Razer Huntsman Elite Vs Blackwidow Elite
Tom'due south Guide Verdict
The bold, functional, inventive Razer BlackWidow Elite is what the whole brand has been building toward for years.
Pros
- +
Gorgeous, functional design
- +
Great in-game performance
- +
Smart bells and whistles
- +
Comfortable, no-frills wrist rest
Cons
- -
Occasionally wonky software
If y'all want a premium keyboard from the most recognizable gaming brand on the market, the Razer BlackWidow has e'er been the manner to become. And this year's Razer BlackWidow Elite ($170) is the all-time the keyboard has e'er been.
The BlackWidow Elite corrects a lot of small-scale annoyances from other Razer keyboards. You'll find discrete media controls, a no-frills wrist residuum and pass-throughs for both USB and 3.5 mm sound. Yous won't find extra (and ordinarily underused) macro keys making the keyboard big and unwieldy, or deeply recessed keycaps that hibernate the gorgeous backlighting.
While the BlackWidow Elite isn't perfect, due to a few oddities in the software and cable direction, information technology's pretty darn shut. Razer gearheads in the market for a new keyboard need non hesitate; the BlackWidow Elite is what the whole line has been building toward for years.
Design
If yous're familiar with Razer'due south recent Huntsman Elite keyboard, you lot've already seen the BlackWidow Elite's basic design. The plain blackness plastic chassis is zip special, merely the elegant, elevated keycaps reflect subtle backlighting dorsum onto the keyboard's surface.
Off on the left side, you've got a USB pass-through and a 3.5 mm sound cablevision pass-through. In the upper right, you'll observe detached media controls, with aesthetically pleasing circular buttons, and a ridged punch that you tin can use to control either the book or the lighting levels. Information technology'due south an bonny package all around.
At 17.5 10 6.5 inches (without the wrist residuum, which adds well-nigh iii.five inches), the BlackWidow Elite isn't the smallest full-size keyboard out in that location, but y'all should have no trouble plumbing fixtures information technology on a standard desk. Some users may miss the row of dedicated macro keys, merely it'southward easy enough to reprogram the superlative row of Function buttons to the same effect.
One major difference between the BlackWidow Elite and the Huntsman Elite is that the BlackWidow comes with a standard wrist rest instead of the overdesigned model with integrated LED lighting. Not but does this look a little less silly, only more important, it frees up a USB slot for pass-through. The wrist rest is comfortable, durable and magnetic, but it's like shooting fish in a barrel to eschew if desk space is at a premium.
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The BlackWidow Elite has a cablevision-direction organisation, which lets you thread the braided ability cablevision through either the right or left side of the peripheral. Nevertheless, in my experience, information technology didn't stay put that well, especially when I needed to move the keyboard around. Expect to struggle with this a fleck before it finally stays put.
Keys
If the design upgrade weren't enough, the BlackWidow Elite also revamps Razer's proprietary fundamental switches. You'll still have a choice between three unlike styles: loud, tactile Greens; tranquility, tactile Oranges; and quiet, linear Yellows. But the switches take a totally new appearance. Instead of little, stand-solitary crosses, the crosses are now much larger, and well-nigh completely surrounded by a plastic circle.
In theory, the new pattern is much more responsive and comfortable. In practice, I didn't notice too much divergence, either for gaming or typing. But I tin can say this much: The new switches look a lot more durable. Because of their increased size and better casing, these new switches could concluding quite a long time. If yous have a keycap puller at your disposal, they're definitely worth a expect. (Just don't arraign me if you effort this at Best Buy and become some muddy looks from the clerks.)
MORE: A Guide to Mechanical Keyboard Switches
When information technology comes to typing, the BlackWidow Elite acquitted itself well, assuasive me to type at 111 words per minute with 8 errors on TypingTest.com. On my standard Logitech G613, I scored 116 words per minute with iv errors, but considering that I'd spent only a few days with the BlackWidow, I don't consider this an insurmountable divergence.
