deskthority

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! Today we look at the Corsair K70 Max, the polar opposite of the keyboard I reviewed last time, also a K70 from Corsair. 2024 has a lot of good stuff coming up it seems, so stay tuned!

Do you still need to install iCue software to customise the keyboard settings?

He covers the software in the vid. Seems excruciating to me!

As for why all keyboard configuration apps are bad, my guess is it's a combination of:

• These are hardware vendors: software's not their jam
• Keyboards are actually quite parallel devices: even the simplest per-key setting is about a hundred settings when you dig down; how do you present all that, hide irrelevant complexity until required, and still satisfy the boss's demand it looks "CYBER AF"?

Keyboards are treated like they're almost throwaway, the simplest and most interchangeable peripherals in the world. Something about that ethos sticks even to the highest end stuff that's advertised as bullet-proof and post-apocalyptic survival gear. There's this persistent awkwardness on the part of manufacturers which just wasn't there back in the vintage days when premium kit cost a premium but came thankfully cringe-free.

This keyboard ticks a lot of boxes for me for gaming. But, damn, why do gaming peripheral companies always go overboard with the CYBER AF aesthetic. I will never buy a keyboard for gaming, that looks gamery.

Go-Kart wrote: 27 Jan 2024, 22:04 This keyboard ticks a lot of boxes for me for gaming. But, damn, why do gaming peripheral companies always go overboard with the CYBER AF aesthetic. I will never buy a keyboard for gaming, that looks gamery.

Though I agree the gaming look can be really bad, I do have to acknowledge that it's the gamer public that caused the resurgence of mechanical keyboards in the early 2000s. Without it, we wouldn't have all this amazing stuff. And I mean, you've seen my collection; I'm set for life on vintage stuff. But I'm really glad you can get decent, brand-new keyboards that everyone can just buy in a shop nowadays.

Well, I can't disagree with that. I just wish for a bit more aesthetic variety. If they made a more aesthetically neutral K70 Max, as well as a gamery one, it wouldn't turn so many people off. Although, we're likely such a small sliver of their market share, why would they...