[section_title title=”Introduction”]
- Brand: Corsair Gaming
- Model: K70 RGB
- RRP: $169 / £tbc / €tbc
It’s been a while since I have had my hands on a piece of Corsair gear, so I was very excited when today’s product arrived. Not only has there been an incredible amount of hype about this, but is also the first product to be launched under Corsair’s new gaming branch: Corsair Gaming. Adopting a new look, new packaging and importantly, a new logo, Corsair aim to make more of a splash in eSports. Until now Corsair’s peripherals came under the Vengeance category, which I suspect will merge into the new arm of Corsair. I’ve had a fair bit of hands on time with Corsair peripherals in the past, which have been of great quality and simple, effective design, so let’s hope that this pushes into the gaming area will not bring gimmicks and unnecessary features.
Today I am taking a look at the first keyboard to come from Corsair Gaming, the K70 RGB Mechanical Keyboard, featuring the exclusive Cherry RGB switches. Back at the start of the year, it was announced that Corsair was forming a partnership with Cherry (who produce the well regarded switches for mechanical keyboards), to produce new Cherry switches, that will be exclusive to Corsair, as rumour has it, for a year. Nine months on, we have the K70 RGB, with the RGB indicating that it features this latest switch from Cherry: Typically companies have been using Cherry MX switches for decades in their keyboards, mainly because they feel great to use, are incredibly durable and can improve your typing performance. Recently we’ve seen companies move to cheaper “clones” of Cherry MX switches, which we’ve had many documented cases of them failing. Corsair on the other hand, have opted to stick with quality and alongside Cherry, developed these new switches.
To cut things short, the current Cherry MX switches could not fit the LEDs required for RGB lighting, which many people love. So Cherry developed a clear, switch housing, which focuses the light from PCB mounted LEDs. This means that RGB lighting can now feature in Corsair keyboards – however they are not the first; Tesoro, an American company, managed to claim this accolade before Corsair announced their RGB switches, it’s just a shame that they moved towards the more inferior clone switches. Since the RGB announcement, many companies have jumped on the bandwagon and have moved to these cheaper switches, just for the sake of RGB LEDs. This has lead to a decline in quality and performance of many keyboards – a right shame. The keyboard is pretty much identical to the K70 mechanical keyboard that Corsair produced a while back, however there are a few changes to note, other than the RGB backlighting of course; I will highlight these new features later in this review, first let’s check out the specs:
- Key Switch: Cherry MX RGB Red/Blue/Brown Mechanical Switches
- Backlighting: RGB (16.8 Million Colors)
- Macro: Playback Yes
- Onboard Memory: Yes
- Multimedia Keys Yes
- Report Rate: 1000 Hz (USB)
- Rollover 104-Key with 100% Anti-Ghosting
- Warranty: 2 Years
It’s interesting to see that Corsair Gaming will not be releasing a Cherry MX black switch model, which at one point, was one of the most popular switch choices. I guess this is down to the lighter actuation force of the other switches, which result in quicker response times. Another point to note, is that they say “104-key” for the rollover, which is essentially full NKRO, although I will go into detail more on this later. Let’s now take a look at the K70 keyboard.
