Akko Year of the Snake Armor Alice mechanical keyboard with its aluminium case lifted away, on moss

Akko Year of the Snake Armor: Aluminium Alice Mechanical Keyboard

A snake in a suit of armour

The Armor is Akko's Lunar New Year keyboard for the Year of the Snake, and the name is literal: a CNC-machined aluminium shell wrapped around a 68-key Alice layout, with a PVD-finished mirror weight on the underside carved with the snake itself. In Lunar New Year tradition the snake stands for wisdom, strategy and transformation, and the whole board is built around that idea, from the coiling snake across the dye-sub keycaps to the engraving you only see when you turn it over. Around three kilograms of metal, split and angled so your hands sit the way they want to.

It comes in three finishes. Green Snake is spray-coated with a textured, etched PVD weight. Rod of Asclepius is an electrophoresis finish with a colour-engraved weight showing the serpent and staff. Black, named Xuanwu, is a spray coat with glitter in it, and the darkest of the three.

Three weights, three snakes

Underside of the Green Snake Akko Armor showing the PVD etched snake weight Underside of the Rod of Asclepius Akko Armor with colour-engraved serpent and staff weight Underside of the Black Xuanwu Akko Armor with engraved snake weight

Green Snake, Rod of Asclepius and Black (Xuanwu). The keyboard shown elsewhere on this page is the Green Snake.

Alice layout, 68 keys

An Alice keyboard splits the alphas down the middle and angles each half outward in an inverted V, so your wrists stay straight instead of bending inward to meet a flat row of keys. The Armor keeps 68 keys, which means a full set of arrows and a short column of navigation keys on the left, and two space bars so either thumb can take the job. Akko's own note is that the layout takes somewhere between half an hour and a few hours to settle into, and that the included wrist rest is part of the design rather than an extra.

At roughly 381 x 131 x 49 mm it is wide for its key count, which is the point: the halves have room to sit apart.

Akko Armor Alice keyboard dimensions, 380.9 mm wide, 130.6 mm deep, 49 mm high, with 68-key layout diagram

Spring mount, no tools

Inside, the plate sits on a revised version of Akko's spring mount. The old aluminium-and-spring posts are replaced with silicone pillars, which Akko has tuned softer, so the FR4 plate has somewhere to go under your fingers and the sound comes out rounded rather than sharp. FR4 is the middle ground among plate materials: firmer than polycarbonate, warmer than aluminium.

The case opens without a screwdriver. A ball-catch system holds the top and bottom together, so the whole thing comes apart and goes back together in seconds if you want to swap the plate, clean it, or just look at how it is put together.

Akko Armor Alice keyboard disassembled showing the tool-free ball-catch case and FR4 plate
Akko Cobras switches

Linear, 50 ± 5 gf operating force, 3.5 mm total travel with a 2.0 mm pre-travel. A medium-weight linear that suits the heavy case and the softer mount.

Tri-mode, 8000 mAh

Bluetooth 5.0 for laptops and tablets, 2.4 GHz with the included receiver for the desktop, and wired USB-C. The 8000 mAh battery is sized for a keyboard with side and back lighting.

Side and back RGB

Light strips along the sides and across the back edge rather than under the keys, so the glow outlines the aluminium instead of competing with the keycaps.

Dye-sub PBT, Cherry profile

The keycaps carry the theme: a pale cream base with the green snake winding across the alphas and the modifiers, printed by dye sublimation into PBT so the pattern cannot wear off the surface. They are Cherry profile, the low, sculpted shape that most custom keyboard keycap sets use, with row heights from 9.81 mm at the top down to 7.22 mm on the home row.

Akko Armor Cherry profile PBT dye-sub keycaps with row height diagram
Akko Year of the Snake Armor Alice keyboard with the included wrist rest

The wrist rest and a storage bag are in the box.

Side view of the Akko Armor aluminium case and PVD weight Akko Year of the Snake Armor Alice mechanical keyboard in Green Snake on moss

Q&A & Specifications

Questions & Answers

Is an Alice layout hard to learn?

Most people are typing normally within a day. The split happens between the T/Y and G/H columns, so if you touch-type with standard finger placement, nothing moves; if you reach across the middle with the wrong hand, you will notice for a few hours.

Which finish should I pick?

Green Snake is the one in most of the photos, with the textured etched weight. Rod of Asclepius is the lighter electrophoresis finish with the serpent-and-staff engraving. Black (Xuanwu) has a glitter spray coat and reads as near-black on the desk.

Does it come with a wrist rest?

Yes, along with a storage bag. Akko recommends using the rest, as the Alice case sits fairly tall at the front.

How heavy is it?

Akko lists the raw weight at around 3 kg. It will not move on the desk.

Specifications

Model: Akko Year of the Snake Armor
Layout: Alice, 68 keys
Case: CNC aluminium with PVD mirror weight
Finishes: Green Snake (spray coat, PVD textured etching), Rod of Asclepius (electrophoresis, PVD colour engraving), Black / Xuanwu (glitter spray coat, PVD colour engraving)
Mount: revised spring mount with silicone pillars
Assembly: tool-free ball catch
Plate: FR4
Switches: Akko Cobras linear, 50 ± 5 gf, 3.5 ± 0.3 mm travel, 2.0 ± 0.5 mm pre-travel
Keycaps: PBT dye-sub, Cherry profile
Lighting: side and back RGB strips
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0, 2.4 GHz receiver, USB-C wired
Battery: 8000 mAh
Dimensions: approx. 380.9 x 130.6 x 49 mm
Weight: approx. 3 kg
In the box: keyboard, wrist rest, storage bag, 2.4 GHz receiver, USB-C cable

Inside the box

Akko Year of the Snake Armor keyboard (aluminium case with PVD weight, Akko Cobras linear switches and PBT dye-sub keycaps fitted), wrist rest, storage bag, 2.4 GHz USB receiver, USB-C cable.

Compatibility

Tri-mode: Bluetooth 5.0, 2.4 GHz receiver and wired USB-C. Works with Windows and macOS, and over Bluetooth with iPadOS and Android devices. Standard MX-style switches and keycaps, so the Cherry profile caps can be swapped for any MX-compatible set; the 68-key Alice layout needs an Alice-compatible keycap set with the split space bars and the shorter bottom-row keys.

Warranty

1 year manufacturer's warranty

Got questions? 🤔

Do you have any questions, or unsure if this product is compatible with your setup?