so my first reaction to the arrival of my sample of a retail k70 RGB was like G
awesome I'm going to go plug it in right now and I'm going to it's going to be
sweet and I can't wait I then proceeded
to calmly and patiently wait for the new
Corsair utility engine Q software to
download and install fired it up and
after faffing about for a couple minutes realized I had no idea how to do
anything so I checked the box for the manual only to discover that the reason
Corsair makes you download the manual is that it's 142 pages long that's when it
hit me this review was going to take a
while Cooler Master nepton Series CPU coolers are available in a variety of
radiator sizes to perfectly suit your next build click now to learn more we'll
start with a physical over review if you've seen 1 k70 you've pretty much
seen them all the layout is a standard 104 key with no deal breaking
alterations like a short backspace key and a couple much appreciated additions
namely a Hardware switch for polling rates I recommend leaving this at the
default setting and BIOS mode which improves compatibility particularly
outside of your OS on older Hardware it's got a three-level brightness toggle
a Windows lock key five media keys and a
classy looking textured metal volume wheel Corsair continues to include soft
touch rubberized wrist rests and as someone who won't use a keyboard without
one I consider this very important and they continue to deliver the same
pleasing fit and finish that we've come to expect over the last few years with a
gorgeous solid brushed aluminum back plate rubber bottom flipout feet and a
braided dual USB power cord although it should be noted that the second
connector with two arrows on it is not
for a pass through Port but just extra power for the RGB LED lighting and
significantly upgraded microcontroller when you're using USB 2 if you plug in
via USB 3 you only need the connector with the picture of the keyboard on it
and you can leave the other one dangling so let's dive right into it shall we the
well publicized and much anticipated
Special Sauce here is Cherry's implementation for now exclusive to
Corsair of RGB lighting within their MX
series key switches replacing the single
3mm two-lead LED embedded on the top of the switch directly below the key cap is
a new system that mounts an RGB led to
the PCB of the keyboard and uses a translucent keycap housing and lens to
focus the light so from the outside it looks very similar to the older style of
course this would all be meaningless if performance was compromised in any way
and keyboard enthusiasts will be happy to know that the tactile characteristics
of the red blue and brown cherrymx switches that this keyboard is available
with at launch are untainted and another
desirable side effect is that the LEDs are less susceptible to failure due to
static discharge because they're surface mounted in the keyboard so so far sounds
good all around but of course if it's impossible to use then this is all a
purely academic discussion so let's dive into the documentation for the Corsair
utility engine software the main reason this keyboard has been delayed and
delayed and delayed some more and find out if a little B of good oldfashioned
rtfm is going to get me through
this we'll start with profiles not to be
confused with modes which are sort of like subprofiles
profiles store their modes and foreground lighting effects and can be
switched automatically when certain applications launch or manually using
the system Tri icon something you may find yourself doing often when setting
up lighting effects since sometimes you'll have to change them to get
settings to apply modes coexist with profiles you must
always have one of each loaded at least
they can have their own background color schemes over which the foreground
lighting effects will run but they are inexplicably missing functionality like
the ability to have continuous wave patterns or their own reactive typing
schemes so you'll likely need a handful of profiles to get the variety that you
obviously crave because you just spent a couple of hundred dollars on a keyboard
that lights up funny modes also store button assignments and
the options here are basically endless every button on the keyboard even the
LED brightness toggle which I rebound to mode switching because the keyboard
lacks any dedicated buttons for that or even general purpose macro buttons is
completely reprogrammable we're talking text input shortcuts to the the homepage
of your your favorite website or applications or whatever overlaid
countdown timers for gamers although that overlay features a bit of a work in
proc progress Mouse DPI changes Mouse
movement Mouse clicks separate macro
execution for the downstroke and release of the key and even different lighting
effects to go along with it it's pretty cumbersome but the groundwork has been
laid here for Corsair's RGB series to be the most powerful keyboards ever made
and never mind just for gaming for anything that requires execution of of
macros or other complex functionality and we haven't even talked about the
lighting yet it took me a few hours to get the hang of it but not at least not
entirely because I'm an idiot I spent most of that time being frustrated by
bugs like needing to drag a mode to the top of the list and sometimes quickly
switch profiles in order to preview what I was doing and not being able to find
mode switching within the actions editor because it's the one thing that's not in
there no you need to rightclick the button instead but once I got the hang
of it I found myself able to do some moderately cool stuff I can set up
different key actions per mode uh clone my modes entirely within a profile
change any key to any color I want even
the media Keys set up reactive typing on a single key or in a ripple effect I can
set up waves starting on the side or in the center with whatever colors I want I
can export the file to carry it with me to other computers or share with friends
and coolest of all I can just not be ared to do any of this and download
profiles from the course there forum where folks are already doing stuff that
I couldn't figure out how to do but here
I ran into another problem when you import someone else's profile it adds
all of the crap from theirs into yours
with the only way to get around that being to manually delete them all or
wipe out everything in the software and while I saw stuff that I wasn't sure how
to do most of it was pretty simple different time delays longer or shorter
Trails on an effect more or fewer colors
where's the full programmability that you promised Corsair Lua as they call it
is not here yet which I guess is both
encouraging and discouraging because it means it's less complicated for now but
it also means that it's going to get more complicated later in order to unlock the full potential of this bad
boy so I guess that leads pretty well into conclusion time and it's not a
simple conclusion in the 10 years I've been using Corsair products I've seen
Innovation and I've seen success but I've also seen failure so what is the
k70 right now I would say it's both the
idea is a success but the endless delays gave their competitors the better part
of a year to react and bring their own solutions to market now that it's
finally here I'd say the quality of the hardware is a smashing success but the
software is to put it bluntly not I mean
its features are a success compared to other products currently on the market
but compared to the expectations that they set they're not and I'm sure they'd
prefer if I just ignore the Uproar over the Corsair gaming Rebrand initiative
speaking of things that are not that successful right
now so the k70 RGB won't be taking home
an editor's choice or anything today but what I will say based on my experience
with corer is that while this was not a smooth product launch the battle for RGB
keyboard dominance is far from over for
all their flaws Corsair's RGB keyboards have a few key advantages versus their
competition number one is excitement this is the most anticipated keyboard in
the history of computer enthusiasts ever as far as I can tell number two they are
first to Market they exist people are buying them and more importantly not
returning them the bugs appear to be software rather than hardware issues
which makes patching the ones in the field relatively simple and gives
Corsair much needed Capital to continue to develop the product and number three
is that Corsair always comes up swinging when they smell blood and I bet they do
right now I mean this is the first time an established gaming peripheral maker
and in this case two of them has ever reacted so quickly to something little
old Corsair has done and if I was those competitors I would make damn good
ensure that the chroma and the g910 are strong reactions the last time Corsair
entered a category this aggressively the PC power supply in case industry was
dominated by a little company called antech and the rest is history It Anyway
expect to see coverage of the k95 or K65
the macro button equipped and 10 keyless variants of the k70 when I've had a
chance to scope out the competition or when Corsair turns their software from
something that limps along functionally
into something worthy of the Corsair name or the Corsair gaming name with
some batl thing or whatever it is they're calling themselves these days
guys thanks for watching like this video
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