Corsair has Fallen BEHIND. - Corsair K70 Pro Mini 

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Absolutely love that someone who’s passionate about keyboards is reviewing this keyboard in depth, down to the housing wobble. It’s fantastic that he also gives suggestions on how to make it better, ie. filming the switch and lubing the stabilizers

I’m so glad that a keyboard enthusiast, or at least someone who cares about keyboards to an extreme extent, is reviewing the keyboard

great review! I just got the Keychron Q10 today and it is fantastically built from what I can see thus far. Also, I have the Meletrix Zoom 65 EE on pre-order (got it in right before it was sold out). While it is nice to see a big company implementing hot swap board, albeit its only 3 pin, it is at the minimum moving in a good direction for the keyboard market. Thank you!

On hotswap boards like this, the bigger companies use plate mount stabs. You can just pop out the switch and then the stabilizers can come out freely. No need to remove the top plate.

Recently i bought the k70 pro rgb as my first mechanical keyboard. Where I live it was already hard enough to find a full size keyboard with media keys, so i didn't really have a choice. I do really like it tho. I can't really judge the sound, it sounds good to me. The ping is there but i don't notice it unless i listen for it or smash the keys, which i don't do lol. My only complaint is that the keys are not hot swappable. But i got used to the silvers pretty fast. I just don't think they're actually any better for gaming than the reds

I do love my Keychron board. Saw it on here and took a leap for my first “quality” board. I think the “boutique” options have been my favorite here lately.

0:44 Outemu switches do fit in other hot swap sockets. It's the other way around, other switches don't fit into Outemu hot swap sockets. 3:43 "Some kinda proprietary thing from Corsair" - Dude, those are just regular plate-mounted stabs...

The biggest downside to 60% boards from brands like Corsair/Razer/etc, in my experience/opinion, is the limited key re-programmability they offer. "You can reprogram what these buttons do, but not these buttons" - has been my experience. Pretty limiting for a 60% layout. (CapsLock + IJKL for arrow keys is great.) Maybe this has changed recently, but a year(ish) ago that's how it was.

Just a bit of feedback... instead of saying "5 pin switches will not fit on this board", just suggest snipping the 2 stabilizer pins off with a nail clipper or side cutters to turn them into 3 pin switches and let them fit. P.S. as a keyboard enthusiast, and someone who has applied to LMG/LTT twice, I love this content, but I feel like you need Ploof to do more homework before these get filmed (or maybe whoever wrote this)

I'm currently using the K100 (which I like the new OPX switches, find them similar to Reds in terms of force, but smoother, and prefer them over my old MX brown) but I hate the switches aren't hot-swappable (in case it happens to break, the spring ping is annoying and I can't fix it because I can't get into the switch without a complete teardown and a lot of resoldering, and the cable is still not detachable. Also has an FN key (despite being a full one) which is only used for onboard lighting stuff, and I wish they made it remappable as a full modifier key

these keyboard videos have been my favorite out of all the LTT content lately. keep it up.

i really like my steelseries apex 3 keyboard. fullsize, has a nice wrist rest, decent sound, good feel. the only thing im not a huge fan of is the rgb on it. the zones are huge, so theres only like 7 vertical zones that span the keyboard. is it a dealbreaker? no. i just have it pulse and fade from the center out. it IS kinda hard to see the keys if im in the dark, but im generally not, so its not a huge issue either. quite happy with my purchase. i ran an old microsoft membrane keyboard for like 10 years. i took it apart and cleaned between the layers like 4 times before it started to not take too well to the cleaning. i moved it to the server because i rarely type on the server anyways.

On the latency aspect, I would LOVE to see a comparison between QMK/via and the big box companies that mention speed in their marketing (corsair, razer, logitech, etc). I'm sure there are some boards you can even swap the firmware from in-house to QMK to get it on the same hardware as well.

you have got me addictted to buying keyboards and making em. thanks!

Outemu switches fit in Kailh/Gateron hotswap sockets. Cherry switches and many of the other manufacturers just don’t fit in Outemu hotswap sockets since the Outemu sockets have smaller holes. The pins are in the same spot, but Outemu switches have thinner pins that will fit their own sockets (and others).

