Page 3 - Conclusion
The Yeyian Akil Series 3500 is a standard compact keyboard for the budget enthusiast. To further expand on this, the Akil Series 3500 has very good build quality with a sturdy frame, thanks to the steel plate. The lighting produced from this keyboard is quite good, not being too much or too little, rather just right. It is never good to have lights gleaming into your face, but it is good to have some backlighting to make typing easier at night. The Akil Series 3500 sports a detachable braided cable, allowing you to swap in and out any USB Type-C cable you choose to use. This keyboard uses Outemu Red switches, which is a decent performer in the budget category, but they do have lower manufacturing tolerances compared to Cherry. If a single switch ever breaks, the Akil Series 3500 also has a hot-swap PCB. To put the icing on the cake, this is also a Bluetooth keyboard with a rated battery life of 8 to 12 hours. The Bluetooth works flawlessly, and I had no complaints. Some issue did arise in my testing, namely a bent steel plate from the factory. The result of this bent plate was a space bar with a high amount of ping due to the collision between the bent plate and the stabilizer bar. This lack of quality control could leave customers unsatisfied. Furthermore, the hot swap PCB has drawbacks in what switches are compatible. The PCB only accepts 3-pin switches with smaller pins. This largely limits your options when looking at aftermarket switches. At a price of $55 USD, this is definitely a satisfactory budget option. You are getting some premium features that allow for better customization of the product at a budget price, with the drawback of having these features done is a budget manner. Overall, the Yeyian Akil Series 3500 is a great keyboard with good features for customization, but these features are limited in functionality.
Yeyian provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
APH Networks Review Focus Summary:
6/10 means A product with its advantages, but drawbacks should not be ignored before purchasing.
-- Final APH Networks Numeric Rating is 6.0/10
Please note that the APH Networks Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other publications.
The Yeyian Akil 3500 is a decent budget 65% mechanical keyboard that supports a good level of customization, but quality control can be better.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Conclusion
