Corsair K70 RGB Rapidfire Keyboard Review: Meet the new MX Speed switches

[Steve]

Back in 2008 Cherry released the MX Red linear switches with a low 45 cN actuation force that were aimed squarely at gamers. Like the black, blue and brown switches, the red ones travel 2mm before actuating with a total travel distance of 4mm before bottoming out.

Corsair believes that serious gamers don't have the time it takes for a key to travel 2mm and have instead reduced the travel distance to 1.2mm for a lighting fast 4ms actuation speed.

These new MX Speed switches are a Corsair exclusive and for now are only available on its new line of Rapidfire branded keyboards, including the K65 RGB Rapidfire, K70 Rapidfire and K70 RGB Rapidfire. We have the latter on hand today which retails for a wallet-busting $170 while the non-RGB version is a little easier to take at $130.

Read the complete review.

 

[Agnomen]

These seem pretty wicked and I'm curious to see how they feel in comparison to the more common red switch. I just wish linear switches were more to my liking. I can't help but like the feel of Browns and even Romer-G's a lot more.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Finally! K65 here I come.

 

[Greg S]

I just got a K70 with MX Brown switches a little while ago. I have to say that I love the feel of it and would definitely recommend the K70 to anyone who wants a solid keyboard. However, note that the non-RGB version is not macro-programmable and does not interface with the CUE software so you can't do any of the fancy effects with the red back lighting if that's your kind of thing.

I admittedly never tried the mx speed switches, but I like the feel of the browns I got. Unless you are a major gamer, I don't think you would really benefit much from them.

 

[Panda218]

Corsair was showing the keyboard off at Comic-Con in Minneapolis and I played Overwatch with it for about 5 minutes. I loved the feel of typing on the keyboard, but its extremely hard to find the point at which the switch clicks for the input. All and all I really liked the keyboard, but the price was too high for me.

 

[Omega616]

Backlit keyboards with light escaping on the sides are downright lame and ultimately flawed products. In 2016 one might expect a mechanical keyboard to be made with the characters backlit only, but no, the technology won't be implemented unless some aliens enlighten Corsair and others to the idea. Plus, the small Enter key is lame as well, so the cheap Genius KB-G265 will trump any such ultra-deluxe trifle; oh, and I do type a lot.

 

[Someone8MyPosts]

A video demo'ing the quietness of these really would have been helpful.