Corsair has Fallen BEHIND. - Corsair K70 Pro Mini

Corsair has finally released a hotswappable keyboard, but at $180, there is some steep competition. Is this the keyboard to get, or should you start your mechanical keyboard journey somewhere else?

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

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CHAPTERS
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0:00 Should you care about Hotswap?
0:41 Unboxing
1:40 Sponsor - Vessi
2:13 Taking a look at the keyboard and RGB
3:08 Initial typing impressions
3:35 Thoughts on the stabilizers
4:40 Build quality impressions
5:20 Taking out a key switch
6:51 Typing Tests
7:47 Corsair has a lot of competition
9:30 Overall thoughts
9:57 Outro

[TheBibigabi]

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

[eeveeblazelol]

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

[jetfuview]

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!

[StrikeAgainst]

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.

[bwabbel]

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

[avery_holt]

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.

[freezingCode]

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.

[AmartharDrakestone]

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...

[amirkhademi]

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

[NightFoxZero]

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

[jaredho]

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).

[SahZoom]

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…

[laffeybunn]

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)

[simozonelayer]

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.

[pyrobunny_mdpl]

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.

[Gdspeeeed]

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

[seoulglo]

$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.

[JeffBreyer]

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.

[tyneallen]

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

[Sengin]

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.