Corsair Vengeance K70 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

Corsair has had a good run with their peripheral division even without the help of over-the-top gaming marketing and that success is reflected with the release of Corsair’s refresh cycle of peripherals for its Vengeance line of gaming products. We’ve reviewed the entire high-end stack of the Vengeance line and today we’ll take a look at the latest mid-range keyboard from the series targeted at FPS gamers. Today we have the Corsair Vengeance K70 and we’ll see what Corsair has done to improve on their gaming line.

Corsair is one of the top company in the DIY PC industry and they are pretty much all about quality instead of looks or features. This focus on quality has worked well for Corsair in recent years and has propelled their brand into what it is today. The company has entered the gaming peripheral market early last year and has been the choice of discerning gamers who value quality over anything else.

Official product page

[section label=”Closer Look”]

Vengeance K70 – Closer Look

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Corsair packages the Vengeance K70 in a thick, long colored box. An image of the keyboard is central to the front and the giant Vengeance logo is present. At the lower right is the model name and the layout. In bullet list to the left you will see which key you have. The Vengeance K70 comes in 3 Cherry MX variant: red, brown and blue.

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Inside the package are some documentation, a detachable wrist rest, extra key caps, key puller, and the K70 itself.

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The Cherry MX Red variant of the K70 comes in two color: gunmetal black and silver.

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The Vengeance K70 is a standard layout keyborad with extra keys located at the top.

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The Corsair Vengeance K70 has a USB passthrough just beside its main cable but curiously there’s this little switch up top which isn’t explained in the manual. This is actually a refresh rate switch that allows the K70 to be compatible with older BIOS which do not support gaming keyboards. The notches go from 1, 2, 4 and 8.

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The retractable stands lift the K70 a few milimeters off the surface. Notice how much the keys are raised? Many mechanical keyboards have a shroud that go up around the keys but Corsair has designed to K70 to go bare metal. Nothing really special, just gives it an edgier look.

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One of the key features of the K70 is the replaceable keycaps for the WASD/123456 cluster. Any FPS gamer value these keys and Corsair has included contoured keycaps for optimized FPS gaming.

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Extra keys are on the upper right corner which includes multimedia keys, LED brightness, etc.

[section label=”User Experience & Conclusion”]

User Experience & Conclusion

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As we’ve said in the opening remarks, Corsair is all about quality and the Vengeance K70 improves on the already great K60. Let’s break down the score for a detailed look:

Performance. As a mechanical keyboard, the Corsair Vengeance K70 is pretty much the same as everything else in terms of feedback to your chosen Cherry MX variant. What Corsair has done is improve on the overall keyboard experience by optimizing the design of the keyboard for a much more focused use of the WASD cluster for FPS gamers. Add to that the raised keys and presses are more immediate, especially for the MX Red users.

Build Quality. Picking up from that last statement, the design of the K70 inherits much from the K90 with the full wrist rest and improves the dedicated FPS buttons from the K60. The improved coating on the WASD/Number keys serve as subtle advantages for FPS players by providing an improved area for movement and weapon swaps. Looks great with red, too. Also a vast improvement is the full-mechanical layout. No more membrane Fn keys which Corsair used for its initial Vengeance line.

Functionality. Corsair completely dodges software for this keyboard, not really providing any. No macro, no nothing. While there may be times that dedicated products are reasonable, there is simply no excusive for a gaming keyboard not to have a certain level of customization like key rebinding and macros. Forgivable though as Corsair may be opting for a straight-forward product. Nonetheless points away for it for no software.

Bundle. Corsair provides a larger wrist rest instead of the compartment wrist pad from the K60. Other than that its a rather slim bundle although a carrying bad would’ve been nice. Come on, how come Tt eSports is the only one doing that?

Value. At $129.99, the Corsair Vengeance K70 is on the steep side of things. That goes for everything Corsair sells actually. What you do get is a solid and sturdy keyboard with a great feel and if the looks aren’t enough to convince you, then you really have to try it for yourself as that is the best way to judge a keyboard.

All that said, the Corsair Vengeance K70 is a great refinement of the initial FPS keyboard from Corsair and delivers a stunning marriage of quality, performance and a straight-up better typing experience that you’ll never get on membrane keyboards. The saying that “once you go mechanical, there’s no going back” is never more true with the Corsair Vengeance K70.

The Corsair Vengeance K70 is backed by a 2-year warranty. We give the Corsair Vengeance K70 our B2G Editor’s Choice Award.