Gigabyte Announces Aorus K9 Optical Switch Gaming Keyboard

Gigabyte wants you to forget about mechanical switches. Instead, they offer a new optical switch solution using Flaretech technology with the Aorus K9 gaming keyboard. According to the company, these switches provide a longer lifespan than traditional mechanical switches. In terms of gaming credentials, it is also faster than typical Cherry MX or clone solutions. Having a debounce time of only 0.03ms certainly sounds impressive, considering this is 600 times faster than the typical 20ms mechanical keyboard switch. Durability ratings are also through the roof, with up to twice the life of traditional mechanical keyswitches from 50 million to 100 million.

Aorus K9 Optical Keyboard Features

It is not all just about the switchers. Gigabyte also packed the Aorus K9 with a ton of features. The PCB for example has hydrophobic conformal coating. Which means it is resistant to liquid splashes and will not die instantly just because you spilled some liquid on it. There is also less dust build-up inside since Flaretech switches use light for actuation instead of purely moving parts. Even if one switch does get damage, each are easily swappable directly without disassembly.

Flaretech switches still use a standard Cherry MX stem. Which is good news for those who want custom keycaps because their set will be compatible. The bottom row also uses a standard 1.25x width, so you do not have to slum it when looking for custom keycaps that would fit like Corsair keyboards.  As for RGB LED lighting, the K9 optical has that too. Users can set individual colors per key, or simply load presets via the RGB fusion software. The keys are also floating, which allows for the RGB LED lighting to seep out around the keys.

When it comes to gaming credentials, the Aorus K9 Optical has no problems with any key roll over via USB. This means gamers can be confident their inputs register when they press it, and that no phantom or ghost keypresses are triggered when not pressed. As a bonus, Gigabyte also includes backup gaming keycaps made of PBT. This covers the ESC, WASD and arrow key cluster.