Software
As it should be different, Corsair of course uses iCUE to control all functions of the keyboard. I used the version iCUE 4.9.350 in a press release provided before launch. As usual, this is quite wide with 1.13 Gbyte and swallows a lot of RAM, although only static lighting without effects was set:
Apparently there is a problem with the memory management, because if you run the program minimized in the background, it takes “only” 260 Mbyte of memory. If you then open it in the foreground and adjust a few settings, the load increases quickly, but is not released again after minimizing. Maybe this problem will be solved with an update in the near future.
At least you get a comprehensive range of features and tweaks to screw with, as usual. Here is an overview of the possibilities:
An incorrect layout was stored in the keyboard’s settings, but the QWERTY layout still worked flawlessly. Switching to the German layout didn’t make any difference, at least I didn’t notice any. I couldn’t figure out what exactly this option does in the device settings.
Depending on the complexity, up to 50 profiles can be stored in the 8 Mbyte onboard memory of the keyboard. Custom macros and lighting with up to 20 layers can be used without iCUE in the background, which is of course essential for professional players at tournaments, but also benefits the normal player. If you want to be absolutely sure that no anticheat causes problems with iCUE, you can toggle the “PRO Switch”. It doesn’t improve the Aim, but it disables all software features and switches to monochrome lighting.
A particularly important point – at least in marketing – is the AXON technology, which squeezes an 8000Hz USB polling rate out of the built-in SoC. They advertise up to 4x faster input, in reality this is the difference between 2ms and 0.25ms.
Personally, I could not notice any difference, whether this is even humanly possible with only 1.25ms difference remains questionable.
The way to the 8000Hz is a bit hidden, because for compatibility reasons only 1000Hz are standard for the time being. Manually the fast mode must be activated in the Device Settings itself. And that’s where the first problems started for me, because as soon as the keyboard was attached to the recommended USB 3.0+ port directly on the board, other USB devices would say goodbye for a few seconds every few minutes. Although my board was not affected by the known Ryzen USB dropout problems so far, in the end only an update of the BIOS and AMD chipset driver could remedy the situation. The keyboard had the latest firmware 1.3.19 installed at the time.
Summary and conclusion
The K70 RGB TKL is an almost flawless keyboard in itself, which I liked a lot. The functions offered by hardware and software are useful to nice-to-have and the workmanship is also convincing. The only noticeable thing about my copy was the barely visible illumination of the “E” in ENTER.
But while I had praised Corsair in the last review of the Katar Pro XT for daring to bring a product to the market that is specifically adapted to a target group, they have made a different decision here. Advertised as an eSports keyboard, various features such as 8000Hz polling rate or PRO-Switch are aimed precisely at this niche, but then you don’t want to stray too far from the normal user and hide the “extreme” options in menus and build in media keys.
In the end, you put yourself between two stools and increase the price with special features that probably only a small part of the buyers would have really needed. With an RRP of 149.99 Euro for the second TKL keyboard in its own range so far, Corsair is a proud 300% above the price of the equally good SPCGear GK630K Tournament (without media keys) and dangerously close to many full-size offers of the competition (without 8000Hz).
The test samples are purchased by ourselves or provided by the manufacturers without obligation. There is no influence on the tests and results. An expense allowance is only paid in exceptional cases, but is shown and also has no influence on the test results.
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