Gigabyte Aivia Osmium Keyboard Review

Main Characteristics

The Osmium’s best features are the mechanical keys, the beautiful illumination, and some innovative features like the USB 3.0 port and the control wheels. It uses Cherry MX mechanical switches; in this case, the Red model. The Cherry MX line has four different colors, each meaning the type of feedback (force or linear), the actuation force (from 45 g to 60 g), and if the keys are silent or click. As we explained in earlier models that feature Cherry MX switches, force feedback means the finger actually feels a small resistance when pressing a key; a linear feedback offers a smoother typing experience. The Cherry MX Red has an actuation force of 45 g with linear feedback.

Figure 8: Cherry MX Red switch

Figure 9: Extra keys and extraction tool

Gigabyte’s software recognizes other peripherals from the Aivia line. We’d already used it before, and the ease of programming remained the same. It has a friendly iconography-based interface through which the user can configure the extra buttons, G1-G5, to perform simple tasks (open browser and other apps, copy+paste, etc.) or to unleash macros. The macro recording system allows the recording of seventy macros that can combine keystrokes on the Osmium with mouse clicks, and over five user profiles. It’s one of the best software programs that we have used for that purpose.

Figure 10: Configuration interface

Figure 11: Macro recording