Gigabyte’s latest gaming keyboard, the Aorus K9 Optical sits on your desk, weighty and immobile, and the all-black, relatively unadorned construction goes with any PC setup. The K9’s switches are optical, but they’re also still mechanical, by the way. There’s still a hardware-based switch, but the actuation is based on an optical trigger. The benefit is that, being light activated, key strokes are faster. The switches are also longer wearing.
The K9 uses Flaretech switches in either Red or Blue varieties, which equate to similar Cherry switches. We received a Red version for review, and they’re not our favourite switch, even on Cherry-powered keyboards, but on the K9 they feel a little more… watery? The lack of clickiness is the Red’s whole schtick, but the action seems particularly lacking in…
