INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   RGB lighting is by far the hottest "trend" right now not only in the gaming peripherals market (both for PC's and consoles) but virtually in the electronics industry as a whole. Granted there are quite a few people out there who may not care much about RGB lighting but gamers and enthusiasts have always been the backbone in terms of sales for most manufacturers in the PC industry so it really goes without saying that there's no shortage of such devices in the market currently. However as more and more products flood the market competition becomes more fierce and in order to keep up (and in some cases stay on top) several manufacturers choose to upgrade their already bestselling products. CORSAIR is one such manufacturer and today we'll be taking a thorough look at the recently released K70 RGB MK.2 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard.

   Founded in 1994, CORSAIR supplies high-performance products purchased primarily by PC gaming enthusiasts who build their own PCs or buy pre-assembled customized systems. The company's award-winning products include DDR3 and DDR4 memory upgrades, computer cases, PC cooling products, gaming headsets, gaming keyboards, gaming mice, power supply units, USB flash drives, solid-state drives and system monitoring and control devices.

   Both the original K70 RGB and the K70 RGB MK.2 share a great number of features including Cherry MX RGB switches (available with Red, Blue, Brown, Speed and Silent), aircraft-grade anodized brushed aluminum frame, 100% anti-ghosting with full-Key rollover (NKRO), 1000Hz polling rate, six dedicated media control keys, detachable full-length soft touch wrist rest, macro commands (no dedicated macro keys), per-key RGB backlighting and an onboard ARM processor. The upgraded K70 RGB MK.2 mechanical gaming keyboard however takes things even further by featuring a USB 2.0 pass-through port (something consumers have always wanted from the K70 line), improved RGB lighting system (largely thanks to extra LEDs and the 8MB of onboard memory) and several extra MOBA and FPS keycaps. So let's move forward with our review and see what CORSAIR has been working on for the past year.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As usual at the front of the box CORSAIR has placed a large product picture, the type of Cherry MX switches used and some of the primary features.

 

 

Both the specifications of the product and the contents of the bundle are listed at the base in 6 languages.

 

 

The 5 main product features are also listed at the top of the box.

 

 

A large product picture along with several smaller ones placed at the rear of the box are used to showcase the special keys and features of the K70 RGB MK.2.

 

 

Packaging is once again excellent and so the keyboard is wrapped inside a plastic bag and placed inside a formed piece of cardboard (extension of the box).

 

 

CORSAIR enriched the bundle of the new K70 RGB MK.2 by also adding 10 textured MOBA/FPS keycaps and a keycap puller right next to the typical user manual and warranty information paper.

 

 

THE K70 RGB MK.2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Measuring 436mm in length, 165mm in width and 38mm in height the K70 RGB MK.2 is actually slightly larger compared to its predecessor.

 

 

As expected CORSAIR has once again used the floating keys design for easier cleaning (and improved brightness).

 

 

The profile, brightness level and Windows lock keys are placed on the upper left of the keyboard (the original K70 RGB had the brightness and Windows lock keys on the top right side).

 

 

Moving to the upper right corner we find the media control buttons which include a mute audio button, volume control knob (made out of metal - silver in the MK.2 model) and the usual stop/play/pause/previous/next buttons.

 

 

The space bar of the MK.2 model is textured and it does feel faster to press.

 

 

Here we see the Cherry MX RGB Red switches.

 

 

Another difference compared to the original K70 RGB is the number of height adjusters which got reduced to two in the MK.2 model.

 

 

These height adjusters raise the top end of the keyboard roughly 11mm from the desktop.

 

 

The detachable wrist rest has three rubber feet and features the usual clip-on system.

 

 

With the wrist rest attached the K70 MK.2 is now 230mm in width.

 

 

At the end of the 2 meter long braided cable CORSAIR has placed two regular USB plugs (one for the keyboard and the other for the ARM processor and the USB 2.0 pass-through).

 

 

Forgot to mention 2 things, that the CORSAIR logo placed at the center of the keyboard is now RGB illuminated and of course the USB 2.0 pass-through port which is at the front of the keyboard as seen above.

