Introduction

Creative has been around for over three decades now, with its conception in 1981 in Singapore and a focus on audio solutions for the consumer market under their famous Sound Blaster brand. They have since branched off into other peripherals last year with their first mouse, keyboard, and mouse pad all launching at the same time. These are marketed at gamers for a share of the ever-growing gaming peripherals market, and today, we take a look at their Sound BlasterX Vanguard K08 gaming mechanical keyboard. Thanks a lot to Creative USA for providing the review sample.


The Vanguard K08, as will be referred to henceforth in this review to save a mouthful, is a full-size, RGB-backlit keyboard with dedicated media buttons which include a volume scroll wheel. The most interesting thing, however, are the PRES (Perceive-React-Execute Switches) used here, which are manufactured by OMRON to Creative's specifications. This is a departure from the usual Cherry MX or MX clone switch variety in the mechanical keyboard market, with Logitech being the only other and first customer of Omron for consumer-grade mechanical keyboards. So let us now proceed with this review by taking a look at the specifications below.

Specifications