Corsair K70 RGB RapidFire
Exclusive switches increase speed but reduce clicks
ANOTHER MONTH, another mechanical keyboard. There are so many on the market at the moment that it can be hard to distinguish one from another. The K70 RapidFire has something you won’t find anywhere else, however: its switches.
Those switches are the new Cherry MX Speed models, exclusive to Corsair for now, which answer the call from about 1 percent of the PC gaming universe for keyboards that respond more quickly. We’re at the stage of dealing with edge cases here, with an actuation point that’s only 1.2mm down, and needing a lower amount of force to reach that point. This may well speed up your use of the keyboard slightly, but it sucks some of the fun out of using it, too.
You see, one of the best things about a mechanical keyboard is the feel as those keys go down. There’s the noise, too, of course, which should be enough to elicit complaints from someone trying to watch GameofThrones in the next room; enough to be sure you’re using your keyboard of choice, even though you’re wearing over-ear headphones. Last month’s BlackWidow X Chroma, using Razer’s own switches, made a glorious noise. The K70 RapidFire, while still clearly a mechanical keyboard, isn’t nearly so satisfying. Being linear switches, the keys slide down as though lubricated, robbing them of that allimportant feel as they pass the activation point. But hey—it’s fast.
On top of the switches sit the keys, and they have a gratifyingly large character window on top of them, the better to let through the colored lighting that you can make flash and coruscate with the bundled software. Looking at the keyboard from the front, the keys seem to sit very high on their switches—odd for something selling itself on its shallow depth—and look as though they could be popped off easily, perhaps even accidentally. They do come off easily, and even wobble a bit when mounted properly, but we didn’t once manage to knock one off without specifically trying. A couple of sets of replacement keys come in the box—one set for FPS games, and another for MOBAs, highlighting the important keys for their respective genre, in case you forget where they are.
The space bar has a textured surface, reminiscent of Corsair’s Strafe keyboards, so your thumbs don’t slip off it; its pattern of raised bumps is rather like the metal flooring used for fire escapes. Elsewhere, you’ll find the always-welcome Windows Key Lock switch, some media playback controls, and a metal volume roller. There’s a useful USB port on the back, which certainly beats having to fumble round the back of your case (although, sadly, it’s not USB 3.0). A BIOS switch adjusts the polling rate if the K70’s super speed means it refuses to work with your motherboard, and the keyboard has the usual rollover and anti-ghosting tech to ensure your inputs don’t get garbled. STRONG POINT Underneath all that, the frame is aircraftgrade aluminum, apparently designed to survive a lifetime—it doesn’t say whose— of keystrokes. We’re not sure that metal frames breaking from being typed on is a big problem, having failed to put so much as a fingertip through a keyboard in 30 years of using them, but perhaps we don’t have the over-developed extensor tendons of a pro Counter-Strike player.
Keyboards are marketed as long-life products, so we find it odd that they turn up in our office so often. If you’re already using one, and it’s not falling apart, there’s little reason to upgrade. Keyboard switches are very much a matter of personal preference, but the feel of these linear switches won’t be for everyone, and the extra speed gains cleverly engineered by Cherry will benefit even fewer. However, if you’re upgrading from a membrane or chiclet model, try this out. You might just become the fastest Glock in the monastery. –IAN EVENDEN