Corsair K70 Pro TKL Review: Pro Isn’t Always Better

Once I take a look at a mechanical keyboard with “Professional” within the identify, I anticipate it to be the very best of the very best, with no compromises over its non-Professional variant. Razer has this discovered: The BlackWidow V4 Professional is best than the unique V4 in each approach, and it proves {that a} gaming keyboard doesn’t have to make use of Corridor impact switches to be good.

Conversely, Corsair demonstrated that Corridor impact switches don’t robotically make a keyboard higher, particularly when there are trade-offs to get them. The Corsair K70 keyboard has three flavors: Core ($100), Core Wi-fi ($150), and Professional TKL ($180). The Professional has a bonus over the Core as a result of it has some Corridor impact switches however skips wi-fi connectivity. It sports activities an 8,000-Hz polling price, intensive RGB, and a magnetized wrist relaxation. It additionally has just a few sacrifices that make it lackluster in comparison with the opposite K70 fashions and its friends.

A Story of Two Switches

Corsair’s product web page for the K70 Professional TKL says the keyboard makes use of “Corsair MGX V2 switches,” with no point out of normal mechanical switches within the Tech Specs part or elsewhere. Within the exploded view of the keyboard, a number of the switches have pink stems as a substitute of blue and are listed as “MLX Plasma switches.”

Each key not a part of the principle cluster, just like the operate row, Escape key, arrow keys, and different navigation keys, are mechanical switches. Even on the packaging for the keyboard, that is solely introduced in small print on the highest of the field, with the remaining solely mentioning the MGX Hyperdrive switches. Intentional or not, that is irritating. Once I purchase a keyboard, I anticipate all of the keys to have the identical kind of switches. If that’s not the case, the corporate needs to be clearer than this.

Fortunately, the keyboard doesn’t really feel dangerous to kind on. The MGX V2 Hyperdrive switches are crisp and responsive with none softness on the backside of the keypress. There may be nearly zero scratchiness when typing and even when urgent a swap down slowly, a feat doable because of the contact-free design of a magnetic Corridor impact swap. (Learn extra concerning the tech right here.) That is probably additional improved by the double-rail design contained in the switches, launched with the Keychron Q1 HE and utilized in a number of keyboards since.

The Hyperdrive switches share the identical design as Wooting’s Lekker switches, which suggests the 2 may be swapped between keyboards. Nonetheless, each are made utilizing an earlier design of Corridor impact switches and should not interchangeable with the newer Corridor impact switches utilized by Keychron (a problem I mentioned when reviewing the Q1 HE final yr).

The MLX mechanical switches are satisfying to make use of, though they really feel heavier than the Corridor impact switches. They’ve a deeper, full tone and a slight scratchiness that may be felt even when typing usually. It feels much like the “good” scratch of one thing like a Cherry MX Black. The MLX switches really feel barely slower to bounce again after a keypress.

I felt regularly thrown off by the blending of the MGX Corridor impact and MLX mechanical switches, because the two felt noticeably totally different. This isn’t to say that the MLX switches are dangerous; I get pleasure from typing on the usual K70 Core that solely has mechanical switches. The difficulty is how the 2 mix. It was distracting at any time when I had to make use of each switches back-to-back.

Half Excessive-Velocity

The K70 Professional TKL performs properly for gaming. It has extremely exact and responsive inputs, and greater than that, the MGX switches’ weight and rebound velocity are tuned for responsiveness with out being so gentle as to trigger any unintended mis-inputs.