Corsair K70 Core Mechanical Keyboard Review

A Closer Look & Performance

Without a doubt, this looks like a classic Corsair mechanical gaming keyboard, with similar lines and materials that we’ve seen from them in the past. It features an inky black aesthetic with an aluminium top plate that just oozes premium quality. This is great, given that its MSRP is less than half that of some of their premium models, yet it certainly still looks just as good.

There are some slight tweaks, of course, such as the top right corner, which features their redesigned media control wheel and button. It’s fully programmable too. The media button is play/pause by default, but you can set macros, profiles and more to it if you desire. The wheel can control volume, backlight brightness, scroll vertically/horizontally, and even zoom, making it great for productivity.

While the keyboard is fully programmable in the iCUE software, many of its features are available via the FN-Shift button on the bottom row.

F1 will enable Win Lock which is great for gaming. While F2 will cycle through your onboard profiles. There’s 8MB of onboard memory, and you can store up to five profiles, all with their own lighting, key customisation, macros and more. The F3 and F4 keys are to adjust the brightness, which has 5 stages ranging from 0-100 in 20% intervals.

There are more media controls on the F5-F8 keys too, for stopping, skipping and playing/pausing media. And if you skip over to the F12 key, it’ll cycle through the modes for the programmable wheel too. Really, there’s very little need to load up the software for most daily tasks.

Corsair has equipped this keyboard with Corsair’s new Red Linear Mechanical Switches, and in Corsair’s own words they deliver “smooth, responsive keystrokes, enhanced by two layers of sound dampening for extremely satisfying gaming and typing.” I’m happy to report that is most certainly true, they’re smooth enough to rival my two favourite typing experiences, the Mountain keyboard, and my own JamesDonkey RS2. Very smooth, fast, light and linear, making them ideal for accurate touch typing and they’re superb for gaming.

The key caps look great too, with a nice and clear font that allows for the built-in RGB lighting to shine through. They have a UV coating too, as well as a double-shot ABS construction, so the keys feel silky smooth to the touch, again, making for a great aesthetic and a great typing experience.

The one key that does look different is the space bar, which has a nice textured look to it, as well as a small line of RGB of its own in the centre.

I spend a lot of my day at a keyboard, so comfort is extremely important to me. Thankfully, Corsair has equipped this keyboard with a nice and large wrist rest that easily accommodates my whole wrist while I’m working or gaming.

I have quite long fingers and large palms, yet it doesn’t matter if I’m in a more claw-like WASD gaming position or a more palm-rested touch-typing position. I’m always fully supported and that will allow me to type for longer and retain my long-term comfort at the same time.

Around the back of the keyboard, things are kept nice and simple, with just a single cable that comes hard-wired. There’s no USB pass-through or anything like that, which is fine with me, as it’s a feature I don’t use, and that means the cable can be kept slimmer and lighter.

On the underside, the design is surprisingly stylish, with some textures lines, and a Corsair badget in the middle that looks similar to the sides of their high-end headset ear cups. There are two rubber grips towards the front, and more on the wrist rest too.

And two surprisingly wide and sturdy-looking feet towards the back, allowing for a reasonable amount of angle adjustment.

While the switches are Corsair branded, they’re as good or better than any high-end custom switch on the market. Because they’re pre-lubricated, they do feel smoother and quieter than Cherry MX Red or the equivalent from Kailh or TTC, reminding me of the more premium Gateron G Pro which I have in my JamesDonkey RS2 mechanical keyboard. However, they’re still MX Compatible, so custom key caps should not be a problem.

Obviously, when it comes to RGB, Corsair is ahead of the competition as ever. The colours are vibrant, very bright (if you want them to be) and flicker-free. There is an onboard controller for the RGB if you want to use the hardware option, allowing for multiple layers of lighting effects to be applied. However, if you use the iCUE software in the background, then the number of layers is unlimited, allowing you to create some truly bonkers animations and effect sequences.

That is a bit overkill for my taste, I’m more likely to set it to purple and leave it. However, if that’s your jam, then whatever shade of your favourite colour you want, on whichever keys you do or do not want, is only a few button presses away. However I have found that the screen mirror RGB while gaming is pretty awesome, playing Starfield the screen goes black, and so does the keyboard, stars on the screen make keys twinkle, and if I’m in Neon, the keyboard if filled with vibrant colours, as the lights work very similarly to Philips Amibilight technology.