Those wishing to dive into the intricate microcosm of mechanical keyboards may find a solid jumping-off point with the Ajazz AK820 Max. It's minimalistic design holds room for customization while sporting a great set of built-in RGB effects.
For someone who has spent as much time as I have endlessly pressing keystrokes, you would have thought by now I wouldn’t be so unfamiliar with mechanical keyboards. But alas.
The Ajazz AK820 Max is the first mechanical keyboard I have spent any meaningful time with.
My assumption with the input method was that every keyboard of this type would noisily–yet satisfyingly–make a loud clack with each gliding press of a button. Perhaps tolerable when gaming, less so when hammering away a few thousand words or so. My second-most distinct understanding of mechanical keyboards was the relative ease and flexibility of being able to pop off the keys, replacing them with new ones.
Strangely, the Ajazz AK820 Max made me think of my second laptop, the one that carried me through my senior year of college and one that is currently gathering dust somewhere. It was a Toshiba and came equipped with an HD-DVD drive (remember that?), bulky speakers, and a white surface that extended to the keyboard and wrist-rest. Since having the laptop, I primarily used a password that started with the letter “h” and you can imagine how many times I popped open the lid and pressed that key. One might also assume the “h” key’s prominent use in such popular words as “the” meant that one day, it might crap out on me. And because I was stupid, one day I attempted to pop off the key to try and make it work better. The key itself was a thin, flimsy piece of plastic that refused to ever properly click back into place and soon after got sucked up in a mini-vacuum and ripped to shreds. I eventually just bought a wireless keyboard.
Click here to check out the AK820 at Mechlands!
Because I’m more of a console gamer, true gaming keyboards have never been a focus for me. I coasted for years on a Logitech mouse that carried me through Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, and a few lonely nights of World of Warcraft. My first gaming keyboard was probably purchased about 15 years ago and was about as basic as one might expect for the tech at the time. It had some ability for macros, extremely basic lighting, and a few dedicated function buttons that I can’t remember ever using.
Even now, typing the review of the Ajazz AK820 Max using the keyboard itself, there’s a definite mystique about the world of mechanical keyboards that I’m merely scratching the surface of. Anyone like me who isn’t knowledgeable or even aware of this universe may watch a Twitch streamer with a flashy setup and wonderfully intricate keyboards may just assume they were custom made. And while that may be possible, I am more keenly aware of the depth mechanical keyboards can provide users and how they can serve as a jumping-off point for aesthetic and gaming fulfillment.
After a few weeks with the Ajazz AK820 Max, I think it can serve as a fantastic no-frills, out-of-the-box mechanical keyboard for those exploring swappable keys and switches.
So what’s the sound like? That was my biggest looming question the second I took the AK820 Max out of the box. Is it going to make that thick clacking sound like I remember from the few times I punched a few mechanical keyboards with my fingertips?
To my surprise… no. The AK820 Max has a definitive click sound, almost like a stapler gently pressing itself through paper or pushing a shirt button securely into place. The sound isn’t overbearing and not one that may bring nearby ears to teeth-chattering fits. No, the AK820 Max’s clicks and subdued clack-like button presses feel contained to the body of the keyboard, as if they resonate a few centimeters above the keys and dissipate.
According to Ajazz, the AK820 Max uses a silicone layer at its base, which is then flanked by two cotton layers and an IXPE switch pad. This sound dampening is noticeable, even if the technical aspects go over one’s head.
Does this result in a satisfying keyboard experience? I think so. Understandably, one may be disappointed if they thought every single mechanical keyboard possessed a uniform, loud clacking sound with every keystroke. But by defying my expectations, the AK820 Max did surprise me after the initial shock. From the smooth tops of the keys to the minimal force required to press down on a key, it is an experience that takes little time in becoming accustomed to.
Frequently I shift between multiple keyboard experiences during my days. There’s the embedded keyboard on one of my laptops, the detachable keyboard on my Microsoft Surface, my Logitech keyboard for my gaming PC, and multiple keyboards at my job. Usually they all take a few seconds to acclimate my fingers between spacing and how they feel to type. The AK820 Max, to me, feels like a keyboard that is not trying to be exponentially different or weird. And that suits a vast amount of use-case scenarios for me.
Apparently, this particular keyboard uses Sea Salt mechanical switches, the bits that actually register key presses and make the sounds users should expect to hear. These switches have an initial force of 35g and an end force of 60g. While that may presumably be exciting for more advanced mechanical keyboard users, for a beginner like me it merely implies a medium level of force required to register a press. I’m not one to often intentionally half-press a key but there is a noticeable difference between it and a full press. There’s also a slight difference in tone, force, and click when pressing the larger keys like “Tab”, “Shift”, “Enter”, and so on–but one you really have to be paying attention to to notice. The Sea Salt switches are also self-lubed, which is meant to retain that smoothness when pressed.
