RGB lighting diffusion and a white bottom housing. The springs affect the actuation and bottoming out forces for the switch, and then there are the metal contacts at the bottom in this non-BOX design from Kailh.


The Speed Silver is a linear switch, and the Speed Bronze a tactile clicky switch, with the latter having a click bar on the other side of the contact mechanism to provide for a decoupled, satisfying click. I have to say that Kailh has quickly become my favorite switch maker today, with so many offerings to where there is something for pretty much everyone.


Disassembly of the EVGA Z15 is thankfully easier than the Z20, likely due to the relatively simpler feature set and construction. There are 13 flat Phillips head screws on the top underneath some keycaps that need to be removed first, and then there are four more screws on the back, hidden behind the rubber pads. As with most such keyboards, the aluminium frame allows for a fully screwed assembly and disassembly.


Once done, you can lift up the top panel enough to access the two internal cables holding the bottom panel to the PCB. The first goes from a daughter PCB to the primary one for USB power and data, and the second is for the volume wheel encoder PCB that is also hosted on the ABS plastic bottom panel. There is a steel plate in the center of the bottom panel, which presumably is to help with weight balancing, in addition to magnets at the bottom that are used in conjunction with paired magnets in the wrist rest itself.


The primary PCB can be taken out of the metal frame completely if you remove all the keycaps and switches, with the latter installed onto the Kailh-branded hot-swap switch sockets. Solder quality is really good, and powering the keyboard is an NXP LPC5516 32-bit Arm Cortex®-M33 USB microcontroller with up to 256 KB flash memory and 96 KB SRAM, and a whole bunch of other features in this very new, very powerful MCU that allows for the Z15 to run at a native 4000 Hz polling rate as opposed to the standard maximum of 1000 Hz. As is the norm these days, the PCB 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.