Corsair K70 RGB TKL gaming keyboard, Sabre RGB Pro mouse say buh-bye to latency

Corsair’s latest gaming gear is built to make sure your split-second reactions translate into wins. Both the K70 RGB TKL mechanical gaming keyboard and Sabre RGB Pro mouse use the company’s Axon processing tech to give each an 8,000Hz polling rate. For the keyboard, that means no input lag and for the mouse, greater accuracy. 

Both the $140 (£140, AU$219) keyboard and $60 mouse (£50, AU$89) are part of the company’s Champion Series product line that is designed for and tested by esports pros. Needless to say, these products are going to have Corsair’s best features and top performance including the 8,000Hz polling rate that was previously only available in its 60%-size keyboard, the K65 RGB Mini. 

While a polling rate that high might seem like overkill (and to some extent it is), it virtually eliminates the chance that input lag is going to cost you a victory. Polling rate is how often the keyboard reports to your computer. Gaming keyboards typically have a top polling rate of 1,000Hz which reports values approximately every millisecond. At 8,000Hz, it reports every 0.125 ms and it has a 4,000Hz keyscan rate — four times faster than competing keyboards — so it’s both detecting and transmitting keystrokes faster.

Corsair used Cherry MX Red mechanical switches, though in some regions it will be offered with MX Speed or Silent switches. Corsair says the Red switches register key presses up to four times faster using Corsair’s Axon processor, which is also responsible for the 8,000Hz polling, among other things. The MX Reds are fast and smooth but there’s spring noise on every keypress echoing inside the mostly plastic body; the K70 does have a brushed aluminum top. Double-shot PBT keycaps are part of the package as well as a cap puller and extra gray keycaps with knurled tops for the WASD keys and a handful of others.

The keyboard’s TKL (tenkeyless) layout does make it smaller for travel and it has a removable braided USB-A-to-USB-C cable. Next to the cable input, you’ll find a switch that flips the keyboard into a tournament-ready mode. This makes key backlighting static and disables macro activations but you can still use other keys like the media and volume controls and change profiles. 

You can create up to 50 individual profiles and save them to the keyboard’s onboard memory, which is accessible without running iCue, Corsair’s programming software, or on systems that don’t support iCue. This mode also lets you store up to 20 lighting layers. If you’re looking for a fast, full-featured compact keyboard for FPS and MOBA games, the K70 RGB TKL has you covered.

A high-performance mouse to match

Everything about the Sabre RGB Pro mouse is designed to make your gameplay faster and more accurate. There is the aforementioned 8,000Hz polling rate for the fastest, most responsive movement. However, the increase in polling rate does require a reasonably powerful processor in your gaming PC to work. Corsair recommends a recent Core i7 or Ryzen 7. You’ll also need to connect its 7-foot paracord cable (2.1 meters) to a USB port directly linked to the motherboard’s chipset.

Clicks are faster, too, with a zero-gap design between the left and right buttons and their Omron switches. You can hear and feel a crisp click the moment you press down and they pop back up instantly, ready to be clicked again. Corsair calls them Quickstrike buttons and they live up to their name.

The mouse has a custom 18,000-dpi PixArt PMW3392 sensor. You can skip through five preprogrammed settings with the DPI button on top or change them to whatever you want using the iCue software. You can also change the DPI on the fly in increments of 50 by holding the DPI button and tapping the front and back buttons. Lights on the side help guide your tuning. The DPI button is flush with the body so it requires a little hunting, but it’s better than putting it on the bottom. 

What you will find on the bottom are slippery skates made from 100% PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene aka Teflon). The Sabre is lightweight, too, at 74 grams (2.6 ounces) and between that and ergonomic right-hand design, it was comfortable to use with a claw or palm grip. It does have a large, long body, though. 

The fast and light Sabre RGB Pro mouse is a great complement to the compact K70 RGB TKL keyboard. It’s a complete, high-performance gaming pair for $200 at home or away.