Corsair K70 RGB Pro Mini Wi-fi review: Teeny little, super pricey

In the very last few of a long time it appears like each individual Pc gaming accent maker has tried using its hand at a 60 percent mechanical board, occasionally more than after. They see keyboard fans dropping hundreds on semi-tailor made bespoke builds and want a piece of the pie. But I have yet to see one particular of these compact keyboards come out as an unqualified achievements. 

The Corsair K70 RGB Professional Mini Wireless is the most up-to-date entry. It’s technically pretty much flawless, packed with nearly every single feature a gaming board can have, and will come with high quality updates like PBT keycaps, incredibly hot-swap keys, multi-point connections, and circumstance lights. It’s undoubtedly a step over the competitors, assuming that you are ok with what’s now “basic” change tech. 

But concerning my own individual programming pet peeve and the quality pricing, this little keyboard is decidedly mid-tier general. It is probably the best solution if you will have to have a wi-fi gaming board at 60 percent, but for any person without having bottomless pockets or a with much more typical-use emphasis, there are better (and less costly) selections.

See our roundup of the finest wi-fi keyboards for far more recommendations and product or service comparisons.

K70 RGB Professional Mini Wi-fi: A feature record as extended as its name  

Name a mechanical keyboard function, and the K70 RGB Pro Mini Wireless (I’m just gonna contact it the K70 Mini from now on) in all probability has it. RGB lights? Test. High quality PBT plastic keycaps? Yup. Wi-fi? Two unique flavors (USB and Bluetooth), three distinct units. It is rocking the ever-popular 60 p.c variety variable, chopping off the operate row and almost everything east of Enter, and it even has a rather unique angular glimpse with bonus lights all-around 360 degrees of the case. 

This is a gaming-centered board, so it tends to make do without some of the much more absurd excesses like a full metal case or gasket mounting. But its bodily customization sport is on position, many thanks to a conventional vital structure compatible with most keycap sets. You can also swap out the switches on their own for any Cherry MX-compatible styles. But with superb reliable Cherry areas on board (“Speed Silver” linear switches on our evaluate unit), you could not want to, in particular if you bought this thing for gaming. 

Michael Crider/IDG

What’s that? You want far more? Very well you should really, looking at the price tag tag. How about a spare area bar that can present off that RGB light-weight exhibit, committed keycap and key change pullers, and a sweet 6-foot braided cable for when the battery operates out? Corsair also included a branded substitute Escape key, in situation the conspicuous badge on the entrance isn’t plenty of. Round it out with solitary-stage keyboard toes and an aluminum deck, and you appear to the base of a long characteristic listing.

High quality all the things

Leaping in, typing on the K70 Mini feels high quality correct absent. The silky-easy switches and the gritty, grippy texture of the keys merge for an outstanding working experience. I ordinarily need to have a working day or two to acclimate to a new keyboard, given that I’m applied to spoiling myself with top quality sections. It only took an hour or two this time thanks to all that expensive plastic, though I desire a keyboard rest could have been bundled, like other Corsair versions. Chalk it up to the K70 Mini’s moveable kind element. 

Michael Crider/IDG

And transportable it is. Heading with a plastic human body and leaving steel for the deck was a wise move, as even with all the bells and whistles this keyboard weighs in at just around a pound and a fifty percent. That makes it amazingly uncomplicated to toss in a bag for your up coming LAN celebration or a little on-the-go Genshin Impression with your mobile phone or pill. Legitimate, competing 60 per cent boards are just as great in that sense, but the multi-stage Bluetooth gives the Mini an edge in this place.     

One little bit of actual physical style I’d like to emphasize: a big, uncomplicated-to-obtain electricity swap, hanging out suitable above the Escape button. As well lots of modest boards make it tough to flip the factor on and off, and which is an critical detail with a style that will suck down battery energy with the light demonstrate enabled.

Application leaves out a single smaller (big) characteristic

With in close proximity to-infinite customization of the keycaps and crucial switches, you’d expect the program for the Mini to be equally customizable. And you’d be right… up to a stage. Mechanical keyboard purists will be unhappy that you just can't system the keyboard by way of open resource QMK or Via firmware, but Corsair’s iCue is astonishingly perfectly-outfitted and incredibly effortless to navigate. That is more than I can say for some competing “gaming” driver deals, like Logitech’s G software program. 

There’s a staggering amount of money of selections in iCue. Polling rate, brightness, countrywide format, debounce time, even a toggle that lets you run the keyboard in “PlayStation mode” for console admirers. And all of it can be saved to 1 of two onboard memory slots. If only the programming of the keyboard’s actual functions was so finish. 

Michael Crider/IDG

Like so a lot of other mini keyboards, it is not possible to transfer the Purpose button, so certainly customizable layouts are incomplete by definition. That incorporates my favored layout, with arrow keys on the principal layer at Alt/Fn/Home windows/Ctrl, and the Fn button changing Caps Lock. It’s effortless in QMK, extremely hard in iCue. For 60 p.c keyboards that stay and die on consumer customization, which is a substantial downside. 

Modest board, significant cost tag

Programming deficiencies aside, the K70 RGB Professional Mini Wi-fi does tick all the standard boxes for avid gamers. But it is also $180, more costly than lots of wireless mechanical boards. It’s about on par with Razer’s BlackWidow V3 Mini, but that board’s also wickedly expensive—take a seem at the Logitech G613 or even the Asus Falchion for one thing much more economical. And nevertheless it’s a subject of style, the latter manages to get comprehensive arrow keys in the design with scarcely any added dimensions. 

Michael Crider/IDG

If cash is no item and you want just about every achievable function you can envision (minus the choice to shift that Fn essential about), the K70 RGB Professional Mini Wi-fi matches the exceptionally particular niche of very small wi-fi gaming mechanical keyboards quite properly, with the standout aspect of hot-swappable switches. But if you’re in any way frugal, if you do not need each and every function under the sunshine, and you want a lot more flexible programming, glimpse in other places.