Features
Some of the BlackWidow Aristocracy's best features are baked right into its physical blueprint. USB pass-through is fairly mutual in premium keyboards, only the audio laissez passer-through is a novel touch, and I had perfect clarity testing it with both gaming and non-gaming headphones.
I touched on the lighting before, but it's hard to draw just how pretty the keyboard looks when it's fully lit upward. Yous can program an bonny rainbow wave, a solid colour, or anything in-between. You lot tin can match lighting profiles with individual games — and Razer has even preprogrammed a number of games with circuitous lighting profiles. Overwatch, for instance, changes your keyboard's color scheme, depending on which character you select.
It'south difficult to depict but how pretty the keyboard looks when it'southward fully lit up.
One matter I noticed about the lighting scheme was that there'due south no longer a default option for a rainbow ripple event. If you lot've never seen information technology in activeness, it'south a gorgeous option. Whenever you depress a fundamental, a rainbow of colors will "ripple" out across the rest of the keyboard. Typing a single sentence tin can be an explosion of colors, and having used the option on my regular keyboard for months, I've yet to become tired of it.
You can, of course, programme a ripple effect in the Chroma section of the Razer software, simply it's a scrap of a pain. Programming Chroma furnishings is a deep and complex process, consummate with Photoshop-esque layers and more than color, timing and intensity options than you lot'd expect. On the one manus, it's astonishing that Razer gives y'all the same tools its own developers use; on the other mitt, it also means there's no middle footing between "limited presets" and "build furnishings yourself from scratch.""
The rest of the Razer Synapse 3 software works well enough, most of the fourth dimension. You can reprogram certain keys, create macros, link games with customized profiles, toggle Game Style options (to disable certain keys during gameplay) and so forth.
MORE: How to Buy a Gaming Keyboard
The merely problem is that I encountered some major stability issues with the program. On two separate installations, the Synapse software crashed and spontaneously uninstalled itself when I tried to arrange certain settings. I didn't encounter this bug on every organisation, only I was able to replicate it when Razer asked me to investigate the matter further. Razer is investigating the event, but be aware that if you install Synapse 3, it may not play nicely with your system.
Functioning
The BlackWidow Elite works beautifully with a diversity of game genres. I put it through its paces with Overwatch, StarCraft: Remastered, World of Warcraft and Pathfinder: Kingmaker, and found that the keyboard was accurate, precise and responsive in every case. Shielding teammates from incoming burn down every bit D.Va felt but equally effortless every bit creating an charlatan to journey through the realms of Golarion.
Shielding teammates from incoming fire equally D.Va felt just every bit effortless equally creating an charlatan to journey through the realms of Golarion.
In World of Warcraft, I saw how having a row of macro keys could have come in handy, but once more, you lot can reprogram the Function keys for this purpose. Hard-cadre MMO fans may want to think twice about the BlackWidow Aristocracy, only if you play at a more than casual level — or stick to other genres — there's nothing here to concord y'all back.
Bottom Line
The BlackWidow Elite may be the all-time keyboard Razer has e'er produced. Information technology's gorgeous, functional and priced competitively. Every bell and whistle serves a worthwhile function, without e'er detracting from the device's cadre functionality. Information technology's a perfect companion for both everyday productivity and difficult-core gaming.
I still recollect that the Corsair K70 RGB Mk.2 has a few slight edges over the BlackWidow Elite, and the Roccan Vulcan 120 Aimo came out of nowhere to be one of the most exciting keyboards on the marketplace this year. But if yous're thinking nigh those other two gadgets, the BlackWidow Elite deserves your consideration, too. I'm sure Razer volition continue to refine its design in the next twelvemonth or 2, but information technology's difficult to meet how information technology could come upwardly with a meliorate machine.
Credit: Razer
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/razer-blackwidow-elite,review-5804.html
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