Im not to deep in the custom keyboard stuff but got this one about 2 months ago and really like it so far. Switched some RGB MX browns in there and it looks and feels very nice. I was looking at the more "custom" keyboard from keychron aswell but most of them dont have RGB and I already know iCue so that was much easier. When you add some rubber padding the sound is much nicer and actually sound pretty good Id say

Would love to see Plouff's opinion on something like the Epomaker TH80, they seem to be doing some good stuff for a lower price point.

One thing I think you forgot to mention is with the 3-pin sockets - you can clip the other 2 pins on 5-pin switches to fit them in the sockets. Not fun, but it is not impossible to use 5-pin switches as you stated…

Is there a tkl or a full size with hot swappable cherry mx styled switches from corsair?

Epomaker have a decent range of budget mechanical keyboards you can easily mod. I loved the SK66 so much I bought one for work and play.

I have a corsair K70 keyboard at the moment, it replaced a Razor mechanical keyboard. It's fine... but the keypress always felt quite rough in comparison to the Razor, despite both having cherry switches. If I knew where my keycap puller was, I might try lubing it. I was mildly disappointed after I bought it, given that it cost more.

I used to only get Corsair keyboards back when I was first getting into PC gaming but often find that cheaper keyboards like Royal Kludge and Red Dragon to be built way better for like 1/5th of the cost and are super easily upgradable

I just bought one of these boards refurbished for 70. I mostly just wanted the board for the polling rate. I play a ton of tetrio. Do you think its worth 70?

The fact that they could go from the k65 minis stabs which are absolutely amazing factory to this??? Just WOW

How can i turn off the rgb without using icue?

My favourite 60% keyboard from an oem is the HyperX Alloy Origins 60. Hefty, per key RGB decent keycaps. No hotswap but HyperX's red switches are very very good.

Any recommendations for a TKL Wireless with 2.4ghz (Bluetooth sucks) and MX Browns? I got the Logitech G915 TKL wireless, but the switches and keycaps are not for me. Love the wireless though. Keychron looks perfect, but they only have Bluetooth.

I bought this keyboard last week. Mine does not sound like that at all, I have the MX speeds in mine and every key sounds the same, granted it has been a year since this review so maybe they changed something about how they build it. My spacebar sounds a little brighter compared to the rest of the keys but I know that's to be expected due to the larger surface area but I fixed that with a little foam. Nothing to bad thankfully. I plan to buy another in white with MX Blues which is cheap compared the black version with MX speeds, $90 for the White with MX Blues vs the $180 Black version with MX Speeds.

$180 for plate mount switches only, north facing RGB, not fully aluminum case, and those keycaps? The Keychron Q4 seems like a better buy to me at $160.

Those really don't look like proprietary stabs, unlike what is said in the video. They look like standard plate mounts, so if you pop out the switch in that position, you can easily remove the stabilizers for tuning without tearing the whole board down. Real shame about it being 3 pin rather than 5 pin, since you would need to clip 5 pins down to fit. It's a pretty easy thing for a manufacturer to include, and for that price tag I'd normally expect that to be included. What is nice is Corsair using a standard layout, which is nice and easy to swap pretty much any MX compatible keycap set under the sun onto. The wireless tech supporting 2000Hz and the wired supporting 8000Hz is cool, but keep in mind a lot of games that aren't the latest launches may not even support that kind of input, and will just be utilizing a 1000Hz polling rate in the engine, so it isn't necessarily a benefit for everyone. It's nice to see some of the gaming brands trying to catch up a bit, but the pricing is not spectacular, and they still have some more features to catch up on still.

You’re telling me, the headset I bought from them got ruined because the ear cushion basically slipped off from heat/sweat and it was held by glue. Never realized it, I just assumed they were assembled like Logitech headsets. I’m so pissed at how much I spent on them.

