Corsair K70 RGB Professional mechanical gaming keyboard overview

Final Up to date: Could sixteenth, 2022

Corsair had its beginnings again within the 90s as a producer of RAM, these RAM modules proved fashionable with PC fans who preferred them for his or her overclocking talents which paved the best way for Corsair to change into a gaming-focused firm. Since then they’ve expanded their product lineup to incorporate headsets, keyboards, and mice, the record really does go on. The one issues they don’t make are GPUs and CPUs, however it received’t be lengthy till they dip their topes in that market both.

At this time we’ve bought the most recent revision of the K70 collection, the K70 RGB Professional. Corsair’s K70 keyboards have loved excessive gross sales numbers and largely constructive opinions through the years, regardless of their excessive value factors. Let’s see if the most recent and biggest can proceed that development.

Cons

• Pinging defect on most keys
• Far too costly
• Match mode nonetheless permits use of the tab and home windows keys

Cherry MX Crimson, Blue, Brown, Velocity, Silent

What’s within the field & setup

• Corsair K70 RGB PRO Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
• Braided USB Sort-C cable
• Security leafet
• Guarantee card

As we noticed with the HS55 Stereo gaming headset, Corsair’s field design is a putting yellow and black, with slogans, product imagery, and options splashed round right here and there. Opening the field reveals the K70 RGB Professional sealed in a plastic bag, it’s not probably the most safe packaging we’ve seen however it’s serviceable sufficient. There are two small blocks of high-density foam hooked up to the lid to stop the keyboard from flinging round throughout transit.

Setup is a reasonably minimal expertise too, merely plug the frightfully nice-feeling included USB Sort-C cable into each the keyboard and your PC, and it’s up and operating. Corsair’s iCUE software program as all the time is advisable, however not very important because the keyboard features advantageous with out it, nonetheless, these of you with an urge for food for RGB will need to set up it to customise the strikingly vivid per-key RGB lighting.

Design

These of you who’ve seen the earlier K70 can be hard-pressed to inform the distinction as Corsair has completed little or no with the design of this model. They’ve, nonetheless, mercifully completed away with the overly large legends on the keycaps, along with updating it with the present Corsair brand. When it comes to the keys, nothing has modified except for the font, so we’ll transfer to a extra attention-grabbing part, the brow.

This has been revised to take away the extra extraneous components of the design from the earlier technology. All that is still is the brushed aluminum from the highest plate, the media keys, and a small shiny rectangle displaying the Corsair brand and num, web page, and caps lock mild when the corresponding keys are pressed.

Earlier

Subsequent

Probably the most notable visible change is the included wrist relaxation. It’s not needlessly bisected with a strip of various texture. It’s now lined with a sample of completely tiny triangles with a sublime perpendicular strip that reads ‘C O R S A I R’. We actually just like the minimalist shift of the general keyboard design when in comparison with its predecessor.

Given the aforementioned minimalism, there isn’t a lot to speak about visually talking, however there’s a lot to go over in terms of the construct high quality of the K70 RGB, so let’s try this.

Construct high quality

That is the place issues start to go downhill for the K70 RGB Professional, as there are some fairly large points that have an effect on the expertise and shouldn’t be current given the chart-topping $169.99 value. The primary cardinal sin is the ever-present and inescapable pinging noise that accompanies each keystroke. Ping is brought on by the keystroke reverberating by the plate on which the switches are mounted. When the plate is made from both substandard supplies or badly designed, the ping might be audibly noticeable and, in some instances, you possibly can really feel it too.

Earlier

Subsequent

A fast session of slapping keys on the earlier model of the K70 reveals no ping by any means, so we aren’t too positive why ping is discovered right here. different opinions we seen that ping is talked about regularly, confirming that our pattern isn’t an anomaly and ping is current all through the K70 RGB Professional product lineup, which is unlucky, particularly given the value level.

Aside from the ping, the board is constructed properly, exhibiting little or no flex, and, to our shock, PBT keycaps. Moreover, they’re Doubleshot which is good to see, particularly contemplating how we proceed to seek out ABS on even premium keyboards just like the ASUS ROG Falchion.

Corsair K70 RGB Professional gaming & typing efficiency

Provided that gaming leads to far fewer keystrokes than typing, the K70 is completely cromulent for gaming. We have been supplied with the Cherry MX reds in our pattern and the parochial linear switches operate as regular for gaming, this combines with the full-size structure to end in a jack-of-all-trades keyboard that’s neither specialised nor dysfunctional, whatever the supposed use-case.

Corsair has additionally supplied an non-obligatory 8,000Hz polling price for this keyboard. For the uninitiated, which means that the keyboard will relay its knowledge to your PC 8,000 instances a second. That is a wholly superfluous function, as we’re keen to guess that you may’t press a key greater than 8,000 instances per second. This function doesn’t harm or hinder something concerning the keyboard, however we ponder whether the value could be extra affordable if it was eliminated.

Moreover, there’s a bodily event mode swap on the highest facet of the keyboard. When enabled, it makes the lighting a static colour of your selection and disables all macros. This helps you give attention to the sport in query, nonetheless, most event modes disable the tab and home windows key too, which prevents you from unintentionally opening one other window on high of the sport, whereas each of those keys stay operational with the K70 RGB Professional’s event mode.

As talked about earlier, the seemingly ubiquitous pinging subject does put a damper on the general expertise. It’s largely unnoticeable whereas gaming, particularly in the event you habitually put on a gaming headset. It, does, nonetheless, make the sensation of typing massively underwhelming, significantly if you examine it to the sooner fashions within the K70 product lineup.

Key switches

Whereas our pattern was outfitted with Cherry MX Crimson switches, the K70 RGB Professional can also be accessible with Cherry MX Blues, Browns, Speeds, or Silents. So, must you purchase this board, there’s a first rate vary of switches to select from. Nevertheless, as this keyboard is not hot-swappable, you’re caught with the swap you select. That is fairly the draw back contemplating the value and the way widespread hot-swap boards have gotten not too long ago.

Software program

The Corsair iCue software program has come a good distance through the years, with replace after replace making it each extra usable, and way more taxing in your system. To be truthful to Corsair, gaming peripheral software program suites are among the most poorly optimized packages on the market, so the heavy RAM utilization isn’t out of the peculiar.

Moreover, iCue has a number of enjoyable options that we don’t see typically with peripheral software program. Most notable of which is the inner element temp readout, which might be probably the most handy approach to see your temps with out downloading software program particularly to do it. It’s also possible to sync the lighting of the K70 RGB Professional to replicate the temp of any given inner element, which is an effective way to understand how your system is doing at a look.

iCue can also be the place you possibly can customise lighting, bind macros, and make different changes like enabling the pointless 8,000Hz polling price that the K70 is able to. Total the software program might be the most effective it’s been in years, and it’s one among our favorites in terms of peripheral management software program.

Last phrase

Secure to say, we have been dissatisfied by the Corsair K70 RGB Professional. The pinging defect and underwhelming typing expertise are inexcusable at this value level. There are much better keyboards on the market for much less, just like the Mountain Everest 60 and ASUS ROG Strix Scope NX TKL, for instance. We’re normally happy with Corsair’s gaming peripherals, however the K70 RGB Professional, whereas good to take a look at, appears like a $50 keyboard. Given the large value, it is best to look elsewhere on your subsequent typing improve.