The Gigabyte Aorus K1 is a powerful gaming PC that will allow you to play the latest games on high settings. It has an Intel Core i7-8700K processor, 16GB of RAM and a GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, so it can handle any game at any resolution with ease.
At some point in a gamer’s life, all the glitter in a peripheral becomes little more than gimmicks to inflate the price. They’ve tried everything and are looking for something easy and effective. It’s at this stage that they’ve figured out precisely what they want. Aorus, on the other hand, offers them precisely that. The Aorus K1 mechanical keyboard is a basic mechanical keyboard with a minimalist design. There’s no gamey typography, no unnecessary RGB, and no extra buttons beyond those present in a normal layout.
The Aorus K1 is a 104-key full layout mechanical keyboard with a simple design. With its frameless form and delicate elements, Aorus names its aesthetics neonpunk. It’s 44cm long, 13cm wide from top to bottom, and about 4cm tall. It’s frameless, with floating controls, for a clean appearance and highly apparent RGB illumination. It weights approximately 1.1kg and has a heavy and firmly constructed feel to it. Because the top plate is composed of metal, when certain keys are pushed hard enough, they emit a high-pitched ping.
Underneath, you’ll see cable routing with three paths: left, center, and right. It also includes two feet that may be used to gently tilt the top of the keyboard. Aside from that, the underside is a little boring.
The Aorus K1 features a simple design that would complement a multitude of custom keycaps. Another advantage of the Aorus K1 is that it features a standard bottom row, which means it can be used with most custom keycap sets on the market, which is uncommon with “gaming” mechanical keyboards.
The typefaces are simple and easy to read, and the keycaps are pleasant to the touch. There’s also plenty of light shining through the letters on the keycaps, which comes in handy while typing in the dark.
Although this keyboard lacks dedicated media buttons, it does include a number of dual-layer features in the F keys, such as mute, volume up/down in the F1-F3 keys and previous, play/pause, and forward in the F5 to F7 keys. Holding down the Fn key and hitting the appropriate F key will bring up these options.
Then it’s on to the switches. The Red Cherry MX switches on the Aorus K1 are one of the finest gaming switches available. It features a 2mm actuation point and a 4mm bottoming point. It’s a joy to play on since it’s so light and silky. Since then, I’ve been a Cherry MX Blue user, but the Reds are gradually becoming a secondary choice. You don’t have to be concerned about the switch’s durability since it’s a Cherry switch.
It’s rated for a hundred million keystrokes, and believe me when I say that these switches are designed to last. I have a Cherry MX keyboard that I’ve been using for the last 8 years and it’s still going strong. You won’t have to worry about which key combinations won’t register since the K1 supports USB NKRO.
This is where the K1 falls short of its rivals. It’s a piece of software. To get the most out of the K1, you’ll need to download two different programs: one to remap the keys and another to manage the lights. To remap the keys on the keyboard or create custom macros, utilize the Gigabyte Aorus Engine program. You create lighting setups with the RGB Fusion 2.0 software, which you can simply sync with other RGB Fusion 2.0-compatible devices.
The K1 features onboard memory, which saves your configuration in the keyboard itself, saving you the trouble of having to download the software if you wish to use it on another computer.
The Aorus K1 is a good value at $5,000 for a full-sized keyboard with no frills. If you’re picky about your RGB settings, this may be an excellent addition to your arsenal; otherwise, good luck synchronizing the lights to the rest of your system. It everything boils down to personal taste, just like purchasing a headphone or a mouse.
Whether you want to know if this is the right keyboard for you, you’ll need to touch it and feel it in person to appreciate the construction, the switch, and the sound it produces. But, just to be safe, I hope my review provided you a good idea of how the Aorus K1 feels and that you’d buy one online to be healthy and safe.
Aorus K1 Technical Specifications
| Interface | USB 2.0 |
| Switch | MX Reds Cherry |
| Keypress that has been rated | 100 million |
| Key Characteristics | Standard |
| Traveling Time | 4mm |
| Point of Actuation | 2mm |
| Maximum Strength | 45g |
| Dimension | Dimensions: 440mm x 130mm x 40mm |
| Weight | 1,125g |
| Length of the Cable | 2m |
| Key Input | N-Key Rollover (USB) |
| Rate of Reporting | 1000 Hz maximum |
| RGB Compatibility | RGB Fusion 2.0 – 16.7 million color options per key |
| Hotkeys for Multimedia | 2 2 function keys, which operate in tandem with the “Fn” key |
DA Good
Excellent construction quality
Cherry MX Red switches
Bottom row is standard.
DA Bad
Software that is clunky
RGB is a little too dark.
Only a few switches are available.