Corsair Gaming K70 LUX Mechanical Keyboard

Pros: It appears the K70 LUX is an updated version of the K70 keyboard. The “lux” at first made me think it was a premium version, but that’s a red herring. The list price of the Lux is ten dollars less than the original k70… The best I can tell, the lux has the newer key cap font — bolder more modern, similar to the strafe — and an updated logo at the top of the keyboard. This keyboard rocks. The cherry red keys work flawlessly, and the aluminum top plate and braided usb connector cable gives a feeling and look of quality. At first, i didn’t think i would like the wrist rest, but after using it a bit, I think its great, so it will stay installed. Note, the connection to the keyboard is flimsy and not well engineered. Mine actually broke right off the bat. Luckily, a piece of duct tape is a quick fix and will probably last the life of the keyboard. There are media keys above the number pad, and a very nice volume scroller. The num,cap,screen lock lights are small white LED’s, and there is a windows key lock (which can be programmed to lock other things as well). This is a modern, well-built mechanical keyboard that looks great and could easily be used in a corporate environment (if not for the characteristic sound of the cherry red keys). Other pros include adjustable polling rate (1, 2, 4, 8 ms) and a BIOS compatibilty setting. If you’re not gaming, slowing the polling rate seems to improve the accuracy of my typing. The BIOS compatibilty setting is needed when booting your computer into BIOS, since the keyboard may not be recognized otherwise. The scroll lock light flashes to remind you that you have engaged the BIOS switch, so you remember to reset it. The gamer features (key rollover, etc.) are also helpful for the touch typist. Be warned, if you are used to typing on a cheap laptop keyboard, it may take some time to acclimate to this. It just takes a little time and practice. Cons: The cherry red keys have no tactile feedback – just a very smooth stroke until the key bottoms out. This is the most popular key for gamers due to the quick action. The light action has made my initial typing attempts a bit rough, lots of misspellings. After a few days, I’m getting used to it, and am comfortable that it will be just fine. The CUE software continues to be un-intuitive but incredibly powerful. You can tweak the keyboard lots of ways, but you’ll have to invest in learning how to use the software – macro options are pretty impressive, but i spend several hours tweaking and refining them as I began to understand how to use the software better. The version I chose has red led’s only, but are individually controllable for a number of built in effects. Once over the initial cool factor, i settled on just a uniform back-light – about 30% for all keys. Once saved to the keyboard, the hardware lighting button cycles the intensity 0-10-20-30% That gives a nice subtle backlight allowing the keys to be read in a darkened room. Because of the placement of the under-key lighting, keys with multiple markings (like the 1! key or 2@) are “flipped” see the picture above. This means, for example the 1 is above the !, which is flipped from a standard keyboard. However, the ! is still the shift character, so if you, like me, occasionally look at the keyboard to find special characters, you might have a touch of confusion. So why do they flip them? Because they wanted the lit portion of the key to be the normal character, and the LED’s are towards the north of each key. I’m probably not explaining it well, so look closely at the picture and you’ll get the idea. Overall Review: OK, this is odd. Not only does the keyboard have the typical flip out feet to angle up the keyboard by lifting the top, it has feet at the bottom part of the keyboard to raise up that, too. Don’t know what that’s for. Maybe you do. A good mechanical keyboard is a fun to use. Somewhere between the heyday of teletypes and iPhones, a bunch of great keyboards were made, its nice to see a re-emergence, even if driven by gamers. This isn’t the only kind of great keyboard out there — some of the early think pads had the best notebook keyboards I’ve ever used, so for sure there are other approaches. This keyboard may just last through multiple desktop upgrades. Who knows, it 10 years, you might be able to get more than you paid for it by selling on online. Red vs RGB. I prefer the single color LED for a couple reasons. For one, the key switches themselves are black (rather than clear) which looks better when you see the keyboard from the side. Second, all I really want the lighting for is to be able to see the keys in a darkened room. If you’re like me, RGB and animation is fun for 10 minutes and then I loose interest. YMMV.

Pros: + Quick and light/smooth key action + Aluminum body + Quiet key strokes for a mechanical keyboard + Programmable lighting + Volume rocker and well placed media keys + Solid 2 year warranty + USB passthrough Cons: – A little on the expensive side – Keys are sensitive which is great for gaming, less so for typing Overall Review: Corsair has long been one of my favorite PC component manufacturers. Yet for all the Cases, memory, water cooling, power supplies and headsets I have purchased through the years from Corsair, I have never had a chance to test out one of their mechanical keyboards. So I was very excited to try out the K70 rapidfire. My current keyboard is the excellent, Azio MGK1 which is mechanical as well, but uses blue switches. Size wise, the K70 rapidfire could just about be a twin of the Azio. Dimensions are very close and the textured wrist support is also similar in size and feel. The volume rocker and mute buttons are also in about the same spot. I do prefer the light click of engagement of the Azio volume dial, but the K70 does have a nice smooth movement and nice feel. One thing I noticed right away was how much faster the keys are on the K70. They require less movement to engage and have a lighter action which translates to being noticeably more sensitive. This increased sensitivity is fantastic for games when quick movements are necessary. However that added sensitivity when typing occasionally lead to some accidental key presses. However, if you primarily game, the trade off is well worth it. Another positive is the quiet actuation of the mechanical keys on the K70, it is much quieter than the mechanical switches on the Azio. I kind of personally have grown to love the clickity-clack of the mechanical key presses and the K70 give you a satisfying click without making a racket. If you love multi color backlighting on your keyboard, the K70 Rapidfire has got you covered. You can perform a crazy amount of customization’s. Using the easy to use CUE software, you can set solid colors, rainbow waves or light up individual keys. The options are vast. Overall I must say I love this keyboard for it’s designed purpose, which is gaming. However, if you type a ton (I don’t), I might recommend giving the the non rapidfire version a test as well. The price is a little steep at $120 currently, but you do get a fantastic keyboard that is well built and has a solid 2 year warranty. That all said, the Corsair K70 Rapidfire is my favorite keyboard to date and highly recommended!

