Corsair Gaming K70 RGB Mechanical Keyboard Review

Introduction

The Corsair K70 is one of the best mechanical gaming keyboards on the market. It has superior build quality, exceptional performance and more; but that’s not good enough for Corsair. Now they have returned with the latest edition of their popular K70 gaming keyboard under their new Corsair Gaming brand name. Corsair Gaming is the latest shift in the industry for Corsair, who in more recent years have been building components and peripherals that have become incredibly popular with the enthusiast PC gaming market.

The K70 was and still is a great keyboard, but Corsair have been working closely with the ever popular switch manufacturer Cherry, to work on creating some of the best RGB mechanical switches on the market. Mechanical switch keyboards have been limited to a single LED colour for a long time; this was due to the size of the switch and how the LED was mounted. More LEDs could be added, although they wouldn’t provide uniform lighting performance. Corsair and Cherry think that they’ve cracked the lighting problem with their new clear switches.

“To solve the single LED limitation and provide a keyboard that could meet everyone’s specific preferences for LED backlighting, Corsair approached Cherry, one of the world leaders in product innovation. They took our request and by working together, the two companies designed an entirely new switch while retaining the definitive characteristics of a Cherry key switch. The requirements—the feel, reliability, and range of switches—could not be compromised. In order to meet these standards, Cherry made adjustments to how the LED lighting was mounted.”

The K70 is packed full of features, and while the 16.8 million per key back-lighting is the main selling point, there is a lot more to this keyboard than just a flashy lighting gimmick; full 104-key rollover with 100% anti-ghosting, on-board memory for gaming profiles and lighting settings, macro features, dedicated multimedia keys and a choice of popular Cherry switch types.

Features

• 100% German-made Cherry MX Red/Blue/Brown RGB mechanical key switches for ultimate performance
• 16.8M color backlighting per key for virtually unlimited customization
• Aircraft-grade anodized brushed aluminium chassis for superior strength, durability, and rigidity
• Custom display controller for fast and fluid 16.8M multicolor animation
• In development – Advanced point-and-click scripting and SDK to enable gamers and developers to integrate effects and lighting features into games

The packaging is nicely designed and features the new Corsair Gaming branding, a nice image of the keyboard and a quick run down of the major features.

Around the back of the box are more details on the mechanical switches, as well as a more detailed run down of how the lighting customisation software works; but we’ll take a closer look at that shortly.

In the box you will find the keyboard, a wrist rest, the user manual and a warranty booklet; no key-cap tool though, which I think every mechanical keyboard should include.