A lot of the rattle from the case comes from the daughterboard, which they inexplicably decided to hang at a weird angle off of the main PCB, surrounding the battery (which is also attached to the bottom of the PCB). There's no way to easily remove the plate from the PCB without peeling off some copper tape connecting the battery assembly to the main PCB, which I am reluctant to do, because there are two screws underneath that tape. There's no way to put any sort of standard 60% plate foam in here to stop the plate from pinging without undoing those hidden screws. However I was able to reduce the case from rattling by wedging some foam between the loosely attached daughterboard and the PCB. It's overengineered. Rather than simply putting a battery in the bottom of the case, they split part of the PCB out into this weird daughterboard to make room for the battery enclosure attached to the PCB. They have a precision moulded plastic insert in the bottom of the case which contacts the PCB and has cutouts for the hotswap sockets, which could have easily been made of silicon to reduce sound transmission. I do give them props for at least making the USB port not surface mount, instead in its own enclosure attached to the PCB, to keep it from breaking off, something I wish more keyboards would do. But this is a gamer keyboard, not a modders keyboard, and not an enthusiast keyboard. 3 pin hotswap eliminates 90% of switch options without modding the switch; north facing RGB eliminates the use of cherry profile keycaps for many switch choices; there's no included foams and no way to mod it with your own foam. It's just a pingy, rattly mess that is annoying to type on, but there's so much going on that you can't do much of anything to fix that mess. It's well-engineered for what it is: it has class-leading low latency even in wireless & bluetooth modes and lots of pretty gamer lights. The software is somewhat useful and quite user-friendly (unlike using arcane programming powers to wrangle QMK). But for $180 you can get a much better keyboard from Keychron or similar that does everything else this keyboard does. If the features this has as a game controller still appeal, there's nothing keeping someone from using it for games while using a proper keyboard for typing. But it is a game controller more than it is a keyboard.

those are clip in stabilizers, not screw in... because they clip into the board... and are not screwed onto the PCB

Can we put kailh box jade keyswitches in this keyboard?

Okay so I have the Corsair K65 RGB mini from a few years ago. Speed switches. I love it. Probably one of my favorite keyboards. I am thinking of getting into building my own 60 or 65 percent keyboard because I play alot of rhythm games and tend to burn out keys quick. What would you guys recommend that would be a smooth transition? Having swappable keys would save me from having to buy a whole new keyboard lol.

I just bought one, should ai take it back? I got it for gaming and other Small things.

I bought the wireless black Royal Kludge RK68 RGB with brown switches all together for $60 and it's my first mechanical keyboard and it seems to have more build quality than that $200 keyboard lol. I noticed you guys haven't even reviewed this brand either. I would highly recommend it.

0:58 From another keyboard enthusiast let me correct Plouffe It's the other way around. Cherry style pins wont fit in Outemu style hotswap sockets. Outemu style pins are physically more slim then Cherry style pins so therefore Outemu style pins can fit in any keyboard *Note: Gazzew's boba housings (even though they are produced by Outemu are an exception to this rule) (typing on heavily modded Boba U4s)

This just goes to show how out of touch big peripheral brands like Logitech or Corsair are with the current competition landscape. I just got an Akko 5075B+ which included a set of lubed Akko Wine Red switches (linear, factory lubed instead of hand-lubed but it's still a noticeable improvement), a polycarbonate plate, a set of decent ASA profile keycaps that are double-shot PBT and a knob for less than this Corsair (160 CAD/116 USD). It was great out of the box, with the switches smoother and more stable than the Corsair, the keycaps of higher quality and looked better (IMO) than the Corsair, the stabilizers better tuned and lubed than the Corsair (factory prelubed). I spent an evening and around 40 CAD of material modding it to match the way I wanted it to sound and feel and made it even better for myself. There's a lot of good options out there for good and budget mechanical keyboards and rarely any of them are from big name brands like how it used to be, and they also clearly have no place in the mid-range conversation when enthusiast brands like Wooting, Zoom65, QwertyKeys, Bakaneko, or common brands like Akko, Keychron, Idobao, Glorious and Iqunix exists and consitently offer better value for the price. The only thing the big brands have for themselves is the "gamer" features like RGB ecosystem, 8khz polling rate (most likely imperceptible to 99% of the userbase) or software dependent functionalities that further hinders the board's value on its own. Unless something within these companies changes, I can't see many people will continue to buy big brand names' keyboards for long as they realize that there is so much value that can be found elsewhere and jump ship.

Great video. I agree, I don't think that there's anything particularly too bad on this board but it's hard to justify 180$ on it. For a similar price you can get a wooting with analog contactless switches (wired only, unfortunately), but with better software and stabs. Or you can get something custom for way cheaper. Or like an APEX pro which also has better switches and stabs and it's TKL, and a (gimmicky) display. And macro and better software.

With the lab video that came out earlier I was hoping to see some testing of this keyboard. Maybe next time??

Apparently clipping 5-stem switches to 3-stem is still a locked skill for Plouffe.

Is that keyboard really usable? For my daily use, missing function keys would be an absolute deal breaker. Are there people that do not use function keys?

