Corsair Gaming K70 RGB Mechanical Keyboard Review

Final Thoughts

Price

There aren’t many places to pre-order this keyboard at the moment, but I suspect this will change quickly now that the product has officially launched. Currently you can pre-order it from Newegg for $169.99, but expect prices in the UK to be around £139. This is obviously expensive, but this is a flagship model, packed full of features and if you want the best, then expect to pay a premium for it.

Overview

I love this keyboard, which comes as no surprise to me since it’s fundamentally the same Corsair K70 keyboard I reviewed over a year ago. There have been a few noticeable changes since the original K70 was launched, the first being that Corsair have dropped their Vengeance branding in favour of their new Corsair Gaming brand. Also, the software has been massively improved to cater for the new lighting features, the switches have been upgraded to the new RGB format and finally the rubberised extra key caps that came with the old model are no longer present.

The performance on this keyboard is incredible and quite frankly I wouldn’t expect it to be anything less since Corsair keyboards have a solid track record, as do Cherry switches. The switches may have undergone some significant engineering changes, but their performance hasn’t been compromised one bit; something that will no doubt please loyal Cherry MX switch fans. I do miss the crazy rubber key-caps of the original K70, but of course some sacrifices had to be made so not to compromise the new lighting effects.

There are a few mechanical RGB keyboards on the market right now and they’re all pretty impressive, but Corsair have really gone above and beyond with theirs. The switches have been very well-engineered and the brightness and uniformity of the lighting is superb. Being able to customise back-lighting and foreground lighting for every key on the keyboard, with delays, fades, timers and many other effects leaves you with virtually limitless possibilities of colour customisation. I’m not one for making my keyboard look like a dizzying firework display every time I press a key, but it does make for a fun party piece when showing off your rig; of course you can always turn the lights off, dim them or set them to a fixed colour, the choice is yours.

The software for the keyboard offers extensive, yet relatively easy customisation of all the major features, although admittedly the keyboard RGB colour customisation did take a little more practice than I would have liked. Those who are feeling lazy can always fall back on the already rich selection of lighting profiles that can be easily downloaded from the Corsair forums; or you could even share your own LED works of art if you’ve got a talent for creating them.

The build quality on this keyboard is stunning, there are so many plastic chassis keyboards on the market right now and while many of those are well-built, they can’t hold a candle to the black brushed aluminium chassis of the K70; it certainly stands out from the crowd. The key caps are really nice and of course we have the well-known Cherry MX switches, which are said to be good for millions of key presses. Build quality is further improved by the thick braiding on the USB cable, always a welcome extra and one that adds an extra bit of style vs a standard rubber or plastic coated cable.

An all-round impressive update for the Corsair Gaming range and while I would have loved a completely fresh keyboard design, the K70 was a great keyboard and now it’s better than ever; without compromising on what made the original so good in the first place. It’s quite expensive, but it’s not much more than premium offerings from Ducky, Cherry, Razer and many others. This is one of the best keyboards around with the coolest lighting features of any keyboard I’ve ever seen; great work Corsair!

Pros

• Ultra high build quality
• Choice of Cherry MX RGB switches
• Dedicated multimedia keys
• Easy to use macro features
• Full N-Key / Anti-Ghosting
• Braided cables
• Extreme customisable RGB LED lighting
• Aluminium chassis

Cons

• Expensive

Neautral

• Basic lighting effects are easy to do, but expect to spend hours creating the more advanced stuff

“Corsair Gaming have taken one of the best gaming keyboards on the market and made it better than ever; there are a few competing RGB keyboards on the market right now, but not one of them even comes close to the level of customisation that the K70 RGB offers. If you a want premium gaming keyboard then you’ll love what the Corsair Gaming K70 RGB has to offer, with the added bonus that it can put on a dazzling light show when you need to brighten up your desk.”

Thank you Corsair for providing us with this sample.