CORSAIR K70 RGB MK.2 RAPIDFIRE Low Profile review

CORSAIR K70 RGB MK.2 RAPIDFIRE Low Profile review

CORSAIR K70 RGB MK.2 RAPIDFIRE Low Profile review

Pros
Fast, reliable, snappy typing
Smart, slick physical design
Plenty of extra features
Reliable build quality

Cons
Slightly different feel to full-height keys
Flimsy wrist-rest
Uses slow USB 2

Specifications

Switch	Cherry MX Red Low Profile
Lighting	Per-key RGB
Onboard Storage	8MB
Media Keys	Yes
Game Mode	Yes
Microcontroller	Unknown
Key Rollover	NKRO 100% anti-ghosting
Polling Rate	1000Hz / 1ms
Interface	USB 2.0
Cable	1.8m/ 6ft
Additional Ports	1x USB 2.0 passthrough
Keycaps	ABS
Construction	Plastic / Anodized Aluminum
Accessories	Wrist rest, alternate gaming keycaps
Software	Corsair iCue
Dimensions (WxDxH)	475 x 154 x 43mm
Weight	1.08kg / 38oz

what's up guys today we're gonna be checking out the brand new Corsair Gaming k70 RGB mark to low profile gaming keyboard as you can see much more thin than you're probably used to and this has the revised version of the cherry speed switches inside making this one of the fastest gaming keyboards on the market so if you're interested in a low profile keyboard of one of the most popular selling keyboards of all time we'll go over it for you guys today in this review so first off like I said this is the mark 2 version of the k7 T and at first glance you first take out of the box and get it set up the layout pretty much everything looks identical to that because it's the same keyboard the benefit low profile is going to be a lot easier to adjust when people use to chiclet keys on laptops and the fact that that you switches them the key caps are shorter you're

gonna be pressing them down faster but checking out some of the features on the top right hand side of the keyboard as course they're always delivered as we have dedicated multimedia keys always a big fan of this your playback controls and a nice smooth scrolling volume wheel we still have the black brushed aluminum frame throughout the keyboard and like we had on the mark 2k 70 you still have 8 megabytes of on-board profile sword so it's gonna let you save like macros and lighting effects to the keyboard itself so if you bring it to a friend's house or whatever you can have all your stuff saved right to the keyboard and some other things like the USB pass-through on the back that's still there even though it's a much smaller frame so pretty much identical like I said to the case that mini mark 2 also inside the box they include a set of textured fps and MOBA key caps you can throw on here with a key cap puller and we also have their usual wrist rest it's easy to snap onto the bottom but I'm not the biggest fan of it other

companies definitely make you a lot more comfortable attachable wrist rests out there it's just not doing too much for me if I'm being honest but to give you a good idea of how much more thin this keyboard is traditionally your keyboard is gonna be around 40 millimeters tall as you can see I do have the feet out so you can see how tall the keyboard can get without the low-profile keyboard it is 29 millimeters tall which is a little over 1/4 of the size smaller now that is measured from the back of the keyboard where it's at its tallest so obviously as you go down its gonna get thinner but the frame isn't the only reduced thing here when you pop off the key caps you will notice that these switches are also smaller you can see now they are round these actually at one millimeter versus two millimeters from a traditional gaming keyboard so you're actuated this in half the distance it still takes 45 grams force to actually actuate it and these travel three point two millimeters versus the three point four millimeters from a traditional

cherry speed switch so the fact that it's round does really make a big difference it's just that point two millimeters quicker than the regular cherry speed switches which were already a lot faster than regular switches out there so you can pick this keyboard up in the low profile speed switch this also comes in the low profile red switch but now I'll do a sound test you could here have these low profile speed switches sound now in terms of lighting effects it's all going to be the same of what you're used to we still have that kind of unfavorable font on the key caps but since the character keys are kind of larger it lets a lot more light shine through in the IQ

software you could change up all the effects create your own effects this is where you can go in and create macros and stuff like that but again you've probably been familiar with the effects and the software for the past like four years now so I've been gaming on this for a week straight and for most you people who probably familiar with me and my channel know that I've been using the K 95 platinum for the past year and a half now or since that released really it's my go to gaming keyboard because that was one of the first to introduce these cherry speed switches