Plouffe’s the best host these days. Most down to earth and chill host, who seems like a normal dude. I’ll always click his videos

Does anyone feel something is moving inside while shaking? Everything works finde but it feeels wierd.

Hope Logitech now follows through on hotswap mechanical keyboards too. Now that brands like Corsair are doing this.... As much as I like my g915 I wouldn't mind changing the switches to try out new things. Even if I wanted to solder stuff I'm pretty sure they have different pin arragement too, so I'm locked with their switches forever D:

sir hhelp can i put gateron brown on this?

wouldnt a white PCB be good for light reflection?

Would love a full size Hot swappable from Corsair, but I'm also not in the market for new keyboards, so not too picky ofc.

If Corsair released a keyboard like that mountain 60% one with a detachable numpad and better options for switch customisation (they probably didn't do it because they exclusively work with Cherry on their keyboards for their switches except the in house Corsair OPX opto-mech switches) I would buy it. I want a keyboard which ideally has an option for macros or extra keys in some form BUT be a fully customisable keyboard that has hot swap switches so I can try other switches and that it can be controlled via Corsair iCUE (I own a lot of Corsair products including a Corsair K100 with opto-mech switches and I like having a numpad and macro keys on a keyboard so I can do stuff like auto mute/deafen on discord without having to get rid of the functionality of another key and ideally I want it to be a little smaller than the K100 or have a detachable numpad as I like using the numpad even in games where for example in any GTA it is the default controls for planes/helicopters in the games). I really like all the customisation options with Corsair iCUE especially all the macro controls on their keyboards or being able to fully sync the RGB across all of their components, peripherals, Elgato stuff, Asus MOBO/GPU's, Philips HUE lighting AND Nanoleaf lighting but I want a keyboard that is fully customisable with 5 or more pin options for hotswap like other custom keyboard brands do and has macro keys ideally and a numpad and can support iCUE

So what /is/ the difference between braided and sleeved?

"I don't know how keyboards are dangerous" Well, I had the corded one of these and it literally caught fire and exploded while I was using it, so there's obviously some warrant to including that warning in there, lol.

Have you tested the keyboard on your new LTT Lab Robot Tester?

Id recommend the Redragon K530 instead. Also 60%, also RGB, also wireless, also hot swap. Only thing it doesnt have is iCue. Its also less than half the price. And can be black or white and your choice of blue, brown, or red switches

1. Outemu switches does fit in these Kailh type sockets, but switches besides Outemu has thick pins which makes them doesnt fit in Outemu sockets, so it's the other way around. 2. You can use tab + enter to get a new run on monkey type, instead of hitting F5

Hot swap is an interesting option I hadn’t thought about. There are a lot of keyboards that don’t seem to offer cherry mx blue but I like cherry mx blue switches. Maybe this would be an option to widen my range of possible keyboard choices. I’d still rather not do all that work replacing switches though, hotswappable or not!

Has Plouff done the UHK v2 yet? I'd be curious on his opinion.

I need wireless tkl from Corsair which they have but it's not RGB and it's years old now and needs a redesign, like only because of that I had to get some other brand which is Japanese

Does it also discharge within 2 days w/ no RGB like my Dark Core did?

Why does this keyboard stop working sometimes is anyone else experiencing the same issue? My keyboard will flash and blink. Sometimes only the CAPS LOCK will flash and pulsate and I can’t move my character in game, really frustrating as this gets me killed every time.😊

Would be nice to mention if these wireless keyboards have user replaceable batteries, what happens when they’re dead? New keyboard??

Curious on thoughts of the roccat vulcan II mini. 65% board.

I'm not 100% sure but the stabilizers look plate mounted which isn't hard to find.

got the k100 opx, lightening fast and great feel, had Blackwidow v2 before that

I'd be really interested in hearing what this keyboard sounds like with a set of really nice switches

I rather buy Q1 with that price. Better default stab, factory Lubed, easy to mod, and QMK ready.

Can you review the glorious GMMK 2 pre build?

I tried these fancy keyboards before... I always come back to my 8usd wireless noname keyboard

i think this would be solid if they offered it with no switches or keycaps for like £100 because this looks like what ive been looking for but i wanna instantly swap all the switched for some box blues

Just some context here. When Logitech made their first mech board the G710 they bought Cherry's entire production of Cherry MX browns for a year. Keychron and the like dont move anywhere near enough units to make that happen.

