Thank you Corsair for sending us this keyboard to review!

Many gamers these days seem to prefer tenkeyless (or TKL) keyboards over the classic 104-key full size ones. A while back my son reviewed a TKL keyboard for us, and now he won't use a 104-key at his desk anymore. So, when the keyboard he loved for several years started to have problems, I had to come to the rescue with another TKL for him, the Corsair K70 Core TKL. We also have a tradition on New Year's Day where we host a LAN party where a bunch of friends came over and bring their computers to my house, connect them all up, and play games together. This year, one of my buddies didn't have enough table space for both his mouse and keyboard. I let him borrow a TKL keyboard, and he was very happy because it solved this problem, making space for his mouse. All of this to say, tenkeyless keyboards are a fantastic option for gamers, and really for most people unless they do numerical data entry often enough to justify that number pad.

For just basic typing, mechanical keyboards offer an excellent experience, and very customizable because of the many switch types out there. For example, on a recent keyboard I reviewed, you can swap out the switches if you don't like what it comes with to suit your preferences. Some may like loud and clicky, or often called blue switches. Some may like quiet but tactile, where you can feel the bump but it doesn't make a noise; these are often called brown switches. Others may like quiet and smooth; these are often called red switches. Typists can find keyboards matching all of these kinds and more, and some boards let you swap the switch type out, making an entire new ecosystem around keyboard customization. This is really neat honestly. But the Corsair K70 PRO TKL is not one of these.

Gaming has slightly different requirements than purely just typing. While being a good keyboard for typing is important for many gamers, myself included, gaming offers a different usage pattern. While for the vast majority of gamers a standard keyboard is likely good enough, this keyboard uses the Corsair's MGX V2 magnetic switch for those who chase the best for gaming. What makes these switches so special is that instead of having a metal contact point for each switch, they instead have a magnet and a sensor that measures the magnetic field strength at that point. What this means is that each key knows exactly what depth each is being pressed by extrapolating out the magnetic flux density. If you press in the key by just a fraction of a millimeter, the field strength has measurably changed, and the key can tell that. This leads to gaming use cases that many didn't expect, but are pretty fantastic.

First of all, even for typists you can set the actuation depth for each key independently, from a depth of 0.1mm all the way to 4.0mm. If you tend to accidentally hit keys, a deeper setting is a great idea to prevent typos. If you want the fastest reaction time possible, or are simply a light typist, then a much shallower setting may be preferred. This customization is pretty much only possible on magnetic (also called hall-effect) keyboard key switches. As an aside, these switches are super smooth, like a smoother red/linear switch. Since there does not have to be any contact at any point with the switch outside of hitting the bottom, these are an incredibly smooth feeling switch that just glides as it's being used.

Another feature that comes unique to magnetic switches like the Corsair MGX V2 is not just customizable actuation depth, but multiple actuation points. This allows you to have one action mapped to a lighter press, and a second when pushed down further (or all the way). The main use for this are things like walking when lightly pressing and sprinting when pushing down, though I'm sure creative gamers can come up with other use cases also.

A perhaps more interesting case is Rapid Trigger. This is a logical extension of being able to have custom actuation depth. Imagine, instead of returning to the top of each key press before pressing down again, you go up only slightly to reactivate the same key by pressing down again in the middle of the return stroke. This is Rapid Trigger. In other words, you can repeatedly activate a key by bouncing the key in place, and if you have your fingers hovering over W/A/S/D like many gamers do, then you can switch quickly between them and not worry about a full return travel to the top, or at least past a specific actuation point. It's a great feature, especially for rhythm games that demand fast and repeated button pressing, but it can be useful for shooters to an extent also.

There is one last feature that pairs well with Rapid Trigger. It's called FlashTap. This feature is really neat, but it's banned in some games, so be careful. You activate this by pressing Fn+Right Shift, which then turns the 'A' and 'D' keys orange. What this allows you to do is hold down one of the 'A' or 'D' keys, and activate the other, then activate what's being held down when you release it. This allows you to 'wiggle' much more easily, or quickly reverse direction when strafing without having to release your opposite finger. This, along with Rapid Trigger, can give higher-skill players a real advantage in competitive gameplay with some games. It's well known that Counter Strike will ban users of this feature for what they consider to be macro usage, so be careful out there! I will say that with the 'A' and 'D' keys being color coded when it's on, that does help make it easier to be sure that it's off.

One final feature that is less important to me but some may still care about is the USB polling rate. Most normal keyboards use a rather sluggish 125Hz, the default polling rate for USB devices. This is fine for most people, but devices do feel subtly more responsive if used at a higher polling rate. Most gaming keyboards and mice can use a 1,000Hz polling rate these days; that's considered pretty much normal now for gaming peripherals like keyboards and mice. High-end devices like the Corsair K70 PRO TKL and the K70 MAX I reviewed a while back both support polling rates even higher. In this case, you can raise it up to 8,000Hz if you like. This is honestly overkill, and the increased CPU load can be noticeable in games on rare occasions, but it's an option.

