Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 Low Profile Mechanical Keyboard Review: Nice Keyboard, Horrible Software

Retail Price: $181.74

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Corsair has been a leading name in the gaming tech industry for a while. To a gamer, their product listings are shiny and enticing. But does the actual product live up to the hype? After testing the Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 Low Profile Keyboard for a few months, I’ve found myself both in love and utterly disappointed.

Product Specs +

Cherry MX Speed key switches
Low profile: switches are 35% lower
29mm tall (compared to 40mm standard mechanical keyboards)
Onboard storage for up to three profiles
USB pass-through port
RGB lighting
Extra FPS and MOBA keycaps
Removable palm rest

RGB Lights

The RGB on this keyboard is pretty standard and comparable to other high-end brands. The colors are nice and vibrant, and there are a number of effects you can use. You can customize different sections of the keyboard to use different colors or play different effects. It is the full RGB experience, just as you would expect.

I do wish the iCue software was more similar to Razer Synapse, however. Synapse allowed you to create groups of effects as well as turn effects off without removing them from your stack. This allowed for easier customization and you wouldn’t have to make a whole new profile if you sometimes liked to leave an overlapping effect on and other times wanted it off. However, I’m happy with the RGB experience overall. I didn’t find it too difficult to figure out, and I really like the “watercolor” effect that Corsair has.

There is one thing about the RGB settings that is pretty disappointing, though. If you turn off iCue, your customization goes bye-bye even if you have the profile saved to the onboard memory. To be more exact, if iCue isn’t running, then you have to specifically save settings under “hardware lighting.” The problem is, hardware lighting provides a much more limited array of effects. You often cannot pair or stack effects either, so it’s a much less impressive light show. While it’s common for RGB effects to require you to have software running in the background, I truly detest iCue, which is why I wish the onboard memory would suffice to keep my favorite light shows playing. We’ll talk more about my dislike for iCue later.

Keycaps and Switches

Something I don’t hate about this keyboard, though, are the keycaps and switches. Now, these are not doubleshot PBT keycaps, and I stand by my belief that there is no better keycap. But I do have to admit that these aren’t bad. I’ve been using this keyboard for an embarrassingly long time before reviewing it, and the keycaps don’t really look worn. If I shine my phone light on it, I can definitely see the areas my fingers touch the most, but it’s otherwise invisible. However, if you’re gonna shell out money for this keyboard, consider getting the version that has the PBT keycaps as it’s only slightly more expensive and the keycaps will last a lot longer before becoming worn and gross.

While the keycaps themselves don’t look too gross after use, the base of the board does. I’ll admit it: I eat at my computer desk, though I typically do push my keyboard away while doing so. Something about the way these keys float over the board makes it so that you can see every little crumb — and for me, a ton of dog hair — hanging out underneath the keys. I find this really annoying and I’m constantly using canned air to spray at my board. It helps a little, but I honestly think I would need to remove all the keys and clean this thing regularly. On the bright side, the keyboard did come with a keycap remover.

The keys themselves feel pretty good. I do prefer the textured feel of PBTs more, but these have a sort of smooth rubbery feel without being slippery. My board has the speed switches on it, and they don’t give a lot of textile feedback. They aren’t exactly quiet, but they aren’t clicky or loud either. The feeling of the keys firing is like some sort of marriage between a membrane and a mechanical keyboard. It doesn’t quite feel like a membrane keyboard, but it doesn’t quite feel like a mechanical keyboard either. I typically prefer a clicky switch with tactile feedback, but I don’t mind these, and I think they’re pleasant in their own way. Whether or not the switches are actually speedy is something I’ll touch on when I discuss this board’s gaming performance.

Quality of Life

After reviewing the Razer Mini Huntsman I felt that every keyboard in existence should have doubleshot PBT keycaps. Now that I’ve tried out this Corsair K70 MK.2, I think every keyboard in existence should have a volume roller. It’s just one of those things that you never knew you needed until you experience it.

Aside from my beloved volume wheel, this keyboard has a number of quality of life features that I really appreciate. While it doesn’t have doubleshot PBTs, it does come with extra keycaps for W, A, S, D, Q, E, R, and F. These caps are textured and a bit taller than the originals so that it’s easy to differentiate them from non-gaming keys. If you like, you can keep all of the keys uniform, but I prefer to use the textured keys for WASD. I am the person who accidentally presses E instead of W, so it’s super helpful to be able to identify the right keys simply through touch while gaming.

This keyboard also comes with a detachable palm rest. I’ve seen some other reviews that say they dislike the palm rest, and I just don’t understand. I’ve never had a keyboard with a palm rest before, but let me tell you, it’s nice! It provides an extra level of comfort that keyboards without palm rests don’t have. On the downside, it does make this full-sized keyboard even bigger.

Another fun little feature is the USB pass through port. This keyboard actually uses two USB ports on your PC, and that’s because one of them is for USB pass through. There’s a USB port on the front of the keyboard, which could be useful if you have a wired USB headset.