Pros: The big thing about any keyboard is the key action, so let me cut to the chase and say that the key action on this keyboard is FANTASTIC! Super silky key travel, combined with low key force and low key travel mean that once you recalibrate from other keyboards (i.e. stop bottoming out each stroke), you can really fly while using this keyboard! You only have to go about 1/3rd of the way down before the keys register, so its speed is very VERY quick. It’s so fast that a few times playing FPS games during downtime I found myself accidentally strafing (guess my fingers are heavy) the first few days I was using this. The windows key lockout is a Godsend. Sure other keyboards have this, but it’s worth noting that it’s there for a serious gaming keyboard. While it does lock out both windows keys, unfortunately it doesn’t lock out the right context menu key. Red backlight color is good for low ambient light gaming. Three levels (plus off), so you can likely find an intensity that you like. Keyboard is very easy to clean. There is no bezel around the keys, so crumbs and other detritus can either be shaken out or blown out with compressed air easily without removing the keycaps. The keycaps are easy to remove and replace, if somehow an animal should manage to wedge itself underneath. Love love love the volume wheel instead of discrete buttons! Now when a window pops up a video that’s blaring, it’s easy to either hit mute (a button) or wheel the master volume back quickly! Media keys are also present, if that’s a major feature for you. They’re kind of akward, though; they are low profile rubber type, and situated immediately above the numeric keypad. They aren’t terrible on their own, but in comparison with the excellent feel of the regular keys they don’t feel great. Cons: Shifted and unshifted printing is reversed from a normal keyboard. This is to accommodate the backlighting, as the red LEDs are mounted above each key. But it gets really confusing for people who don’t have keyboards memorized, because it looks like you have to hit shift-1 to get a 1, when instead that will generate an exclamation point. The period and comma keys look absolutely bizarre swapped vertically. The spacebar is textured. WHY? That’s the *only* key that’s textured on the entire keyboard. Has a kind of gator skin type texture to it, and feels out of place with the rest of the keyboard. More to the point, if you’re doing a lot of actual typing where your thumbs are slightly moving back and forth on it while you’re typing, it starts to irritate your thumbs after a few minutes. Also, the backlit marking on the space bar is essentially five underscores; a better marking would be nothing at all. Had a friend try and hit shift-space to generate an underscore! Extra USB port requires a second USB connection to use. Guys, it’s 2016 — WHY IS THIS NECESSARY? There’s no ps/2 adapter (nor did I try any) so I assume this keyboard is usb-only. What does a usb-2 hub chip cost these days, $0.10? Wouldn’t that be a lot cheaper than running two USB cables all the way back to the PC? Num lock, caps lock, and scroll lock LEDs are in no-man’s land, and the printing is very small. In an unlit room it’s impossible to tell which is on and which is off. Also the LEDs are white instead of red, which seems a very strange choice given the entire rest of the illumination on the keyboard is red. Overall Review: Overall I love this keyboard! I hadn’t planned on changing my keyboard (a cherry MX clicky style) but find that I’m seriously giving consideration to just keeping this keyboard as my main keyboard. It’s just so darn fast to type on! Such a nice and silky feel when typing on this that I’ll likely mothball my old keyboard, despite loving that one as well. Maybe I’ll just put tape over the stupid spacebar.

Pros: + Vibrant RGB lighting + Cherry MX Keys + Highly customizable via the Corsair Utility Engine software + Great build quality + Braided USB cable + USB pass-through + Removable keycaps + Comes with optional textured keycaps for common gaming keys The K70 LUX is a great addition to Corsair’s mechanical lineup of keyboards. This keyboard not only looks great, but functions great as well. While the Corsair Utility Engine software can be complicated, it does give the user a great deal of control over the keyboards amazing lighting and functions. Cons: As mentioned above, the Corsair Utility Engine software can be complicated, especially for the novice user. However, it is fully functional, and there is a great deal of help available online. Still, there is a great deal of room left for improvement to make the software “easier” and more intuitive. Overall Review: Overall, this is just a fantastic keyboard. I’m not sure what else to say about it, other than it works, and deserves the high marks it receives.