Ajazz AK820 Pro Review
AJAZZ AK820 Pro is an affordable, but well-built mechanical keyboard. It’s a 75% keyboard with 81 keys, so it’s fairly compact. This mean’s it’s missing the numeric pad on the right (TKL or ten keyless), but this isn’t an issue for me.
Build quality
The build quality on the Ajazz AK820 Pro is ok. It’s made of ABS plastic, so it doesn’t feel super premium, but it definitely feels sturdy enough. It has doubleshot PBT keycaps (OEM profile) which are quite thick and very slightly textured, so they feel great to type on. They’re unfortunately not shine-through. I have the white/purple/blue model, and I think the colours are really nice!
Inside the case it feels much more premium: it’s gasket mounted with a flex-cut polycarbonate plate. The PCB is hotswappable and has south-facing LEDs, and it has a lot of RGB modes to choose from. It has bluetooth connectivity (5.0/2.4ghz), and a USB-C port (cable included).
The included USB-C cable is nothing special, just a normal white one (1 metre).
Switch options
The Ajazz AK820 Pro has the choice of two switches: The Ajazz Gift switch, and the Ajazz Flying Fish switch (reviewed).
Travel 3.5mm
Pre travel 2mm
Inital force 42g
Bottom out force 48g
Travel 3.6mm
Pre travel 2mm
Inital force 45g
Bottom out force 60g
The Flying Fish switches feel great. They feel quite light to actuate, which makes them nice to touch type on (especially for harder to hit keys that use weaker fingers, like z, q etc). They’ve also got hardly any stem wobble which is impressive at the price point. I can’t comment on the Gift switch, but the specs seem very close.
The main difference between the Flying Fish and Gift switch is predominantly spring force. They’re both linear switches with roughly the same amount of travel (3.6mm vs 3.5mm). The Flying Fish has a force of 42g with a bottom out of 48g, whereas the Gift has a force of 45g with a 60g bottom out.
Features
The Ajazz AK820 Pro has a 0.85” TFT screen – it can cycle between RGB effects, brightness, speed, volume, language, time and GIF. You can’t display the CPU or GPU temps, ping, RAM/HDD usage etc which seems like a bit of a miss. To my understanding it isn’t customisable, so these are the only options that you can use – maybe it will be changed in a software update to be more useful, but as of now it’s a bit of a gimmick. However, the knob which controls the screen feels really nice.
It has 19 fairly standard RGB modes that can be selected through the screen, however you can customise it further using the software. The board has south-facing LEDs so it’s a even, bright backlight. I personally have it on a steady colour, and it works great.
The software could definitely be better – you can change keybinds, manage macros, change RGB effects and lighting, and add a GIF to the TFT screen. I tried to add a GIF to the screen but it didn’t really work, it doesn’t move – and it’s pretty confusing, it looks like you have to animate it yourself in the program rather than just upload the file.
It is ANSI layout only – it would be nice to offer an ISO layout, but most mechanical keyboards (and keycap sets) are ANSI, so it’s not a deal breaker.
I’ve used the keyboard in wired mode the whole time I’ve used it so I can’t comment on how good the battery life is, but it has a 4000mAh battery which is plenty big enough. Ajazz quote roughly 100hrs of battery life with RGB disabled, and about 20hrs with it turned on.
Typing on the Ajazz AK820 Pro
The Ajazz AK820 Pro sounds really great! It’s quite thocky, especially for the price. I have personally done the tape mod, which amplifies this. It also makes it feel a bit more solid when you’re typing.
I’ve been using this keyboard for about a month now, mainly for playing Valorant – I personally prefer a heavier switch for gaming, but these are definitely fine. I am currently typing this review on this exact keyboard, and it’s really nice to touch type on. I find it much easier than my Epomaker TH80 Pro that’s using Milky Yellow Pro switches, which is probably due to the light actuation force (42g).
Conclusion
The Ajazz AK820 Pro is a great keyboard for the price! It has a good thocky sound straight out the box, gasket mount and flex-cut polycarbonate plate, and high quality keycaps. It’s also hot-swappable (3-pin and 5-pin compatible), so it makes it a good buy for someone who wants to start with mechanical keyboards and try a few different switches out without breaking the bank.
Shot on Sony ZV-1
