Introduction

Mechanical keyboards are far from a new technology; they are decades old and some of the first mass produced personal computers came with mechanical keyboards back in the 1980's. However, due to their high production cost, they were soon replaced by keyboards other types of electronic switches that were considerably less expensive. Over the years however, the production cost of the mechanical key switches also came down, making them more and more affordable by the day. Today, PC users can find a good selection of mechanical keyboards from numerous manufacturers available at (generally) reasonable prices.

Today we will be having a look at the Vengeance K70 from Corsair, a full size keyboard designed for gaming. It is an upgrade of the popular Vengeance K60 and it is remains strikingly similar visually; however, aside from the various upgrades that we will discuss in this review, Corsair also offers the K70 in various color and switch combinations. In this review we will be looking at the black US layout version of the Vengeance K70, which features red backlighting and comes in three switch types (red, blue or brown), as well as in various layouts. Corsair recently launched the RGB LED backlit model at Computex, but that was not available when we started this review.

The Corsair Vengeance K70 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

The first upgrade over the Vengeance K60 can be found in the bundled items. With the Vengeance K70, Corsair supplies a set of ten textured red keys (1-6, W, A, S, D—the standard gaming keys for FPS games) and a full-size wrist rest, where the older K60 only came with a small 5" wide wrist rest for your left hand while gaming.

Corsair supplied us with the three black US layout versions they produce, each featuring a different Cherry MX switch. The three keyboards are aesthetically the same and no one will be able to tell the difference between them before a keycap is removed. Once a keycap is removed or an experienced user presses a key, the difference between the Blue, Brown and Red switches become apparent. Corsair, at least for the time being, does not offer the Vengeance K70 with Cherry MX Black, Green or other switches.

Visually, the Vengeance K70 stands out from the crowd by following the same design that made the Vengeance K60/K90 popular. The keyboard is built on a brushed aluminum chassis, with the keys levitating over it rather than being embedded into it. Aesthetics are a subjective matter and some people like this design while others hate it. From a practical point of view however, this design is extremely helpful to those that like to keep their keyboards clean, as a simple blow can remove all debris from the surface of the keyboard. A primary aesthetic flaw however is the black company logo at the middle top part of the chassis. Although the logo looks very good on a silver keyboard, I feel it was a poor choice to keep the same logo on the black version of the Vengeance K70. A less important flaw are the screws that keep the motherboard together; most of them are behind keys and invisible, but a few are at places that are somewhat noticeable, such as beneath the Esc key.

Corsair installed multimedia control buttons and a volume knob at the upper right side of the keyboard. There are four keys for playback control (Play/Pause, Stop, Forward and Back) and a volume mute key next to the metallic volume knob. Three smaller keys can be found towards the top center of the Vengeance K70; one that controls the lighting, one that switches the backlight into the "gaming" mode, and one that renders the Windows keys inactive. Between these and the multimedia keys, there are three tiny white LED lights serving as the three standard key lock indicators (Caps Lock, Num Lock, Scroll Lock).

Although the installation of the textured red keys gives the Vengeance K70 a nice, aggressive gaming appearance, we found that these keys are more than just useless to any user that will not play a game using these specific keys. The keys are contoured, which gives them a nice feeling while gaming, but they feel terrible when doing anything else, especially typing. Therefore, unless you are planning to use the keyboard exclusively for playing games that are making use of these exact keys, replacing them each time you want to play a game feels like too much of a hassle.

Corsair installed a single USB 2.0 port at the top back side of the Vengeance K70. Right next to the USB port there is a switch that allows the user to change the polling rate. This function is not needed for any modern system but it increases the keyboard's compatibility with older motherboards and cheap KVM switches, which cannot operate properly when the polling rate is too high. The default polling rate of the Vengeance K70 is 1 ms (or 1 kHz). Beneath the keyboard are four feet for height adjustment, two at the rear and two at the front of the keyboard. Although stands at the rear of the keyboard are quite common, very few designs have the ability to adjust the tilt at the front.

Corsair Vengeance K70 Keyboard Review - Page 2
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  • piiman - Saturday, June 14, 2014 - link

    You are so wrong.
    1. Why do you think these keyboards have more "key press traffic"?
    2. You can type as fast as you like and you will never max a USB port band width with your slow human typing speed.
    3. IT's A USB PASS THROUGH, ONLY!
  • patrickjchase - Monday, June 9, 2014 - link

    A 1 msec polling period corresponds to 1 KHz, not 1 MHz as stated in the article. Given that human reaction times are on the order of 100 msec even the 1 msec interval is overkill.
  • l8gravely - Monday, June 9, 2014 - link

    I've been quite happy with my "Code" keyboard from WASDkeyboards.com with the Cherry Clear. I got it because the back lighting was nice and even, it was Cherry MX Clears, and I could also get it in the TenKeyLess version with only 87 keys, since I don't use the numberpad at all. I've been very happy with it.

    My kids love it too, but miss the keypad when playing in minecraft, because they can't fly airplane mod which depends on the keypad. Oh well...

    I spent around $150 for each of my two keyboards. Not cheap at all, but to me well worth it if they last like I think they will.

    John
  • dragonsqrrl - Monday, June 9, 2014 - link

    Wait, the K70 RGB launched? I don't see availability anywhere, including newegg and amazon.
  • dragonsqrrl - Monday, June 9, 2014 - link

    ... okay, on the first page it says Corsair already launched the RGB versions, then on the second page it says they won't be available for a couple months? I'm guessing there's a mistake somewhere in there.
  • Antronman - Monday, June 9, 2014 - link

    They've launched. They're just not in stock yet.

    A product launch means the product is finished, and ready to be shipped to stores.
  • dragonsqrrl - Monday, June 9, 2014 - link

    That just seems very strange to me. At least in my experience a product launch typically declares immediate availability or availability in the very near future, neither of which seems to be true in the case of these keyboards. This seems more like a paper launch to me than anything else. In any case, if what you've saying is true, that's one hell of a long shipping delay.
  • Antronman - Monday, June 9, 2014 - link

    Yeah. But it's still worth it.
    The Steelseries APEX is just such a compromise. You sacrifice the amazingness of mechanical keys for RGB lighting.
    RGB + Mechanical? Awesome.
    LEDs inside the keywells to allow for less damage to LEDs.

    And then the RGB mice is also really nice.
  • piiman - Saturday, June 14, 2014 - link

    its 6 LONG weeks. I think that counts and available soon.
  • piiman - Saturday, June 14, 2014 - link

    Both now have it listed as coming soon.
    k70 late July red MX switches only, late August for the other switch types
    k95 Late August with red, blue, brown switches.
    I think

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