One neat thing is that this keyboard has a few dedicated buttons, like Game, Play/Pause, and a multi-function wheel that I'll get into more soon. But the relevant thing here is that you can set a different polling rate for Game Mode over the default. This is honestly really cool. In my case, I have Game Mode activate 8,000Hz and Rapid Trigger, so if I feel like my movement needs that extra edge, I can activate that at the press of a button. Do be aware that if you use a different polling rate for Game Mode than otherwise, then the keyboard does disconnect for a quick moment. I do this, since 1,000Hz is plenty for normal use for me.

I should probably point out that most if not all of the above features require Corsair's iCUE software to configure, with the exception of FlashTap, which is a firmware/hardware only feature at this time. Corsair's iCUE is a little odd at times, and requires several clicks to make a single change to lighting or key assignments/actuations, but it does get the job done. I will note that in my experience you can't run iCUE in a virtual machine; if you like to run Linux on your machines, you will unfortunately require a bare-metal Windows install to configure this keyboard. But once you do, it remembers everything onboard, as long as you make sure 'Device Memory Mode' is selected while in iCUE. I really like that they made it clearer what works onboard and what doesn't in a recent major update to iCUE. This improvement impacted quite a few devices (in a good way).

A quick note: the closest keyboard I have to compare this with that also uses hall-effect key switches is the Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL Pro. The Vulcan has two features this does not, and this has some that does not. The Vulcan supports up to three actuations per key instead of just two. Another feature it has is gamepad analog stick emulation when using the W/A/S/D keys. If you want to see how that works, please refer to that review. On the flip side, this Corsair supports a higher 8,000Hz polling rate, the multi-function knob I'll cover soon, much better keycaps and wrist rest, and the dedicated Game Mode and Play/Pause buttons. If I had to pick only one I'd choose the Corsair, but the Turtle Beach is by no means bad, especially if you replace the keycaps.

The Corsair K70 PRO TKL Gaming Keyboard is pretty compact for a tenkeyless (TKL) keyboard. It uses full-size keys, so it's not low profile or anything. It gives a full-sized experience, as long as you don't rely on the number pad, since it doesn't have one. Like many gamer-centric TKL keyboards, the classic Break, Scroll Lock, and Print Screen keys are missing, and media keys (or in this case, a Play/Pause button and a multi-function rotary dial) takes their place. Scroll lock is still there by default, mapped to Fn + F1. But Print Screen is still commonly used, and isn't mapped to anything by default. I mapped it to Fn + F11 via the Windows software iCUE, and saved that to the onboard device profile, so now it works everywhere.

The keyboard is built well, with a sturdy plastic shell and an aluminum top plate. I can't tell how thick the top plate is, but typing feels sturdy. The plastic used has a texture that makes it feel fine, but I've seen better. There is virtually no twist or give in the chassis, and the top plate is extremely firm. While the plastic used may seem like nothing special, the implementation is well done, and leads to a surprisingly firm and sturdy keyboard, all of which contributes to what matters most, the typing feel.

It feels really good to type on. The keycaps are quite nice; I'm not sure if this review sample included ABS or PBT, since both are offered and I don't see either on the label of the box. I do not yet have enough different keycaps samples in my collection to where I can be certain of the different types plastics used; I can identify hard/smooth ABS easily enough, but my 'PBT sense' needs work. Either way, the keycaps feel good, and most should be satisfied.

I already spoke pretty highly of the Corsair MGX V2 Hall Effect (also called MGX Hyperdrive) key switches, and they are indeed very nice. However, Corsair made a strange decision, and decided to make the outside keys mechanical switches instead of hall effect - they used the Corsair MLX Plasma linear mechanical switches instead. They are used for the escape and function row, along with the arrow keys and the Ins/Del/Home/End/PgUp/PgDn cluster. Honestly they are really nice switches, and I have no complaints about them. And most gamers are going to use the magnetic features on the main 61 keys rather than the outside clusters. But it was still an odd decision. Despite that, overall I'm still happy with the keyboard, it's just a strange decision to mix and match like that.

There are two sound-dampening layers, and along with the stiff chassis, makes for a typing feel that is remarkably firm, solid, and quick. It's also not too loud; you can hear them when they bottom out, and there is certainly a stiff clack when they do so, but it's really not all that loud. There is very little resonance, and while I wish it sounded a bit deeper, it's still sounds pretty good. Interestingly, you can hear the difference between the magnetic keys and the mechanical ones, as the tone is slightly different. Whatever the case, they advertise sound dampening, and it's fairly quiet in operation, so it seems to be working as advertised.

While the TKL layout has the keys in their more or less normal places, there are a few bonus features with this one. On the upper-right, there is the dedicated Game Mode button I mentioned earlier, a media key that functions like Play/Pause, and a special new multi-function rotary dial. I love volume knobs, and this is certainly that. But it's also so much more.

