⌨️ Diving in (to the world of mechanical keyboards)

The following post was copied from my WordPress blog. I will also be posting my initial review of the keyboard either tonight or tomorrow.

So, it's a safe bet for me to say that I LOVE mechanical keyboards. Something about that "clickity clack" nose really gets the happy feels going. My daily driver keyboard has been the Razer Ornata Chroma for the last 3 or 4 years. It's that weird kind of hybrid mechanical board that has Razer's proprietary "mecha-membrane" switches. While I love this keyboard, age has not been kind to it and thorough frequent use, I have noticed that some of the keys are starting to stick, causing me to skip letters and it's just not as fun to type on as it used to be. That is the main thing that "speaks" to me about a keyboard: "How fun is it to type on? I tend do a lot of typing. Everything from writing for RPG maker to working on python. The Akko 3068 fits that, It is a dream to type on.

So, I began scouring the internet for a replacement until I could get my Ornata fixed. Through several YouTube videos, I heard people mentioning the Akko 3608B. So, I hopped on amazon and took a peek. I was surprised by the amount of features included with the board for the price point. It had linear switches (which I have always like the sound test for but never used), it is hot swappable (compatible with 3 and 5 pin switches), customizable RGB lighting, 3 connectivity modes and more. Just those features alone for the price made this a super worth investment.

As far as the switches go, I love them. Not too clacky but still give me that satisfying feel. Each key press is buttery smooth and gives me a very satisfying feel when pressed. They Jelly Pinks really hold their own. Out of the box, the keyboard sounds pretty good. Not great but not bad either. I will probably do the "band aid" and "tape" mode f1or it and that will probably be about it. The Jelly Pinks are super fun to type with. As soon as I got this bad boy blue toothed to my computer, I HAD to come type this up because I enjoy typing on it so much. I haven't gotten to put this board through it's paces yet, since I've only had it a few hours at the time of writing this but, I most definitely will be using this as my daily drive for a good minute.

The board is compact (being a 65% board) which is perfect for throwing in my bag and taking with me. It can blue tooth to up to 4 devices, has a wireless dongle, AND can be plugged in directly via the provided USB-C cable. This thing really does seem to be a trooper of a board.

For a beginner board, this thing was definitely worth the price. My only complaint is that it has opened a Pandora's box for keyboards. Fir real though, my only real "complaint" is that I am not used to 65% keyboards so I am having to adjust to that. That and the switches are pretty sensitive so I find myself misspelling words more than usual. Once I use it for a while, neither of those things should be a problem. I have been interested in getting into keyboards for a while and now with this little diddle, I feel like I've gotten my foot in the door. I have so many other linear switches that I want to try out. I may have to build me another board so I can try them. (It's kind of like Pokémon at this point: GOTTA TRY 'EM ALL).

As far as first impressions go, with this being my first real mechanical keyboard, I can't really speak too much on it compared to other boards but, if I had to give it a rating, I would give it a solid 5/5. I really don't have anything to compare it to at the moment (maybe if I get me another board I can do a comparison post?) but, I really dig it. It checks a lot of boxes for me and I am really enjoying my time with it. I'm actually thinking of heading on over to monkeytype after I post this and just doing a ton of typing exercises so I can use this more.

Anyway, that's it for this rambling. I'm not too sure how many posts I will make about keyboards so I don't think I'm going to give this it's own tag.

Thanks for reading,