I Thought This Mechanical Keyboard Was Perfect 11 Years Ago—Boy, Was I Wrong

• I obsessed over my Corsair K70 for years. It felt premium, durable, and perfect back then.

• Cheap Chinese mechanical keyboards surprised me with their features and quality.

• Trying the K70 now, it sounds harsh, has scratchy switches and rattly stabilizers, and its number pad gets in the way.

Back in high school, all I wanted was a mechanical keyboard. There was one in particular I had my eye on—the Corsair K70—but I couldn't afford it. When I finally got it, I thought I'd use it for decades, but with the benefit of hindsight, I now know I couldn't have been more wrong.

The Corsair K70 Was Everything I Could Dream of in 2014

The benefits of mechanical keyboards have been well-known among enthusiasts for decades. Cherry switches, in particular, were regarded as the gold standard, manufactured by a respected German company. Unlike plebeian membrane keyboards , these mechanical switches were rated for 50 million keystrokes (about ten times more than a typical membrane). Plus, they felt far more satisfying to use, making them a no-brainer for anyone who spends long hours typing.

I got my first mechanical keyboard in 2018 for a little over $20. It was a used QPAD MK-50 with Cherry MX Red switches. I quite liked it, though it wasn't exactly the keyboard I wanted. It lacked the sleek brushed aluminum plate and fancy RGB backlighting I had seen on Linus Tech Tips' videos years before.

A year later, in 2019, I was talking about keyboards on Discord when my cousin offered me his old Corsair K70 with Cherry MX Brown switches. They were a perfect compromise for both typing and gaming, so I gladly accepted his generous gift and passed my QPAD down to another cousin.

The second the Corsair K70 arrived at my doorstep, I was infatuated with it and spent a whole day gaming, competing on TypeRacer , and experimenting with its many RGB options. Needless to say, it was everything that I could ever dream of—especially once I paired it with a Logitech G502 .

For Years, It Was Perfect—Or So I Thought

I can't overstate how much I actually used the Corsair K70. Whether it was typing essays for my Bachelor's studies, winning ranked matches in League of Legends, earning my first few bucks with writing gigs, or later progressing in my career and joining How-To Geek, my trusty Corsair K70 was always right beside me (or should I say, in front of me?).

I figured that if the keystroke lifespan was truly 50 million, I might be the first person to reach it. And the fact that I'm typing this article on the Corsair K70 is proof enough of its durability. Sure, it has a few scratches, some stuck RGB LEDs, broken plastic pieces, and semi-broken switches, but those are mostly the result of my experiments and practice with soldering rather than any flaw with the keyboard itself.

During all those heavy years of use, I was beyond happy with it. The MX Brown switches felt light enough for comfortable all-day typing, and the subtle tactile bump confirming each keystroke was all I needed to keep my typing speed high and my gaming reflexes sharp.

The brushed aluminum backplate felt premium and gave the keyboard an impressive level of sturdiness with virtually no flex. It felt like a tank on my desk and wouldn't budg,e no matter how hard I typed.

And don't even get me started on the RGB. Oh boy, the RGB. This keyboard's 16.8 million color backlighting and best-in-class (at the time) RGB software, Corsair iCUE , let me do whatever I wanted with the keyboard, and it only got better when I upgraded the keycaps to the HyperX Puddings .

I first tried making my own RGB effects, then discovered people online had shared highly customized RGB profiles that I could download, and eventually I upgraded to SignalRGB for cross-brand RGB sync .

Put simply, the Corsair K70 was the perfect keyboard for me between 2019 and 2024. I thought about switching to something else, but I was afraid I'd just waste my money on something I wouldn't want a month later.

Cheap Mechanical Keyboards Have Left My Old Favorite in the Dust

Although the Corsair K70 was mostly perfect, it had one particular problem that always bothered me—it wasn't a tenkeyless design . In other words, it had that pesky number pad that I didn't want or need, taking up a significant portion of my mouse space and causing shoulder pain . Unfortunately, the only way to get rid of it was to replace the keyboard altogether.

Around the same time (late 2024), my country finally got Temu , and I started looking into all those highly popular Chinese keyboard brands like AULA, Epomaker, and Ajazz. After a lot of research, I decided to try the Ajazz AK820 Pro because it was a 75% keyboard with RGB, 2.4GHz wireless, a gasket mount, and, most importantly, a screen .

The second the Ajazz keyboard arrived, the cycle of infatuation repeated itself. Despite my initial skepticism about plastic keyboards , I was blown away by the sound, feel, and overall quality of this board.

The much smoother pre-lubed switches (which are hot-swappable), the soft and bouncy bottom-out thanks to the gasket and plastic construction, the satisfying marbly sound, and the significantly smaller layout were all things my Corsair K70 lacked.

I immediately placed an order for another Ajazz AK820 keyboard (the non-Pro) and a few sets of switches and keycaps so I could experiment with different feels and sounds.

Needless to say, the Corsair K70 was left behind for the ten months that followed, and I didn't even realize how bad it actually was compared to my new keyboards. I saw it in my closet and decided to take it for a test drive a couple of weeks ago. I was immediately taken aback by how horrible this keyboard feels and sounds in comparison to these cheap Temu boards.

The Cherry MX Brown switches feel about as scratchy as it gets, despite my attempts to lube them without taking them apart. The aluminum backplate sounds harsh and twangy, to the point that I don't even want to bottom out the keys. The rattling stabilizers are perhaps the worst offenders.

I also forgot just how much a number pad gets in the way. Some people might not mind it, but I hate having to reach so far to the right to use my mouse, and it's especially annoying when I'm trying to game.

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While the Corsair K70 used to be one of the best mechanical keyboards on the market, it has become a victim of time, much like any other computer peripheral. Even the newer versions of the Corsair K70 are nothing like its predecessor.

I don't want to sell or give this old keyboard away because it was a gift and is slightly broken, but at the same time, I don't ever want to use it again—unless something truly horrible happens to the other three keyboards I use throughout the week, and I have to resort to the K70 as a backup.