GIGABYTE Aivia Osmium Pro Reviews

My only real issue is the fact that gaming keyboards now have to cost at least £100 before they can be taken seriously. But considering the K60 is still around £80, the awesome Mionix Zibal 60 is knocking around at £100 and the Mad Catz STRIKE 7 will cost you your first-born male child, the Osmium's price isn't that bad.

Even though Gigabyte's reputation is based on computer components, it is making a serious effort to establish a foothold in the gaming peripheral market. The Gigabyte Aivia Osmium Mechanical Gaming Keyboard is sure to help the company's efforts by giving it even more positive exposure in the gaming community. This keyboard is very solid and is packed with features, which includes Cherry MX Red mechanical key switches, backlit keys with illumination control, integrated USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports, and much, much more. Due to the fact that mechanical gaming keyboards are dropping in price, gamers are defecting from dome-based keyboards in droves. The Gigabyte Aivia Osmium Mechanical Gaming Keyboard is certain to be the choice of many of these gamers.

The Aivia Osmium is one of four Gigabyte gaming keyboards and seems to be one of their best featured and longest lasting ones. It’s won a few rewards including Editor’s Choice Reward by Tech Power Up and a Silver Award by Hardware Secrets. This gaming keyboard feels wonderful to the touch and retails at $130; it seems like we should be getting our money’s worth and we will find out in the next few minutes.

But balanced against all those positives is the key bounce issue we discussed, and because of it, I can't rely on this keyboard for accurate output. Search boxes and browser navigation bars still end up filled with strings of "w" or "s" because I inadvertently rested my hand on those keys while browsing the web. The latter I can deal with by putting my hand elsewhere, but I cannot resolve the key bounce issue without an update from Gigabyte. Even if I sit and focus specifically on typing as lightly as possible, double-strokes with some keys still happen.

Gigabyte's Aivia Osmium keyboard is another extremely functional, well built, and well-engineered piece from Gigabyte's gaming division. Like the Krypton, its rodent partner in crime, the Osmium does everything perfectly while adding a couple of nice-to-have features without the price going up much compared to other less equipped gaming keyboards. The feel of the keyboard is extremely nice, and the macro-key area works surprisingly well even though it is positioned differently than on most keyboards. The addition of scroll wheels for light and audio control is a nice touch, along with the USB 2 and 3.0 ports that this keyboard has. Build quality wise, this keyboard is exceptional in every way. The key mechanisms supplied by Cherry will last a heck of a long time and the keyboard chassis is perfectly executed. Even the surface finish is well made. The only slight negative is that the scroll wheels do not feel as durable as the rest, but that would also be nearly impossible to create.

The Osmium is a very well-rounded product, from small details (like the plastic covers of the connectors) to the extra keys with helpful symbols. As a mechanical keyboard, it’s precise, comfortable and very solid on the table. It didn’t let us down when playing, except for the location of the macro keys. They are a bit far away, so we programmed only non-urgent tasks that could be activated without hurrying. It could have had separate multimedia controls. The wheels are great to quickly control the illumination level and the volume, and the extra connections are very helpful.

Every feature you could want from a gaming keyboard, but you’ll pay through the nose for it