Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 Review

First Impressions

I’ve never owned a mechanical keyboard before. The closest I’ve come to one is the Logitech G213 Prodigy fake-mechanical keyboard because I was fooled into thinking that it was one. Well, after about two years of suffering, I decided to bite the bullet and switch to a true mechanical keyboard.

OK, so I started the search. Initially, I looked into a Razer keyboard, but I was frustrated. Many were saying that the switches – even the yellow “silent” ones – were far too loud. This immediately repelled my interest, and- combined with the extortionate prices, I looked elsewhere.

I watched some videos and saw that Steelseries had some keyboards. They looked quite good, but there was still something wrong with it – the price. I had some Amazon vouchers that I wanted to use, but I couldn’t find it for the right price on Amazon, so again – I looked elsewhere.

I remembered seeing that Corsair had some keyboards in a YouTube video, and so I researched into Corsair’s boards. Upon looking on Amazon, I managed to stumble into the K70 RGB MK.2. Then, I had to find the switch that I wanted to get – finally deciding upon the Cherry MX Reds. About a week after ordering, the package arrived.

I tore open the box and plugged it in. Woah. This was great. So, my first impressions? The board has a lovely aluminium frame with a soft-touch detachable wrist rest. The RGB is great, and the software is easy to use. The switches are to die for – I’m still getting used to them but I enjoy the slight clicking sound – even though they are linear switches. They aren’t too loud, but I wouldn’t say that they’re quiet either. My only gripe with them so far is the spacebar. This came up a lot in the reviews and videos that I watched, but I didn’t think it would matter that much.

However, as I type this article, it’s still something to get used to. It has a distinctive, louder, more metallic sound than the other keys, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. Here’s a short soundbite of me doing a typing test so you can have a listen:

After one week

So – it’s been a week. What are my thoughts now?

Well, it’s been excellent. I’ve got used to the space bar and become familiar with the iCUE software as well – it’s very useful.

The media controls have been especially helpful – despite an annoying issue with the volume roller where it would sometimes keep reverting my volume to 0 no matter what I did, not even letting me type or use the start menu. This, however, was solved by using a different USB port – so it might just be the USB port and not the keyboard!

The RGB looks great- it’s bright and the colours are vibrant. The soft-touch wrist rest is comfortable to use, but I did really struggle to get it off the first time – so much so that I managed to break off one of the plastic bits that holds it in. The wrist rest still works fine, but it’s just annoying – again, I’m probably at fault here, but when I looked up a video afterwards to see what I was doing wrong, the comments told me that they found it hard too! So, if you think you’re going to use the wrist rest on this keyboard, do some research first.

Conclusion – after one month

This has been in my drafts for a long while – I’ve been waiting to give my final review, and overall, I’ve loved it. It’s great for both typing and gaming – it’s not too loud, but still feels nice – and despite the slightly annoying spacebar, I’m definitely used to it by now. The iCUE software that controls the RGB and other functions of the keyboard is easy to use and the RGB itself looks great.

The price is reasonable too, not exorbitant like Razer’s keyboards but still high-end. I’m new to the mechanical keyboard market, so I’d be lying if I said that I could give a comprehensive review, but for my first one, I’m definitely impressed and this will be staying on my desk for a long time.

However, it’s hard to ignore this issue I’ve had with it – although I thought that the volume wheel issue was only a one or two-time thing, it’s happened a few times after, which is really annoying and means that I have to unplug and plug the keyboard in again. This may only be a problem with my keyboard, but I’d definitely watch out for it should you pick one up for yourself.

Other than that, I really can’t fault this. It’s excellent.

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