Literally bought this board yesterday. Yes, the stab rattle is that bad. Yes the Speed Silvers sound that scratchy and feel that bad. Honestly, it's a hard sell between this board and my daily driver no name 65% board. A little bit of work on the K70 and it'd be a decent 60%, and it'd be a good intro into the custom keyboard sphere

LTT this guy needs an intervention not more keyboard videos.

I still don't get why the depth of the keyboard is such a big deal to remove the function row. It makes is so much less usable and it usually costs more for less materials, less storage space and less ship[ping costs.

if this switch is ok, then which one is good, great or best ??

Aside from wireless what is the appeal of this over a Ducky One 3 Mini?

I wanna know about the new k100 air they're advertising, it's real expensive though

Is there a tkl variant?

i"m user of this keyboard - wirelessly you can"t sync its rgb in corsair icue link

I would love to buy only the PCB to get the icue stuff but still be able to make my own keyboard

The problem with alot of enthusiast boards isthat they typically only support ansi layouts. if some more enthusaiast keyboard would support iso standards it would help open them up to the rest of the market

embedded arrow keys are the way to go as long as it sfully programmable, including moving the Fn keys.

The catch with polling rate above 1000Hz is that it eats up enough CPU resources, that you will get worse PC performance as a result. Basically, it's a detrimental feature to enable.

I have custom keyboards and been searching for wireless mechanical keyboard for gaming, and I think there's no custom keyboard that do wireless as good as a gaming brand (Logitech, Razer, etc). Every ms wireless delay can affect hit or miss in games like CS:GO, Valorant, etc. So, the $180 is pretty reasonable considering you're buying that wireless technology and hotswap (as far as I know, only Corsair has wireless + hotswap mechanical keyboard yet). Maybe you can test out the wireless capability of Keychron, or other custom keyboard brand.

My main driver is the keychron k3 iso, love it. Also have a keychron k8 iso and a g915 ansi.

The size is perfect except the lack of F1 to F12 row as a MMO gamer i just need that row to play properly.

"Don't know how keyboards are dangerous." RSI's are really common, so you see keyboard manufacturers often place warnings about such.

I just got one and I am enjoying it for an rog ally companion accessory

What's even the point of going from 1kHz to 8kHz (from 1ms to 0.125ms) if mechanical switches require debouncing which will add at least 5ms of delay anyway

would like to see plouffe use the new logitech keyboards, just to see if he's surprised it has type-c

I got this now a year later for 120 bucks on sale and for that price, I'm super super happy with it! Might swap these silvers out for browns. It's super portable for all the travel I do. Has all the wireless features, good battery life. Over all highly recommend!

I love small keyboards, but they have to have really customizable firmware (QMK or similar) and a SPLIT SPACEBAR

i wanna see plouffe make a guide to converting non-swap boards to hot swap.

I'm into keyboards now, thanks a lot. Keycron K-14 is my first one, loving it so far.

So happy you make a short circuit of it, i just won Steelorse K70 pro mini giveaway

My althritus means I need negative angle so I have a md770, it was like 150 and its a split 75

This seems like it'll hit discount shelves soon after release at $180, I can't see spending that much on a keyboard ever but I'd think a custom one would be better quality for a lower price.

Before I knew about the custom mechanical world, I bought the K95 Platinum, thinking since it was the best keyboard they offered, it would be amazing.. It was... not amazing. If anyone is considering buying a Corsair or any gaming brand keyboard, pleaseeeee just look up custom mechanical keyboards, first. They're sooo much better quality in every way possible. If the prices are too high, a hot-swap gaming brand would be your next best option, that way you can buy whatever switch you want and toss em in or switch out individual keys (if you like your space bar to be a different feel, for example) but any keys with stabilizers will have a very high chance of needing to be modded, if you want it to really sound/feel good.

No matter what corsair makes if it expects the installation of iCUE "software" (read malware), I won't touch it

I feel like I'm the huge oddball out on keyboards. lol I've had mechanical keyboards and never got as good at typing on them as I can the low profile keyboards (I don't mean low profile mechanical, we're talking something like the Apple keyboard). Back when I got into computers these low profile thin things didn't exist but that's what I've ended up using now. Maybe it's because of the consistency when I go between my desktop keyboard and my laptop that makes me prefer the thin jobs over the big mechanical units.