This Corsair K70 RGB TKL Mechanical Keyboard review is for everyone who needs the best gaming keyboard. It’s also an ideal product for anyone mindful of the aesthetics of their gaming setup.
It’s a compact, tenkeyless product that does away with the number pad. Thus, giving you a more sophisticated gaming kit. It’s also great for people who usually switch between work and play, making it quite a convenient product.
So if you’re planning to upgrade your keyboard to a more efficient one, you’ve come to the right place. Check out our Corsair K70 RGB TKL Mechanical Keyboard review and see if this product is suited for your needs.
Corsair K70 RGB TKL Mechanical Keyboard Packaging
Let’s begin our Corsair K70 RGB TKL Mechanical Keyboard review by checking out its packaging and contents.
The keyboard we have for our review features the Cherry MX Red switches. And, it arrived in the standard Corsair package featuring a yellow-black theme.
The box’s front features a huge image of the keyboard itself while Corsair is written on the upper-left corner. On the lower-left section, you’ll find the product’s name there.
Flipping the package, you’ll find more prominent features of K70 RGB TKL printed in this area. To be specific, these are simply the features that Corsair wanted to highlight.
For its specifications, the company didn’t include these on the package. Instead, you need to visit their official page for such details. But don’t worry, you’ll find its specification details later on in this Corsair K70 RGB TKL Mechanical Keyboard review.
In the box, you’ll find the K70 RGB TKL mechanical keyboard itself. It comes with additional keys (A, E, F, R, Q, S, two D’s and W’s), and a USB-C cable too.
You’ll find user and warranty guides too, as well as a keycap puller which we greatly appreciate.
Corsair K70 RGB TKL Mechanical Keyboard Review – Design and Functionality
Out of the box, the keyboard looks sleek and has a premium feel to it. That’s because it isn’t all chunky like most gaming keyboards around.
It sports an excellent build quality since it has a hard and solid plastic body, displaying no signs of flex. Plus, it has an aluminium plate on top but it feels a bit sharp along the edges.
The tenkeyless form factor of the product keeps it relatively compact. So, it gives you more desk space which is what a lot of people need.
Just like your usual keys, there are a couple of useful extras on the top bar. These include the volume roller and the dedicated hotkeys like play, pause, and skip buttons. It also includes brightness controls and more.
The Doubleshot PBT keycaps are 1.5mm thick, making them feel more solid than most keycaps. These are also stable, as well as resistant to wear, fading, and oil shine. With that, you can be sure that it can withstand intense gaming and will last long.
The keys also have full RGB backlighting and are individually lit. To change the lighting effects, all you have to do is press Fn and cycle through the number row.
A unique feature of the K70 RGB TKL that sets it apart from the crowd is the Tournament Switch. This can be found on the keyboard’s rear portion.
The Tournament Switch switches off all your custom lighting and macros settings to return it to the default tournament settings. On default settings, the keyboard only has a static lighting profile, allowing you to focus completely on the game.
When the keyboard is on tournament mode, you’ll see a red light below the switch. To go back to your custom settings, all you have to do is flick the switch the other way.
The detachable cable is something that a lot of users have been looking forward to. It uses a USB 3.0 / 3.1, providing faster connectivity.
Overall, the K70 RGB TKL is a premium and well-constructed mechanical gaming keyboard. It’s made from high-quality materials and has a great design, making it an excellent keyboard for gaming.
Next in our Corsair K70 RGB TKL Mechanical Keyboard review, let’s see what the keyboard has in store for us. So, let’s continue and check out its features and what makes it better than the rest.
Key Features of the Corsair K70 RGB TKL Mechanical Keyboard
Designed and Developed for the Best
Like other products under Corsair’s CHAMPION series, the K70 RGB TKL was developed and tested with esports professionals. With that, you can ensure it has an excellent design for gaming.
Smooth and Linear
The CHERRY MX Red key switches offer minimal spring force and linear travel. As a result, each keypress is silky smooth which is ideal for performance gaming.
Battle-ready
Equipping yourself with the K70 RGB TKL for battle-readiness. It features a tenkeyless, portable build with an aluminium frame. Plus, it has the tournament switch that swaps to static backlighting and disables macro settings.
Durable Keycaps
The precision-moulded PBT Doubleshot keycaps are 1.5mm thick for stability. These also resist oil shine, wear, and fading.
AXON Technology
AXON is Corsair’s Hyper Processing technology that offers the most advanced gaming keyboard experience. It registers keypress inputs eight times faster with its native polling rate of 8,000 Hz.