and I do love that keyboard but when I switched to this it's kind of hard to you know pinpoint that point two millimeters because in your gaming in the heat of the moment am I gonna notice a point two millimeter difference no however I was playing counter-strike I don't play it you know too often I like to play arms raising csgo I won five straight games the first time I plug this in now you can call me a liar I don't care I've never won five straight before I think I've won like two or three in a row not five not to mention I only play that game but I'm testing mice and keyboards so can i pinpoint that on this I don't know but I thought it was worth noting but if you've never used a cherry sweet switch in the past you'll probably notice a bigger difference now you play some other games like pubsey and overwatch and again it's really hard to tell if this is making a difference for me but in those quick fast paced action-packed games you're gonna want a faster gaming keyboard and since I'm used to regular cherry speed switches didn't really notice a big difference here obviously but the fact that I won 5-straight kind of

makes me want to use this more often now for the low profile kind of profile we have now I'm not really used to it because I've been using a regular gaming keyboard for the past how many years for people transitioning probably from like a laptop or something they're gonna be more at home with this because it's that nice low profile the key caps are a lot more flat and even so for them you're probably gonna have the easier time transitioning if you are picking up a different keyboard as opposed to using the keyboard in your laptop so that's a good thing there aren't really a lot of cons to this and then the price point I think this still launches at a regular price with the other lineup I think that's at 169 so the other case seventies are gonna be that same price but I think it's just a little bit too much still um maybe like 150 would be better I just think you know 170 still just a lot for a gaming keyboard out there yes we do have faster switches the low profile all that but it's a little bit too much more money than I'd like to spend so not really much of a review here because it's essentially the same exact k70 RGB mark -

CORSAIR K70 RGB MK.2 RAPIDFIRE Low Profile review

Corsair DK 70 mark 2 low profile, so as the name would suggest the Corsair k70 mark - low profile is essentially just the version of the k70 mark - with a little bit smaller form factor but all of the other features and everything are pretty much the same now to be exact this keyboard is about 25% slimmer than the regular k70 mark tube but aside from that it still has all the great features we know and love from the mark - like the soft touch wrist rest it's got the USB pass-through you've got those dedicated media keys with the textured volume scroll wheel it also has that nice beautiful brushed aluminum back plate from the K 70 line but the main differences are going to be that it uses a new corsair exclusive cherry MX speed low profile switch we'll get into the details on that here in just a little bit as well as these nice low profile key caps there are of course a couple of differences in the features as well one of the big

differences is that the regular K 70 mark 2 does have that cable routing management system underneath the board the low profile version of the keyboard doesn't have that and I think the main reason is probably just due to the slim design of the actual casing of the keyboard itself there just wasn't enough room to have the cutouts there or at least that's my theory so as you guys can tell there's pretty much identical keyboards up until this point but the main thing that makes it the low profile is the new cherry MX speed low profile switches now these switches have a 45 grams actuation force a one millimeter total travel which is a little bit faster than the regular cherry MX speed and a 3.2 millimeter total travel as well as that 50 million keystroke guarantee that you get from Cherry but the way that these switches perform is actually much better than the regular cherry MX speed switch the main reason I say that is because if I type

on this cherry MX speed board that I have in front of me and push down and wiggle on the keys there's just a little bit of key wobble now Cherry MX is actually pretty good about not having a lot of key wobble in there switches but then when you move over to the low profile switch and just press that key down and move it there's virtually zero key wobble these are ultra ultra solid switches another big improvement over the regular k7e mark - when it comes to using these switches is they finally eliminated that horrible space bar rattle that has been kind of plugging the k95 platinum and the K 70 line for a while and when you push down on that it's not nearly as bad there's still a little bit but compared to this much much better so really really happy to have that especially with just how great and fluid and solid feeling the typing experience on this keyboard is and I would almost liken it to typing on a Topor keyboard which is kind of known for having a really nice typing experience and when coming over onto these keys it's the closest feeling to a topor board that I felt just you guys can kind of get a