The last quality of life feature that I appreciate is the button that allows you to switch between saved profiles. One of the issues I had with the Razer Huntsman Mini was that I could not for the life of me figure out how to access the profiles I had saved on the onboard memory. But with this keyboard, that isn’t a problem. All you have to do is press the button to switch between your saved profiles. There’s no headache or confusion; it’s straightforward and easy to use.

Gaming Experience

The particular K70 I’m using has Corsair’s “speed” switches. I’ve basically been addicted to FFXIV Online and have been playing some Genshin Impact on the side. So, I’m probably not the best judge of whether or not these switches are actually speedier than others. As a White Healer Mage in FFXIV, it’s definitely important to have a quick response time, but there are a lot of mechanics that can be predicted, so speed switches aren’t a necessity. I will say that I’ve not had any lag or other issue between pressing a key and actually experiencing it fire in-game. Keys fire immediately.

For me personally, this keyboard is probably overkill when it comes to gaming. While Extreme, Savage, and Unreal modes in FFXIV are pretty damn spicy, I’m not sure that FF is, in general, the kind of game that requires a $150 keyboard. Same with Genshin. I definitely appreciate that it is a full-sized keyboard because it has everything I need; considering I have at least 48 skills in FFXIV, I’ll take all the keys I can get.

This keyboard does have onboard memory as well as macro capabilities that you can control in the iCue software. I don’t personally use these functions, but I did give them a peek to see how they worked. Making and saving macros as well as saving profiles to the onboard memory is pretty straightforward. Unfortunately, iCue itself is a less than stellar program and it may sabotage your profiles from time to time, erasing any macros not saved to onboard memory.

iCue: Corsair’s Greatest Let-Down

iCue loves to do this thing where it just stops recognizing your devices.

This keyboard has a list price of $149.99 on Corsair’s website, yet the software that comes with it feels like it belongs to a keyboard worth a quarter of the price (or less). The interface isn’t that great. While it is relatively easy to find what you’re looking for, it looks cheap compared to something like Razer’s Synapse. There are certain functions that should be intuitive but aren’t (it took me ages to realize I had to save lighting effects to hardware lighting for them to show up when using onboard storage). But I can deal with a basic interface as long as the software performs well. The problem is, it doesn’t.

iCue loves to do this thing where it just stops recognizing your devices. The keyboard still works and you can type on it, but you can’t edit any of the settings or use profiles not saved to the onboard memory. This is easily fixed by unplugging it and plugging it back in, but that can be incredibly inconvenient, especially if the back of your PC is tough to reach. I have a rolling desk so it isn’t the end of the world, but it simply shouldn’t be happening. It’s so disappointing to pay a premium price for a keyboard only to have the software crap out on you.

I’ve also had problems simply saving a profile to the onboard memory. It seems that if you leave iCue open indefinitely (which you kind of have to), it bugs out. I had a profile created in iCue that I tried to save to the onboard memory, which is typically a straightforward experience. However, instead of saving my profile, iCue froze. I was forced to shut it with Task Manager. When I reopened it, the original profile was corrupted and erased, so I had to start over from scratch.

I recently installed an SSD as the main hard drive on my PC. So, I had to reinstall iCue and was pretty disappointed that I could not find any option to create a login that would save all of my settings to a centralized user profile. Once again, I had to start from scratch. I don’t understand why iCue doesn’t work like Razer Synapse, allowing you to log in so that you can easily access your settings and profile from any device. Even after a clean install of iCue, I’m still having problems where it will randomly tell me that there is something wrong with one of my profiles and I basically have to erase it and redo it for no apparent reason. Luckily, I do not save much aside from RGB effects, but if I had tons of macros saved, I would be furious.

For how expensive Corsair’s products are, these types of problems with the software are beyond unacceptable.

Final Thoughts

This keyboard has a lot of great features both for everyday use and gaming. I will forever miss the volume wheel when I move on to my next board, and the textured WASD keycaps have been a lifesaver while gaming (literally!).

However, there is one major problem with the Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 Low Profile Keyboard: iCue. To some extent, a keyboard is only as good as its software. While iCue won’t affect how fast the keys fire, it is responsible for hosting macros and other settings. iCue only works properly half the time, which means half of the time you’ll be cursing Corsair as you recreate your favorite profiles.

Because of that, I honestly don’t think this keyboard is worth the money. If you want a pretty RGB keyboard for everyday use and casual gaming, you can get something solid with functioning software for a fraction of the price. Even Razer has some decent boards out for around $60-$90 (and the Synapse software is a thousand times better than iCue!). If you’re a serious gamer, then you’re sure to be disappointed when iCue bugs out and you lose your profiles.

If Corsair were to upgrade the iCue software and turn it into something that functions properly, then I could potentially see this keyboard being worth the price. Until then, I personally think you should spend your $150 on a different brand.

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Seri

A writer by day and gamer by night, Seri’s most prized possession is her computer. In fact, she built her desktop PC herself and repaired her college laptop with nothing but Google, Reddit, and determination to guide her. This do-it-yourself attitude was born from frugalness, so if you see Seri raving about something, it’s probably worth the price.