Razer Launches BlackWidow Keyboard With 16.8 Million Colors

Megalith

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While I am not in the market for a new keyboard any time soon, this announcement does give me an opportunity to ask you guys whether color customization plays a part in your buying decisions. I’m the guy who wishes that gaming companies would settle down with their loud colors and designs, so you probably know where I stand on something like chromatic features. Anyway, the BlackWidow is a keyboard that most are familiar with, at least by name, and Razer’s latest version includes a new switch that is designed to be silent and lasts for 80 million keystrokes.

…Razer BlackWidow mechanical keyboards have become the world’s most popular gaming keyboard, particularly among professional gamers, the company said. Razer began manufacturing its own mechanical switches in 2014 – the Razer Green and Razer Orange switch. Those switches optimize actuation and reset responsiveness. The Razer BlackWidow V2 adds a new alternative, the Razer Yellow switch. Its linear and silent design allows keys to be pressed faster than ever before. The new switch’s feel and properties are meant for FPS and MOBA players who press certain keys thousands of times over the course of a match.
 
Not a draw for me at all, but for the neighbor kids I built PCs for (13 and 16) it was the number 1 selling point - they both got Razer Chromas because of the colors...
 
I'm finally starting to wear out the switches in my ABS M1 namely S and D but sometimes (like now) they work perfectly fine. Lasted me some good years. 80 million keystrokes... can't imagine the rest of the keyboard would last as long as the switches do.
 
I don't think the draw with the V2 are the colors. The BlackWidow Chroma already allows individual RGB lighting. Not that it's really good.. but it's there (with a metric ton of bleed through), as an option.
 
I guess this is as good a place as any to ask. I just want a solid mechanical keyboard to replace a Gigabyte Avia Osmium. I do want a single color back light because I type and game in the dark. What would you all say?
 
I like RGB because of my OCD. To match my wallpapers.

That being said. My "Chroma-Everything" has been setup on White (The crappy off-color white) since I got it.
 
See, I think we all like to coordinate our stuff, otherwise there wouldn't be such massive markets for things like sleeved PSU cables and such.

The neat thing about RGB stuff (and Razer's in particular thanks to their class-leading software) is you can do a whole lot of neat effects and lighting schemes that perfectly match your case. Plus, the colours can be used natively by games with an open SDK available to any developers that can genuinely provide feedback. Overwatch is a great example of this, where colour flashes you catch out of the corner of your eye can really help you notice stuff like ability resets.

I've got a super sweet ripple fade effect on mine that goes red to white to red, it perfectly matches my build. Everyone who's seen it says it looks like it's from the future.
 
I like a backlit keyboard. I could care less about color customization though.

I do admit I like the look of things when all the LEDs and such are at least complimentary colors - right now my PC looks like a PreSchool Playground - blue LEDs here, reds there, still a few greens spamming out on my ethernet card, some whites around the edges. But it doesn't take 16.8M colors with individually lit keys to match all of that together.
 
I was happy with the Ducky Shine until the LED's started burning out..
 
These Keyboards are great unless your colour blind. OK now were going to set up your gaming direction keys.... Put your fingers over the red coloured keys... Martha!!!!! git your ass down here and show me the red keys.
 
I don't buy with it in mind but it is a nice feature. I do like how I can set my MB and video card to color change based of temperature.
For my keyboard I like the keys to be lit but I set the color and never change it.
 
Did a new build for my 9 year old niece a year ago and these kind of keyboards really help get kids interested in computers.
 
When you can't up the quality, up the colors?

Exactly. I do like back lit mechanical keyboards. I owned a Black Widow Ultimate in 2015 and I hated it. I've used a number of other keyboards with the same switches and the Black Widow Ultimate felt different and not in a good way. The casing is cheap, the key caps are terrible and that keyboard is looking worn now. I gave it to my girlfriend and she loves it. Anytime I have to do anything on her machine I want to chuck that keyboard in the trash. Now they use different switches which feel worse to me than the older Cherry MX series switches do, even on a Razer keyboard.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I'm extremely picky about my keyboards. Unfortunately, I have few options for a back lit keyboard that uses Cherry MX Blues, supports full RGB, quality keycaps and doesn't have any bullshit media keys. I don't even want the four that the Ducky Shine's have. I want 104 keys. No more, no less.
 
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I've only used membrane keyboards and do want to get a mechanical one that lights up (my desk area is dark) but I want to be able to control the color. I don't need lots of effects or individual key colors not that I would mind having it. For me $150-200 for a keyboard is just too much, $75-100 I could stomach. One of my reasons for that is I don't game on a keyboard I use a Belkin N52TE.