I admire the simplistic build quality of the AK820 Max. There’s virtually no wasted space on the surface of the keyboard. Some may look at the rectangular shape and see it as small and cramped but I think it is extremely efficient, meaning that the fingers do not have to travel very far to access what they need. At an 82 key, 75% layout, the keyboard strips away extraneous buttons, meaning that more complex gaming needs won’t have a place to go. At about 13 inches in length, the keyboard’s footprint won’t dominate.
Weighing at about 1.75 pounds, there is a heft to the keyboard that makes it feel sturdy and that it won’t shift around on a desk, helped by rubber pads parallel to the feet. Double-stage footrests allow for two different angles to rest the keyboard on as well. The perimeter of the AK820 Max is almost uniformly flat. The only noticeable “bulge” comes from the two flip switches. One allows users to switch between Mac and Windows functionality. The other cycles between Bluetooth, 2.4G wireless, and USB connectivity. Cleverly, the wireless dongle is tucked into a slot where one of the footrests folds into.
The version of the AK820 Max I’ve used is the “Black Grey” version. The body of the keyboard is a dark black with the southern keys starting at a similar black and lightening into different grey tones the more north you go. It also comes in a “White Blue” version where the base is white and the keys start with a deep blue and lighten up.
In terms of key color, I would probably prefer the blue colors. However, the darker version of the AK820 Max really allows for the exceptional RGB lighting to pop. By holding down the function key and the forward slash key, users can cycle between 16 lighting patterns. A handful of the patterns are relatively standard, with the keyboard fully lit up by a specific color and cycling into new ones. But the ones that really delighted me were patterns that kept the keyboard dark then sprung to life when a keystroke was registered. Some patterns had only the struck key light up, where others blasted the entire row when one key was hit. Honestly, some of these modes made the keyboard feel more alive than if a pattern was merely left “breathing” or “rippling” through various colors. Maybe it is because I’m unfamiliar with advanced mechanical keyboards or gaming keyboards packed with features but the RGB effects on the AK820 Max are probably the highlight of the unit for me.
Without the lighting, Ajazz’s work here I think is meant to give the user an unassuming keyboard that truly takes on personality when one interacts with it. The blacks and greys of the unlit keyboard fit in well with most basic PC setups. The south-facing key identifiers are highly visible. The volume knob has a loose turn and looks like the most foreign piece on the board.
As far as approachable goes, it’s hard not to recognize the underlying strength of the AK820 Max’s simplicity. After all, this is still a mechanical keyboard where users can pop off the keys relatively easy and with a good switch removal tool–the one included in the box felt a bit flimsy–the sound of keystrokes and the look of the keys can be adjusted. That being said, I’m not sure how good the lighting would translate if using keys that don’t have translucence to them. One point of note, however, is that I could not find the drivers to this specific board. Two separate downloads on Ajazz’s and EPOMAKER’s websites yielded files that I simply could not use.
Of course, I would be remiss not to detail the AK820 Max’s performance when gaming. PC gaming is more of a situational occurrence for me. I’m one of those people that has a Steam library that hit max backlog capacity about a decade ago. But for the purposes of running the keyboard through the motions, I definitely had to experiment with a few of my favorites.
Team Fortress 2 has always been a standby for me when wanting a pocket of frenetic entertainment. I always load into the “2Fort” map, become a Scout, and see how far I can take the enemy intelligence amongst all the chaos and bots. The role always requires quick flicks of the mouse to identify escape paths and rapid strafing and directional changes, along with a few handy jumps. Being so compact, it was incredibly easy to glide my fingers across WASD, thumb easily resting on the space bar ready for a double-jump.
Over the past two weekends, I was apparently one of the few people who tried the Concord Beta. After spending time on both PlayStation 5 and PC, it’s easy to say that I’m better on the DualSense. However, being able to assign my Freegunner’s abilities to whatever key binding I wished, really made a difference. The same logic applied to Call of Duty: Warzone and its bulky inventory options that get lost on console. What feels like sort of a accepted, learned hassle on console becomes a dream when a responsive keyboard allows you to quickly strike the appropriate key. The common thread throughout the FPS games I played on the AK820 Max was that WASD movement felt more fluid and tactile than it had on my gaming Logitech keyboard. More so, I didn’t feel as if I had missed any inputs or that the keys were spread out in such a way that my fingers weren’t able to access them with ease.
This keyboard may not be exponentially beneficial for players who mainline MMOs or RTS games that burn through macros. But I think it certainly gets the job done for those hungry to experiment with how mechanical keyboards can improve the overall feel of PC gaming that others just can’t match. And for me, this particular unit feels great merely to type endlessly on, which is a resounding win for me. Quick Bluetooth and wireless connectivity and a hefty battery that lasted me several nights of heavy use are just icing on the cake. And at $79.99, it feels like a relatively good price for what’s on offer.
Ajazz’s AK820 Max keyboard is my first venture into the world of mechanical keyboards. And while I may not understand the intricacies of the terminology and how far customization can go, everyone needs a place to start. There’s an obvious temptation to go all out, buying a peripheral with all the bells and whistles. But sometimes, the basics get the job done. Luckily, the AK820 Max is also equipped with a lot of aesthetic appeal to really transform your PC gaming setup.
