Functional usage
Mechanical Cherry Keys
Cherry is a company that was established in 1953 in the US, but its headquarters were moved to Germany in 1979. It has four divisions, and the one that is the most interesting in relation to this review is responsible for making mechanical switches. Cherry MX switches were marketed around 1985. They are mainly referenced by the colour of the key stem.
|
Switch type |
Clicky |
Tactile |
Linear |
Actuation force |
|
Cherry MX Red |
No |
No |
Yes |
0.45 N |
|
Cherry MX Silent Red |
No |
No |
Yes |
0.45 N |
|
Cherry MX Speed Silver |
No |
No |
Yes |
0.45 N |
|
Cherry MX Nature White |
No |
No |
Yes |
0.55 N |
|
Cherry MX Black |
No |
No |
Yes |
0.60 N |
|
Cherry MX Silent Black |
No |
No |
Yes |
0.60 N |
|
Cherry MX Linear Grey |
No |
No |
Yes |
0.80 N |
|
Cherry MX Brown |
No |
Yes |
No |
0.45 N |
|
Cherry MX Clear |
No |
Yes |
No |
0.55 N |
|
Cherry MX Tactile Grey |
No |
Yes |
No |
0.80 N |
|
Cherry MX Blue |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
0.50 N |
|
Cherry MX White |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
0.50 N / 0.70 N |
|
Cherry MX Green |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
0.70 N |
|
Cherry MX Viola |
No |
No |
CrossLinear |
0.45 N/ 0.75 N |
Cherry MX switches are the most popular ones on the market. Mechanical switches give you a more perceptible feel compared to the rubber membrane used in most cheaper keyboards. Mechanical keyboards are gaining an increasing share of the gaming peripherals market very fast. The performance is good, and the reliability is outstanding, so what more can you ask for? Aaah, yes – full key rollover (but can you actually push more than 10 buttons at once?) and anti-ghosting.
MX Reds (used here) are possibly the best choice for first-time buyers. Why’s that? Well, 45 g of actuation force, linear response, and quite rapid bounce back are the crucial features here. If you spend some time using a keyboard like that, you get used to typing faster without bottoming out the keys. Still, there are some switches that work better for writing, e.g. MX Browns or Blues. he MTBF is 100 million strokes, so it’s a massive figure. Still, you’ve got the warranty if something breaks, right? The keycaps are made from PBT (so not the worse ABS which is less reliable/resistant), and the per-key RGB backlighting makes it look good.
Functional usage
As we always do, a little history first. Keyboards have always been a part of computing since the very beginning. The original IBM PC came with one, the Model M, which I used as a kid. The Model M, of course, set the standard for all keyboards that came after it. There are some variations in layout, but it's all based off the 101-key Model M. The modern keyboard, thanks to Windows, now has 104 keys, and depending on your location, you can have many more keys than that. Suffice it to say, keyboards are still the most efficient way of interacting with your computer, even with the great strides made in voice-recognition, touch screens, and GUI optimizations. I think the chances of humans ever growing out of the keyboard are pretty slim. In the early days of personal computing the keyboard really meant something because it really was the only way to interact with the machine. Having a good-feeling keyboard was very important, at least until the mouse and GUI came along, and shifted the focus a little bit. Mechanical keyboards have always been around, though, part of the collective geek consciousness, and the enthusiasts that inhabit that world are as hardcore as their keyboards.
The everlasting question
So, why would you want to spend so much money on a keyboard? Is it really worth it? Yes, we think so. Mechanical keyboards really are in a class on their own and the RGB lighting on this one is nice. Once you have used a mechanical keyboard, there is no going back to a regular keyboard. The differences are just too great, typing is better, faster and gaming is better. It's just no comparison. The one downside though is that they do make a lot more noise and this applies to gamers mostly. Making high-end gamers keyboards is nearly an art form these days with a very enthusiastic crowd that is very critical. As such we are glad that the Corsair K70 RGB is all mechanical, they received some critique with the early models K60 and K90 sets as the function row keys where rubber dome based. Personally, I honestly did not mind, but Corsair received some heat on that from the enthusiast crowd as people tend to swap out all keys after a while. This has been altered for the K70 and K95. Also, and mostly due to their price range mechanical keyboards try to sweeten the deal with extra audio ports, USB hub, lights, knobs, wrist rest, or something, Corsair chose to keep the features a little more basic, aside from the one USB port and wrist rest, but kept the quality high. Of course, we think the LED key backlighting is awesome. Now you don't need a fancy mechanical keyboard to play a game well, but it can make a game much more enjoyable to play. On the other hand, there are keyboards that are better for noise than others. The Corsair mechs are in the noisy keyboard category, it does have a decent clickety-clack though! Gaming wise I definitely liked the keys.