Out of the box, by default, the rotary dial does indeed change the volume. And honestly, that alone would be enough; when you press down it mutes, and turning it raises and lowers volume with satisfying indentions as it turns. The side of the dial is covered in little shapes that gives it a satisfying texture. There are three little white notches in equal distances from each other, and they give you a sense of reference when turning the knob. All is good here, it looks and feels great and is oddly fun to use. Its functionality also goes beyond what I expected.

What's interesting is that if you press Fn + F12, the function of the knob changes, depending on the color the F12 key is once it's pressed. This indicator, if white, is the default volume up/down. If it's red, you control the backlight brightness. For green, it's vertical scroll, like a mouse wheel. For yellow, it's horizontal scrolling. And with blue, you can instantly adjust document zoom level. I was surprised to see all of these dial modes work in both Windows and Linux. I found they work on macOS also, except for the zoom function, which requires checking a macOS compatibility box when configuring the keyboard in iCUE.

As mentioned before, iCUE is the software Corsair offers for all of their hardware. There is a version for Windows and macOS. It allows you to customize lighting effects, key assignments, the control dial, and set other miscellaneous performance settings. For all of these, running in iCUE mode does offer more features, but I found everything I needed was covered by 'Device Memory Mode', which is a setting that adjusts the onboard profiles, rather than overriding it via software. Since I connect my keyboard to multiple computers and operating systems, this is important functionality for me.

The RGB LED lights are quite flexible, and you can customize them in almost any way you can imagine, even per-key. You can set it to a static color, or one of many color patterns. In the 'Lighting Effects' section of iCUE, you can set it to over a dozen different lighting types, per LED region. There are a ton of options. These include static colors, watercolor, color pulse, color shift, and many more. I'm a simple guy and like static colors, but if you want wild colors, feel free - and if iCUE is running, you have lots more options.

If you want to, you can customize every key on the keyboard; for example, if you want to make a DVORAK layout with just keyboard profiles rather than checking a box in your operating system, I'm pretty sure you can do that. There is also a 'Fn' key that has the entire keyboard available for macros or any other customized function you can think of. As I mentioned earlier, I mapped Print Screen to Fn + F11, using this interface. The neat thing is that any key that has something assigned to it will glow white when you hold down the Fn key. So while F11 doesn't glow white out of the box, it does now! When run in iCUE mode, it supports more features like launching programs, but even without that you can do a whole lot, including complex keyboard macros; once they are stored on the keyboard, you no longer need iCUE to execute them.

The rotary dial gets its own tab in iCUE, called 'Control Dial'. This section allows you to customize what features and options are available when you press Fn + F12. By default it offers volume control, brightness control, and vertical scrolling, but horizontal scrolling and zoom are there to be enabled if you wish. In my case, I disabled brightness control since there are dedicated Fn + F3/F4 macros for dimming and increasing brightness out of the box, so that functionality feels redundant to me. I enabled the rest of them because it's cool, though in reality I use volume control 90% of the time, and occasionally vertical scroll. I still love that it's there, though.

The rest of the useful settings are in the performance tab or the device settings screen. There you can set polling rate between 125Hz and 8,000Hz, as well as update firmware, not to mention enable PlayStation mode, if you need that. You can also enable or disable blocking certain common Windows features when Game Mode is enabled, like Alt + Tab, the Windows key, and Alt + F4. When Game Mode is enabled the entire keyboard goes red, which is a nice touch and helps keep it straight when needed.

I also appreciate that the keyboard has a detachable cable, with a USB-C connection port on the top left. I often use keyboards in a keyboard tray, and already have a custom extension cable ran there, so being able to use my own USB-C cable of the appropriate size is a huge benefit for me. It includes a standard rubber cable rather than the nicer fabric cable included in the K70 Core TKL, which took me by surprise as I feel like that cable is nicer to the touch.

Speaking of the K70 Core TKL, at first glance you might think the two keyboards are identical. They aren't; the magnetic switches are of course a major difference, and the dedicated Game Mode button is new, also. The top aluminum plate has a more premium polish, the keyboard is heavier, and this PRO model includes a wrist rest, and a nice one, while the other does not. The polling rate is also limited to 1,000Hz rather than 8,000Hz. With that said, I would say you get a whole lot more for your money with the Core model. The PRO model is no question a better keyboard that feels better and has more features. But is it $80-$90 better, or worth almost twice the price? I guess that depends on if you are likely to use the more advanced features. One thing I will say is that magnetic switches seem to less likely to have problems with unexpected typing or unwanted double taps in my experience.

The Corsair K70 PRO TKL is a fantastic keyboard, with features that stacks up really well against the competition in the high-end competitive gamer space. The typing feel is great, and I really like the feature set included with the rotary dial. It is expensive; if you are a competitive gamer, then it's probably worth forking up the extra money. If you are more casual, but still like the TKL form factor, then I would probably consider the K70 Core TKL for a lower price - it's still excellent, but a much better value. If you are looking for a gaming-focused TKL keyboard with the advanced features offered with hall-effect switches, then Corsair K70 PRO TKL is an excellent choice. Recommended for the competitive gamer!