Corsair K70 CORE Review

Corsair's catalogue is full of gaming-keyboard ranges, but none carries the reputation of the K70. So when the American maker announces a new variant, ears prick up — and when the plan is to lower the entry price, heads turn. This review is based on that published test, not on a hands-on trial of our own.

K70 keyboards have always been well regarded, but rarely what you would call affordable. With the "Core" model, Corsair seems to be sending a signal: core is the heart of the matter, as though the firm wanted to focus on essentials and strip away the superfluous to reach something more accessible — if not quite a "budget" product. The K70 CORE carries a suggested price of around one hundred pounds, and Corsair has made a real effort in Europe, matching the US figure rather than inflating it.

At that price, some of the usual armoury is missing. First, the K70 CORE is "only" a wired model, connecting over USB-A with no adapter supplied and a non-braided cable measuring 1.8 metres. A full-width board, it looks relatively plain, though Corsair has taken some care with the finish: uniformly black, with slightly rounded corners and bevelled sides to seem a little less bulky. There is a numeric keypad and arrow keys, but to cut costs the keycaps are ABS — albeit double-shot for better longevity. Other economies show in the absence of a USB pass-through and of any keycap or switch puller, while the underside carries basic feet that tilt the board on a single level. Corsair does at least include a wrist rest, though it is plastic and, despite talk of a soft-touch finish, feels rather hard. Beyond the board and that rest, the box holds little else.

For years Corsair enjoyed each new generation of Cherry switches, sometimes exclusively; when the German firm began making its own keyboards, Corsair had to develop switches of its own. Here they are the Red Linear type: mechanical switches requiring 45 grams of force, with 4mm of travel and actuation from 1.9mm. Their responsiveness gave no trouble, and it takes only seconds to settle in, just as with any Cherry MX Red — the total travel and required force are the same on paper, the only difference being actuation 0.1mm earlier, which in practice is imperceptible. As ever, it is welcome that these switches are linear, with no click on actuation.

That keeps things relatively quiet, helped by Corsair's efforts to limit noise: the fairly open chassis might have given cause for concern, but two layers of sound dampening beneath the aluminium top plate keep resonance well in check, with no echo, even if you can still hear the keycaps tapping the structure a little. It is not the level of a specialist maker, but the effort is appreciable. The only blots are that the switches are not factory-lubricated and that the spacebar is noticeably louder and clackier than the other keys — leaving the K70 CORE neither the quietest nor the noisiest, but comfortably mid-pack.

The wrist rest is where the review is least forgiving: it stops the palms sweating, but this hard plastic is far from the cosiest around. Happily there is plenty to enjoy elsewhere. Alongside full N-Key Rollover and antighosting, the standout is a genuinely handy multifunction wheel. Well placed and neatly styled, it pairs with the Fn + F12 combination to switch between jobs — from volume to backlight brightness to system commands such as horizontal scrolling, vertical scrolling and zoom. Corsair even distinguishes Windows from macOS here, though zoom is only imperfectly recognised on the Mac; either way, the wheel is an excellent complement to the usual shortcut keys.

To get the most from it you install iCUE, Corsair's companion software. Key reassignment, macro creation, LED backlight management — very effective, incidentally — and profile storage are all present, along with performance options such as polling rate, debounce delay and a PlayStation mode; iCUE can even tie the lighting to a component's temperature. It is not the lightest software, but it is close to the most complete, and up to five profiles can be stored at once.

Have the big brands realised that not everyone has a fortune to spend on a keyboard? Perhaps not, but the K70 CORE is at least a step in the right direction. At around one hundred pounds it is no "budget" model, yet it does far more than merely cover the essentials, so its shortcomings are easily forgiven. The wrist rest is too hard, the foot tilt too simple and the spacebar too noisy — but the Corsair Red Linear switches are as pleasant as they are responsive, N-Key Rollover and antighosting are present, key noise is contained by that double layer of dampening, and five profiles can be held at once. Add a genuinely useful multifunction wheel and a reassuringly robust chassis, and this is a good pick.