When you first start a hobby, you may be scratching your head and wondering where to start. You may be wondering whether you should spend more money on higher quality gear or start small with the cheaper stuff. Thankfully, Akko’s Mod 001 gives budding keyboard enthusiasts a top-notch skeleton for a pretty decent price.
Mod 001 Barebones Keyboard
| Switches | N/A |
| Relief | Not addressable |
| Storage on board | 3 profiles |
| media keys | with FN |
| Connectivity | USB Type-C |
| Cable | 6 feet, rubber |
| Additional ports | N/A |
| to test | N/A |
| Software | Akko Wired Manager |
| Dimensions (LxWxH) | 375mm x 146.05mm x 31.75mm |
| Weight | 4.5 pounds |
Design
The Akko Mod 001 is a sandwich-mount TKL mechanical keyboard barebones kit that comes equipped with all the necessities we’ve come to expect from most barebones kits, such as 5-pin support, RGB and plate-mount stabilizers. The difference with the Mod 001 is that two thick aluminum pieces make up a large part of the top case of the keyboard and give a unique design due to their different colors.
The model I received was in Akko’s Neon colors, but there was really nothing fancy about it. The product page shows the kit as purple and pink, but in real life it comes out more like navy blue and crimson and looks like a tacky 90s ski jacket.
Despite the misleading photos from the website, I equipped the kit with the Drop + Marvel Infinity War Keycap (opens in new tab) set in the Thanos colorway, and that deep purple glow certainly made the keyboard look that much better.
The Mod 001 top box is largely composed of two thick pieces of aluminum, making the board feel heavier than normal compared to other tenkeyless options. The Mod 001 weighed about four and a half pounds (2 kg), doubling the Epomaker GK108Swhich is a full size kit.
The USB-C cable plugs into the back of the case, but the fit was a little tight for me. Every time I plugged the board into my Glorious coiled cable, I had to wiggle it a bit in the socket. That’s something to think about if, like me, you want to use a cable with a thick connector.
You might think that something called Mod 001 allows you to customize the SMD LEDs per key, but think again. That’s not the case here, but you can adjust the RGB with Akko’s software called Akko Wired Manager. This doesn’t technically have official support for the Mod 001 yet, but you can still make some minor unofficial tweaks under the name of a different keyboard.
The mounting style Akko uses for the Mod 001 is interesting because it is a sandwich mount. Sandwich-mounted keyboards are held together by screws that screw under the case, which is both good and bad. The good part is that this provides a uniform sound profile under the board, but the downside is that the disassembly is a bit complicated if you want to take the keyboard apart.
When I took the Mod 001 out of the box, I looked around the board for screws to take it apart, but they were nowhere to be found and it turned out that they were hidden under the rubber bumpers under the case. This requires the bumpers to be lifted to access which means you may need to buy replacements if you break them in the process.
The Mod 001 . to assemble
Assembling the Mod 001 was very easy. All I had to do was drop my switches and keycaps in and voila, I was good to go. If you’re like me and want the best possible acoustics, you should also lube the stabilizers as they come very dry out of the box. But because they are mounted on a plate, they are easy to remove.
At this point in the review I could go on and on about how the kit could be improved or tweaks that could be made to improve your experience, but there’s not much to do except grease the stabilizers because Akko did it all for you. This kit works great as it comes.
Typing experience on the Mod 001
One of the things that sets the Mod 001 apart from most other barebones kits is the fact that it comes with sound dampening foam already installed. I think we should give Akko a round of applause here because the sturdy aluminum case just screams case ping, but there was no gift here at all. While the details of your experience will depend on which switches and keycaps you install, this kit ensures a smooth and quiet experience.
Game experience on the Mod 001
The Mod 001 is a barebones kit so it doesn’t need all the fancy features you might find on great gaming keyboards like the Wooting Two HE or the other best gaming keyboards. That doesn’t mean it can’t be outfitted with gamer-style parts, though, like quick switches. I will say if you decide to go that route you will be the coolest member of your pack as the Mod 001 is a very cool looking board and the 5 pin support on the PCB will make any Cherry MX nature switch with it works.
While testing the Mod 001 in-game, I finally ran it through the wringer by using it to defeat the Forsaken in the new Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War zombies mode. Here it performed like any gaming keyboard while having more bling than the other grunts in your pack. Another TKL board I had been using at the time of this review was the Razer Huntsman V2, and while that has more gamer features like an 8,000Hz polling rate, the Mod 001 didn’t feel inferior in performance at all.
Software
At the time of this review, the Mod 001 does not officially have its own software. However, the SMD RGB LEDs can be customized with Akko Wired Manager. When connected to the software, the Mod 001 appears as the Akko 5108, which is a full-sized keyboard. While the keys cannot be remapped, the RGB can be customized, just not per key.
Akko didn’t tell us when official software support would come.
Bottom Line
The Akko Mod 001 is fantastic, especially at the $130 price point because despite being so cheap you still get a funky colorway, a thick aluminum chassis that is well damped and 5-pin switch support. While I’m not a fan of how Akko displays the board color on their website, I can look past that as at the end of the day this kit is fantastic for the price and with the right keycaps, like the ones I’m wearing you can have a very special board. The software needs to be repaired, but otherwise the use of this kit is smooth. I would like to see Akko continue to bring more barebones kits to the market as this kit is generous and simple and I can easily recommend it, especially to beginners who can’t quite find the right value for money.