Corsair K70 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

You are required to interact with three parts of your PC — a display, a mouse, and a keyboard. It doesn’t matter if you have a Nvidia 1080 ti with a custom water-cooled system, or if you are still playing Dungeons of Daggorath on an old Tandy PC; you always need a good gaming keyboard. That is where a mechanical keyboard like the Corsair K70 RGB becomes one of the most important elements to your digital experience.

This full-sized mechanical keyboard has everything you could want, including the extras — at a great price. It includes volume and media controls, a mute button, USB passthrough, a soft wrist-rest, and interchangeable keys, all on a durable, high-quality metal frame.

Two USB Cables

You get two USB cables here: one for the keyboard itself and one for the USB pass-through port built into the top of the keyboard. This provides you with a full-power USB port perfect for transferring files from a camera, charging and syncing your mobile phone, or any other device that requires a port. This handy feature keeps you from needing to venture behind your PC and keeps things accessible.

The long braided cable is thick, and like the rest of the keyboard feels durable and high-end. The ends have a distinctive grey pattern at the end, with a strong connection. It’s easy to quickly identify the orientation of your USB so you won’t have to struggle to plug it in the right way. Corsair put a lot of consideration into the design of every aspect of this device.

The Tactile Experience

Your first time typing on a mechanical keyboard will require a bit of an adjustment. The buttons are louder than you’d expect with the Cherry MX mechanical switches, but that is a small price to pay for the quick, responsive interaction. The quality of the keys and frame feels like you could type on this keyboard with a hammer without causing any damage. There is no feeling of cheap plastic anywhere on it.

The smooth feel of each press will ruin the traditional keyboard for you. Once you buy a Corsair K70, you will need to purchase one for each computer you use. Bring one to work, to a friend’s house, or on vacation because other keyboards won’t cut it anymore.

The space bar has a textured feel to it and this may take some time to get familiar with. It’s bumps feel strange under your thumbs but the slight grip it provides actually starts to help you control your hand placement as you type.

The font on the keys is thick and wide, likely to provide enough transparency to allow for the LED lights to shine through. Each key seems to float above the base, creating a sense of depth, unlike any keyboard I’ve used before.

Included in the box was a set of 8 grey keys, with a rounded design that felt more like a joystick, and a clever tool to quickly and easily swap out keys. I’m excited to see how well this works for future cleaning when inevitably pet hair and dust will begin to collect.

RGB Software and Experience

The software downloaded from Corsair’s website took longer than expected to install and setup, but once configured I had access to more lighting setups and options than a rock concert. I spent at least 30 minutes swapping between rainbow and pulsing spectacles below my fingers. While this doesn’t have any practical use, I am in love with it visually.

Using the K70 on a Mac

While most mechanical keyboards use Windows specific software to control features like LEDs, media controls, and macros, a third-party software called CKB is available for Apple users to also experience the abilities of the Corsair K70 RGB keyboard.

The software is a little tricky to set up at first, with a custom firmware required to download and install on your keyboard itself, but once it’s up and running you can use the keyboard just like any other PC. This is huge for all of those macOS people out there who also want to use this amazing product.

Want to go deeper? Order some custom operating system keys online to replace the Windows key with the default Option modifier key.

Final Thoughts

The Corsair K70 RGB is the perfect keyboard for someone looking for both high quality and everyday use. It has all of the extra functions like media controls and RGB LEDs without the unattainable price. The keyboard looks amazing from every angle and has the full brushed aluminum body to ensure years of enjoyment.

I would have preferred if the cable could detach from the keyboard itself for convenience, but this is a minor feature that seldom devices have. It would have also been nice to have more than 1 USB output as a hub, in case you wanted to use multiple devices off your keyboard.

With a price tag of about $150 US (or about $210 Canadian), the Corsair K70 RGB is a worthy investment. A keyboard this durable will last you years and provide a pleasant experience every time you use it.