 

 

Although the textured keycaps are a nice addition they don't exactly "scream" quality.

 

 

From the above picture you can see that these keycaps are not level something which could potentially help gamers.

 

 

I was expecting textured keycaps for the arrow keys as well but CORSAIR only chose to include these.

 

 

ICUE SOFTWARE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can download the latest version of the iCUE software from the download section.

 

 

Once launched the software detects and lists all compatible CORSAIR devices.

 

 

Clicking on the K70 RGB MK.2 reveals the current RGB lighting effect and all the available zones (104 keys plus the CORSAIR logo and the extra media and command buttons).

 

 

The iCUE software allows you to program all of the keys by assigning commands, macros, texts, timers, shortcuts and much more onto them from the actions tab (check the above screenshot for more details).

 

 

From the lighting effects tab not only can you choose one of the 9 available effects (or even create your very own) but you can also adjust their speed, direction and combine as many of them as you want with the per-key lighting feature (as seen above).

 

 

Inside the performance tab you can only adjust everything related to the Windows lock key.

 

 

CORSAIR allows the end user to monitor the status of the system from the dashboard menu as seen above.

 

 

If RGB lighting is not your thing you can choose instant colors for the keyboard from this drop down menu.

 

 

The polling rate along with the brightness levels, firmware updates and more can be accessed from the settings menu.

 

 

Here you can see the lowest and brightness levels of the keyboards (two top pictures) along with some of the effects and single colors available (the last picture is of the custom one we created).

 

 

AUDIBLE FEEDBACK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many people ask my opinion on what keyboard they should get for their needs. Some want a “silent” model for use in their living room or even in their bedroom while others ask for a model with good audible feedback for use in the office or for gaming. Because of this I decided to test keyboards by placing our ExTech HD600 vertically over each keyboard (5cm distance) and typing NikKTech a total of 6 times with each (after that the max recorded number - max hold - is placed in the graph). I have to admit that this may not be 100% accurate but it does give a good idea on what you can expect from each model since aside the type of switches used keycaps and keyboard material also matter.

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   It's been over 2 years already since we reviewed the K70 RGB mechanical gaming keyboard by CORSAIR so we were quite interested in seeing what the new MK.2 model brought to the table. Honestly since the original K70 RGB was already a very good mechanical gaming keyboard (with top notch build quality) there weren’t many things CORSAIR could have added to further improve it so even before it arrived here two weeks ago we knew that it would probably feature a USB 2.0 pass-through (I also liked the silver volume control knob instead of the black found in the K70 RGB). However i can't say that we were expecting to see an RGB logo (nice surprise there) nor did we expect it to have two height adjusters instead of four (four made the original K70 RGB quite unique but we all agree that this was not needed) and lack the BIOS/Polling switch (for older OS compatibility). The textured MOBA/FPS keycaps may not be of the quality we’d like but they could improve gaming speed for some people (in my case I was able to type faster with them – or at least it felt that way). As for the iCUE software it does look better, offers more settings/features and is easier to navigate compared to the old CUE version but again it might be just a bit much/complex for regular users.

   So how much for the brand new K70 RGB MK.2 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard by CORSAIR? Well since the K70 RGB MK.2 effectively replaces the original K70 RGB (CORSAIR has cut the price of the original) its price tag is identical and more specifically the Cherry MX Red version will set you back USD159.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 170Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). Overall the brand new K70 RGB MK.2 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard by CORSAIR is a worthy successor to the original K70 RGB and definitely worth our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Excellent Build Quality
- Cherry MX Red Mechanical Switches (50 Million Actuations)
- Full RGB Key Illumination (Custom Effects/Individual Key Color)
- USB 2.0 Pass Through
- 8MB Built In Memory
- Detachable Wrist Rest
- Up To 104 Macro Keys
- Corsair iCUE Software (Available Settings)
- Dedicated Media Controls
- Extra MOBA/FPS Textured Keycaps

CONS

- No Dedicated Macro Keys
- Price (For Some)
- No BIOS/Polling Rate Switch