Reviews - Corsair Vengeance K70

[HEXUS]

A contender for the crown of best mechanical keyboard.

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[Cog]

Our only reservation is one that's common with all mechanical keyboards: the individual LEDs are placed above the Cherry MX switches, resulting in uneven illumination across the entire key. Corsair has used an obvious workaround - letters are simply positioned higher on the keys - but we're surprised nobody has put forth a better solution.

But someone already has...
http://hexus.net/tech/news/peripherals/63285-cherry-corsair-partner-colourful-mx-rgb-keyboards/

[aidanjt]

...and some were put off by the absence of backlit keys.

I consider this a feature. I'm still using my original Saitek Eclipse keyboard from way back when, and the one thing that annoys me is having to redisable the back-lighting on every reboot. As a touch typist, finding homerow isn't a problem for me at all, even in pitch black. So I have my eye on the K65 as a replacement (don't punch a crazy load of numbers in often so tenkeyless is fine too, an advantage, even, less desk bulk obstructing the mouse).

[Luke7]

'USB passthrough isn't SuperSpeed' Does it need to be? Its a keyboard. Not an external hdd. I can't imagine a keyboard being able to take advantage of 5Gbit/s... ever. Correct me if I'm wrong but I am correct in thinking this?

[Noli]

"The Brown and Blue key-switch varieties are only available on the silver board..."

Correction - the brown and blues are only available on the gunmetal grey keyboard. I know this because I'm typing on the brown switch gunmetal K70 right now and desperately wanted the browns on the silver one (or black even) in preference. If it ever comes out on silver I'll be a little miffed...

My personal take? First time with mechanical and love it. I really wanted a few media keys and volume roller but truth is I hardly touch them. The new WASD V2 keyboard has no excess buttons but has media functions available as Fn combinations with the Ins, Home, PgUp etc buttons. An elegant alternative.

As a touch typist I almost never have the backlighting on but it does look cool. Nit picking but the Shift symbols above then top row number come out brighter than the numbers themselves due to the LED positioning.

3 other gripes: firstly, I can't disable bright white caps, scroll and num lock indicator lights (well, unless I turn num lock off, but I don't want to).

Secondly, I really noticed how compact this is compared to my old OEM Logitech. The Function keys are too close to the number row and the Ins, Home, PgUp cluster, arrow keys, num pad and main keys are all too close together. My hand often goes blind to these keys and often mistypes. Never with the logitech. The wider gap inbetween key clusters is actually useful for delineating key position, despite a slight increase in side.

Lastly, a 3 port USB hub would be awesome. (e.g. flash drive, mouse, USB headphone DAC etc.)
Hope you're listening Corsair for the K75...

@Luke7
"'USB passthrough isn't SuperSpeed' Does it need to be? Its a keyboard. Not an external hdd. I can't imagine a keyboard being able to take advantage of 5Gbit/s... ever."
Sounds apologist to me. What if I wanted to plug in my slim SSD enclosure into the keyboard for fast transfers? It's v conveniently placed and the extra speed wouldn't go amiss. Really, USB 3.0 came out over FIVE years ago. I thought we were trying to encourage the spread of improved standards...

[AlexKitch]

'USB passthrough isn't SuperSpeed' Does it need to be? Its a keyboard. Not an external hdd. I can't imagine a keyboard being able to take advantage of 5Gbit/s... ever. Correct me if I'm wrong but I am correct in thinking this?

This is referring to the USB ports on the keyboard itself. It might well use 5Gbit/s if whatever you're plugging in wants to run at such bandwidth

[OilSheikh]

Looks crap. Nothing beats the Razer Tron keyboard

[AlexKitch]

Looks crap. Nothing beats the Razer Tron keyboard

Sure, if you like your keyboards to look like something out of an 80's sci-fi movie.

[Dooms]

I love my K60

[directhex]

Looks crap. Nothing beats the Razer Tron keyboard

I've been horrified by the key action on Razer's chiclet keyboards.

[roadie]

A word of caution with this keyboard. I have the silver K70 with Cherry Red switches.

I like using the keyboard, but 13 of the LEDs have failed since August.

This is a well known issue if you check the Corsair support forums. I'll be returning it for a replacement as soon as I get my hands on the box for it over Christmas.

[Steve A]

trying to ignore the fact of who i work for, i have used a fair few mechanical keyboards and for me this is the best i have used (by a fair bit)

you can argue about the USB pass through not being USB 3.0, OK it would be handy for some but i only use it to plug my mouse or joypad in so it has never been an issue for me.

I love the select-able LED feature and just the general feel of it, the build quality is unequaled.

Thanks

(i have the black version which is nicer looking than the silver)