better idea of how this keyboard sounds I am gonna do a quick back to back sound test of the regular K 70 mark 2 with the Cherry MX speeds and the K 70 mark to low profile with the Cherry MX speed low profile switches in terms of the lighting it's pretty much going to be a very comparable experience to any other of Corsairs keyboards you've got that same big bold font on the keys that you do on any other Corsair keyboard and much like all of the other k70 mark 2's you do have that 2 zone illuminated logo as well one thing though is that these low-profile switches I feel like actually have a little bit better light permeability than the regular Cherry MX which bodies do the main reason is just with them being a little bit slimmer and that LED is a little bit higher the light tends to kind of go around the switch and just kind of gives it a little bit more full luminescence than the regular ones do and I think paired with that low-profile key caps as well just gives it a really cool ambience and kind of helps the board pop just a little bit more so overall as you guys can tell both of these keyboards are pretty much

identical with those couple of changes that I mentioned main ones being again the lack of the cable routing management system on the low profile and the addition of those low profile keys with the reduction of the spacebar rattle now of course it is kind of just another option on the k70 line which is not a bad thing because the k70 line of keyboards has been one of my most recommended keyboard lines out there pretty much since the original k70 RGB came out and I'm glad that the low-profile version is going to keep that tradition going with being another solid keyboard from Corsair now both of these keyboards are 169 bucks so really it does just come up to personal preference but like the original k70 mark 2 giving you five switch types

and also having the addition of having the special edition with the pbt key caps like this one here you see and now having a low-profile version it's just good to see that Corsair is not just sticking with one design and just kind of riding that out they're still trying to push in different directions and give us something new so really nice to see but if you guys want to see a little bit more in-depth review on this keyboard I'm gonna link down below to my full length review of the k70 mark 2 because I don't want to make this review too long and drawn-out when I've

already pretty much covered everything that goes into these keyboards - those two features we talked about that makes it low-

new Corsair k70 RGB mark - low profile rapid-fire mechanical keyboard that is a mouthful I'm just going to refer to this as the low profile rapid-fire this low profile rapid-fire is a a brand uses a brand new switch from Cherry this is being released on October 25th 2018 it's a ground-up redesign it may look similar to other mechanical keyboards you've seen but this is the first brand new ground up design from cherry based in Germany since the 1980s the switches that we've all come to know and love from them we're designed in a completely different era when people weren't using them for gaming and and and basically it would certainly weren't using them for RGB and so this brand-new design really brings bring something brand new to the market this is this is not just this is not just kind of a rehash of an old design so let me go over the RGB effects and I'm gonna lay this down on the desk here and show you how it works in

practice now of course RGB is kind of all the rage the good news is that this really gets it right first of all these new switches were redesigned from the ground up for RGB effects so that they shine in all directions previous Cherry MX switches were kind of retrofit with RGB lighting and they they didn't really shine quite as brightly as some of the competition but these switches really do a great job and of course of course Corsair has has dominated the market for RGB keyboards with it ever since it's k70 RGB came out and one of the reasons is it's using a really high resolution RGB controller not all RGB controllers are the same this one is is a really high quality one so while you might have an RGB controller that's seven color or 256 color this offers a lot more color range and with what that means is when you have something for instance like the rainbow wave you don't see it jump from color to color okay like almost as if it were pulsing and I've seen this on other competing RGB keyboards where you set up something

like this and you see it it's almost like stop-motion okay you see it jump from color to color with each key and that is not a cool effect that is not that is not worth showing off this is worth showing off so if you want to keyboard to show off and you want to say hey check out these RGB effects of course there's nailed it of course this is their what they call their spiral rainbow nobody does it like Corsair it looks really good this is the default when you first plug it in this is what you're going to see our showroom floors we're going to see at the store it's really really cool the only problem with this is that it can be pretty distracting if you're gaming or typing to have this in your peripheral vision so while in the past you could set up a single color backlight with a lot of work in the courser IQ software Corsair has recently added something called instant lighting so say okay I've shown my friends is RGB lighting it looks super cool isn't it awesome let's get into a game and let's let's calm the life down a little bit let's go and do blue I just click one button on the IQ interface and I got blue locked in and I got my blue I got my