I may end up spending whatever I would have spent on a mechanical keyboard on a Razor Orbweaver. My N52TE is getting old (last driver build I think was for vista, maybe 7 but I think Vista, I still got it working on win 10). I could not game without it at this point.
 
I prefer backlit keyboards because I'm going blind and I cant touch type. I see green backlighting the best and thats what my logitech g910 is currently set on. No special effects or anything, just green backlight.


When the best you can say about a high-end mechanical keyboard is the amount of backlight colours.

I've had http://www.roccat.org/en-US/Products/Gaming-Keyboards/Ryos-Series/Ryos-MK/ for a while now. Too loud and WASD are super hard to press, unlike most other keys on the unit. Why? WHY WHY WHY. Are there any silent mechanicals on the market? No more Razer products for me.

The logitech g910 is silent, unless you bottom out the keys while typiing.
 
I still miss my IBM Model M. Old school beige colour, no backlight, loud and satisfying click, and weighed enough to knock out a bull moose.
 
You can still get them, and with usb connectors (though the weight is less, different plate).
http://www.unicomp.com/
got my Dad a Dvorak a few years back for his birthday (he had an original around, but the cable didn't work).
 
I bought a backlit mechanical keyboard at one point, but went back to my old buckling spring board. What annoyed me most was the inverted number and symbol glyphs on the top row (i.e. normally 2 would be on the bottom and @ would be on the top). The Cherry switches, by their design, are not capable of lighting the keycap uniformly. So the manufacturers move the primary glyph to the top of the keycap, where the LED is located. That solution doesn't work for me. I had the "noisy" Cherry blue switches, but it seemed most of the noise the keyboard generated was caused by the keys bottoming out. Overall, it wasn't very satisfying.
 
What I look for in a keyboard. Mechanical, backlit, and has macros. The rest is just extra. I have a G-Skill Ripjaws RGB keyboard. I setup my macros and set the backlight to blue, called it a day.

I had a Razer BlackWidow Ultimate before, it was backlit green. It started to shit the bed. Keys started to not work so well. I found Razer's quality has gone down, so I stopped buying them.
 
Better not be the standard Razer glossy black plastic frame again. Also surprised more manufacturers don't do make base plates/frames that are flush with the switches like Corsairs K-series. Tired of getting gunk in between my keys and having to turn the entire thing over or remove keycaps to clean the damned things. If Razer adopted that design, I'd probably take them more seriously when shopping for my next keyboard. (Edit) Just realized they have a BW Tournament edition that fits the bill. :)
 
The first gen of Razer mech switches were pretty awful. They were known to have issues. Then in 2015 they completely retooled them, and their second gen switches started showing up around March 2016.

I've had both, and the difference is definitely noticeable. My current BW tenkeyless (no backlighting) has their "silent" orange switches. I got it about six months ago and it's been fantastic.


When it comes to the lighting, if you are interested in RGB and think the $50 premium is worth it (or find a sweet sale), then no one else comes close to Razer's Synapse software for customization. It is truly incredible what you can do with those boards using the software, and you can save and share any lighting profiles you create. There's even an open SDK. A whole community has been built up around creating awesome and unique lighting patterns and effects.

Corsair's software is a distant second, and below that you have all the other RGB board makers whose software lets you change key colours, and maybe use some pre-loaded effects.. and that's it.
 
I have a Chroma and I love it. Not only is it pretty but the keys themselves are great. I have tried the G8910 and I didn't like the romer keys, not enough click.
 
Better not be the standard Razer glossy black plastic frame again. Also surprised more manufacturers don't do make base plates/frames that are flush with the switches like Corsairs K-series. Tired of getting gunk in between my keys and having to turn the entire thing over or remove keycaps to clean the damned things. If Razer adopted that design, I'd probably take them more seriously when shopping for my next keyboard. (Edit) Just realized they have a BW Tournament edition that fits the bill. :)

My G.Skill keyboard is flush with the switches. Canned air cleans it off nicely, unless it's like stuck on food gunk. Which will have to pop the keys off to clean that.
 
How long until we need video cards in our keyboards?

"Your Chroma only has a gtx1080 embedded? Peasant!"
 
I had a K90 for a few years. I wasn't a big fan of the software glitching or my keyboard rainbowing when it was turned off. I'm so used to where keys are that I no longer use backlights. Vortex Poker 3 has been a good 60% board for me.
 
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