Corsair Gaming K70 Rapidfire RGB Gaming Keyboard Review

A Closer Look

Available in both K70 (full-size) and K75 (TKL) format, the new keyboard keeps much of that tried and tested K70 design, moving back to the aluminium housing that has proven a big hit with Corsair fans, and stepping away from the more plastic heavy design of the recent Strafe keyboard design. This means it’s durable, stylish and well weighted, which are all welcome perks for any keyboard.

The new design comes with a thick black braided cable, as well as custom designed Corsair USB headers. The most important thing you can see here is that there are two USB headers in action. That’s right, Corsair has brought back USB pass-through!

The keycaps have been completely redesigned, with much more rounded edges, and a significantly bigger and redesigned font; just look at the old ones to see what I mean. What’s really good about this is that a bigger font is going to give us greater surface area on the key cap to let that RGB lighting shine though.

The space bar is treated with a nice texture, the kind you see on steel flooring. Not sure if I would prefer this or a clean-looking cap like the rest of the keyboard, but it’s still pretty cool either way.

There’s a nice amount of spacing between the keys, which should allow for a good under lighting effect from the RGB lighting.

All the usual controls here.

There’s a lip on the front of the keyboard, which looks pretty cool on its own and it certainly doesn’t get in the way of your hands while typing. However, it also acts as a more secure mounting for the included wrist rest, which we’ll see in a moment.

In the top right, the classic K70 layout hasn’t been changed, with lighting brightness control, Windows lock, multimedia controls and that lovely aluminium scroll wheel for master volume control.

We have the K70 model in the office today, you may have noticed this much as we have a number pad here, however, there is a TKL version available should you prefer it.

The keyboard sits nice and low with a fairly flat and fast profile to it. The key caps look slightly revised to accommodate the shorter actuation of the switches too, as you  can see quite a lot of the switch housing here. Not that this is a bad thing, it’s just something we noticed.

Around the back of the keyboard, a durable mounting for the hard-wired cable. We do prefer our keyboards with removable cables, but this one is heavily braided and nicely secured for extra reliability.

As I was saying before, we have the very welcome return of the USB passthrough port, meaning you can hook your headset, mouse or any other USB device right into the keyboard for quick and easy access. I’m also confident that many of you will  be glad to see that BIOS compatibility switch in place too, no need to keep that dusty Trust keyboard nearby every time something goes wrong with your settings!

On the base, you’ll find four rubber grips to help keep the keyboard firmly planted on your desk.

There are four feet in total, two at the front and two at the back, allowing you to tweak the angle/height of the keyboard to suit your preferences.

I quite like the height adjustment here, as I use an elevated wrist typing position, but at least you can adjust it as you see fit.

The typing angle is improved even further thanks to this full-width rubber-coated wrist rest.

Simply snap it onto the front of the keyboard and you’re good to go. Here you can see it mounted with the keyboard having all four feet raised, giving the wrist rest a steeper angle.

And here it is with the keyboard laid flat, giving you a much lower profile.

The key cap removal tool is a welcome addition for cleaning and maintaining your keyboard, but it’s also a win for quickly showing you those brand new MX Speed switches. As you can see, they’ve got a clear switch housing, which is going to let a huge amount of light through from the built-in per-key RGB lighting, but aside from that, they still look like normal Cherry switches, albeit with a silver coloured stem.

The custom key caps are really nice, giving a grip coating and more ergonomic curve to aid with finger control.

One set is designed for FPS (pictured) while the other  is better suited to MOBA style gaming.