Next, we’ll discuss the specifications in this Corsair K70 RGB TKL Mechanical Keyboard review.
Specifications
The K70 RGB TKL is a tenkeyless wired mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Red key switches. It has an onboard memory of 8MB, allowing you to store up to 20 profiles.
The keyboard has a USB polling rate reaching up to 8,000 Hz and is powered with AXON technology. It uses USB 3.0 or 3.1 USB Type-A connectivity. Plus, its NKRO rollover full key comes with 100% anti-ghosting features.
Lastly, Corsair included a 2-year warranty for the K70 RGB TKL mechanical keyboard.
We also tested the product and its companion software for our Corsair K70 RGB TKL Mechanical Keyboard review. It’s to see how well it performed and to help you decide if this keyboard is for you.
Hands-on with the Corsair K70 RGB TKL Mechanical Keyboard Review
Corsair iCUE Software
The iCUE Software is the companion software for tweaking the K70 RGB TKL mechanical keyboard. It’s available for free download via Windows and macOS.
Corsair made changes on the iCUE Software’s interface since the release of the CHAMPION series. The new version offers a cleaner interface with larger, live-reacting visualisation of the product you’re updating.
When customising the K70 RGB TKL, the keyboard map takes up two-thirds of the screen’s upper portion. The lower part, on the other hand, shows the set of controls you can tweak.
The new version of the software can be tricky to use when you’re more familiar with the older version’s layout. But since its interface is intuitive, you’ll easily learn how to use it in a short span of time.
To configure this keyboard’s settings, you’ll need to download the latest version of the software. Otherwise, it will not detect the keyboard when you connect it to your computer.
You can still use the keyboard without installing the software. However, you’ll need access to it to enable the 8,000 Hz polling rate.
As mentioned earlier, the K70 RGB TKL mechanical keyboard can store up to 20 custom profiles. But its capacity depends on various factors like the number of changes and macros you set. Most keyboards support only up to five profiles so this is a huge advantage.
Customisable Settings of the Corsair K70 RGB TKL Mechanical Keyboard
Colour customisation in the iCUE Software offers up to 20 lighting layers which is impressive. Each key has its own backlighting which are all individually customisable in groups, or as a whole. You can also synchronise other iCUE compatible gaming gear to your personalised RGB profile.
Aside from colour customisation, you can also set the keyboard’s macros and the polling rate. With its onboard memory, you can carry over your settings to another computer that doesn’t have iCUE Software installed.
Our Corsair K70 RGB TKL Mechanical Keyboard review won’t be complete if we don’t share our user experience with you. This is something that will help you decide if it’s something worth purchasing.
Setting-up and Using the Corsair K70 RGB TKL Mechanical Keyboard
Setting up the K70 RGB TKL is as simple as plugging it into your computer. When we connected the keyboard, our computer immediately detected it so we were able to use it right away.
To see how well the product works, we tried typing and gaming with it.
The K70 RGB TKL offered excellent typing quality. The keys were well-spaced so it didn’t feel cramped, while the keycaps felt stable and great to the touch.
Light presses were registered quickly which was ideal for typing since it prevented our hands from getting tired. This shows that the K70 RGB TKL was designed for a quick gaming experience. While its high actuation can also cause more typos, we believe that other users can easily get used to it.
For gaming, we enjoyed different titles since the keyboard felt like an additional weapon that helped in battles and missions. We saw a noticeable difference in the increase of input speed compared to our laptop’s keyboard which was great.
Battling with opponents and driving in-game were also easier with the K70 RGB TKL. We had finer control since it was more responsive. Plus, we were able to press the keys with ease.
Overall, we had a great experience using the Corsair K70 RGB TKL. It was easy to set up and use, and its user-friendly companion software allows for a lot of customisations.
Corsair K70 RGB TKL Mechanical Keyboard Review Summary
The K70 RGB TKL is a competitive mechanical gaming keyboard with unique features like per-key RGB and programmable keys. All of these are manageable via a user-friendly interface. For full-time gaming, this keyboard’s features and quality make it a great investment.
It’s a sturdy product that can surely withstand extended use even for the most intense gaming sessions. And since it’s a tenkeyless mechanical keyboard, you’ll have a lot of space on your desk.
Overall, the K70 RGB TKL is a compact yet powerful gaming keyboard. With its sleek design, premium keycaps, and excellent performance, we’re highly recommending this product.
To get your hands on this keyboard, it’s available for online purchase from Corsair’s official site.