Corsair's Vengeance K70 inherits the packaging style of the rest of the Vengeance range, although perhaps with slightly fewer garish colours in this case. For a keyboard box it's thick and pretty compact, speaking to the quantity and quality of components within. It's certainly one likely to be seen on the shelf, although will appear to be a little understated compared to its chief marketplace competitors.

Up front the box proudly displays a vanity shot of the keyboard with optional contoured keycaps, highlighting the option which might otherwise be lost in the feature list. Speaking of, the feature list includes Cherry MX Red mechanical switches and key-by-key lighting. The first of these is important to gamers, whilst the second will be intriguing to those who have desired a more customisable experience in their lighting but left wanting by the current marketplace offerings. There's slightly more of an explanation of this feature on the rear, but in the main we're left wondering just what it entails.

Also prominent on the front is the keyboard layout, which we always like to see on such products just in case errant SKUs make it into the wrong market. As you can see, we're using the English QWERTY layout; one imagines that they're not preparing a Dvorak variant, just being thorough.



One side panel is dedicated to the keyboard's tech. specs, helpfully listed in five different languages. Here you will see some information which isn't actually repeated elsewhere such as the gold switch contacts, dimension information and the like. Compatibility requirements and the 2yr guarantee are also part of the info dump, as well as the specific SKU.



Moving to the rear we're quite gratified to see a full-length shot of the keyboard, once again including the contoured keycaps. Corsair also helpfully label important areas of the keyboard, linking them to features such as USB pass-through and multimedia controls. To the left is a list of five features, three of which explain in a little more detail those from the front. In addition to these three a brushed anodised aluminium chassis and 20-key rollover for the entire keyboard are also identified and would be important to professionals and gamers respectively.



Those keen to make any purchase as environmentally ethical as possible will be pleased to note that the majority of the packaging is easy to recycle cardboard. For some time now Corsair products have tended to be packaged in such an environmentally sensitive, and although it may not be appreciated by everyone it’s still a welcome touch. The trade-off is two-fold: the packaging designers need to ensure that the product cannot shift at all during shipping as there's very little cushioning; and the unboxing experience isn't quite as satisfying as, for instance, a premium Apple product.



The keyboard and wrist-rest are packed in two separate bags, which accounts for why the box is a little taller and narrower than you’d expect at first. In the case of the K70 the braided USB cable is always attached; other Vengeance keyboards have had detachable USB cables for travelling to and from LANs.



The contents of the package are fairly comprehensive. Ten contoured red keycaps and a keycap puller are present and accounted for, allowing you to use some or all of them as you prefer. Vengeance K70 keyboards don’t require any software or specialised drivers to operate, so a driver CD can be dispensed with right off the bat. A small user guide is included, and you’ll want to keep hold of it if for no other reason than to learn how the key-by-key lighting customisation and USB polling rate selector works. Finally, you’re also provided a warranty guide.

First impressions are pretty good. Let’s take a closer look.