blue backlight to match my system or say I've got a red lighting in my system I've got red backlight is that easy now you can go into the software still and select really fine you know it's very specific color patterns for instance say I want to go back in and I want I'm just gonna go with I want an orange but I want it to be a really bold orange let's see if I can do that a really deep orange like a fire fire orange oh yeah I like that okay so that's not one of the presets you got to go in and select it but you can still do it takes a few more button presses that's kind of like a red orange like a fall orange reminds me of the trees and the leaves turning turning colors right now as we speak again nobody does it as well as coursera when it comes to this stuff and and here's your spiral rainbow again now I'm going to actually lay this down and show you how this works because it's not just about RGB and it's not just the name low profile this really does work differently differently than previous mechanical keyboards and even those based on

sherry switches so I'll be back in a minute one thing I will mention now you see it from the from the side you can really see the lighting shine through top and bottom which is an improvement over previous keyboards and I will be bringing those out in a second but first I want you to have a listen to this I've been typing up the review of this keyboard and frankly I was amazed at how different it sounds of course it's got that really really quick one mill one millimeter actuation distance and very short 3.2 millimeter travel but what really struck me as soon as I got this out of the box and started testing it was that it was really quiet and it reminds me of the most of the Cherry MX silent keys switches that I have tested previously but those use an o-ring to achieve their quietness and that cut down on the mechanical feeling really kind of numbed the the end points quite a bit this still has really good feedback now let me bring out the original rapid-fire keyboards so you can see just how different the profile is on these I'm going to take

this wrist rest off this is by the way the mark 2 wrist rest one of the one of the one of the parts of the name is mark 2 and so the original rapid-fire keyboard had a smaller wrist rest you can see a little bit taller the mark to mark 2 wrist rest mark 2 also means that they've changed the layout of these media keys and other accessory switches but what has not changed for a very long time and I think it's a good thing is that the the chassis is the same this is the k70 chassis and really the framing of it has not changed since it came out and that's because it was a winning design from start it's got this nice brushed aluminum look really other than very very minor changes here I see at the end maybe forth to accommodate the numerous rest the chassis itself is the same all that's new is the switches and of course the keys they are much lower and like I said the media switches or reposition and slightly but you can see how much higher these are I'm going to just pop these keys off the the old original rapid fire was based on you know

the 1980s design of carries mechanical switch is quite a bit taller and here's the low-profile version quite a bit lower and and because of that Corsair was able to go with a much lower key or shorter key as well but what's most amazing about it is really the difference in the noise level now you know a lot of people associate the mechanical keyboard feel with the noise but you actually don't need the noise to have a good mechanical feel and that's what Curie's been able to do with this brand-new low profile mechanical switch it it provides that mechanical feel without and and and yet it's able to cut down a noise without the use of whole rings and dampers that actually then reduce that that feedback that you actually want a mechanical keyboard so you may be used to the clicky sound and that's what you think you want I want that loud clicking sound because that means it's a mechanical people that has a good response well Kerry's been able to outdo itself here it really is a big improvement you know if you're in a

shared work environment or you work on the phone a lot while you're typing these traditional MX switches can be pretty distracting now I'm gonna bring out the MX red a lot of you folks probably have an MX red sitting at your desk now so these are the same height as that rapidfire the original rapid fire just showed you and they're the same and make the same amount of noise but what's so noticeable after going to a rapid fire switch is how long the travel the actuation distance the two millimeter actuation distance on these and the 4 millimeter actuator traveled it's just so much work to type on these and it doesn't have to be that way you don't need to happen you don't need that really long travel distance to get the great mechanical field and Coursera is a perfect partner to bring this to market they've got the proven case 70 chassis they've got the best RGB controller they've got the support and amazingly it's coming into the same price so MX rapid-fire RGB keyboards have been going for 170 actually every k70 RGB

keyboards debuted 170 dollars this is 170 dollars of course there's going to continue selling the original rapid-fire keyboard which I just showed you they also have a mark 2 which was kind of an in-between where they added the the bigger wrist rest and the new media keys but the one you're going to want as on today October 25th 2018 is you're going to want to go for the MX rapid-fire low profile this is the one to get this is the new new kid on the block this is the one you want