If you’re looking for a good mechanical keyboard that will last for a long time, with great RGB lighting and classic look, Razer BlackWidow is the right one for you.

• RGB light effects
• very durable razer green switches
• clever routing options

• no media and macro keys
• no pass-through port
• difficult to use software

A First look

At the first look, it feels pretty compact for a full board, and that’s not bad, because full-size gaming keyboards are taking a lot of space, and this one leaves you more space on your desk.

Design

It’s made of plastic, but still very sturdy for plastic-bodied keyboard, with a minimum of flex, and it’s nice matte finish, with no residual of fingerprints. The keycaps feel very nice under the finger, and even after a month of use, there is a lot of  ‘shine’ already on the caps. There are no additional macro keys or dedicated multimedia keys, and that was not good because these two are a must-have in the modern market.

Switch

src: Razer

• This keyboard comes only with Razer green switches, but they are updated version of switches implemented in the BlackWidow Elite.
• These switches are ready for 80 million keystrokes, so they are very durable. They added dual sidewalls for greater stability, and to prevent dirt and dust from getting in there.
• These switches are a mix of both tactile click and light actuation force, and that makes a great combination.
• While gaming, you can be quick on the trigger, but also disposed to typing mistakes. Picking the right mechanical keyboard switch is personal, and I can’t say that this is bad or good, so it depends on you.

No one complained about clicky and tactile switches, but If you are not a big fan of these switches, you should look for BlackWidow Elite, because it is available in three different types of switches.

RGB Light effects

Razer BlackWidow RGB light effects look really good, they are very vibrant colors because of white background, and you can configure the lighting modes with Chroma Studio software, that gives you the ability to customize the RGB lighting for each individual key, including the color, timing, and pattern. Also, you can link that effect into each game.

Overall, game lighting has become legendary and Razer still does it best.

Ryzer Synapse

It’s a pretty heavy install at 300MB for software and once you get into the software, it’s really hard to use if you don’t have any experience. It features many drop-down menus with a lot of options, so you can do anything you want in this program.

The good thing is that programming capability alleviates the lack of dedicated macro keys. You can manage every key and program individual macros.

Also with Synapse, there is a feature called ‘Hypershift’, which allows you to map a secondary action to any key pressed with the function key as the Control key does.

BlackWidow lets you create and store configuration profiles for any game or program on your PC, that includes: Hypershift mapping, custom key mapping, and a custom lighting scheme. You can store up to five profiles on the keyboard’s own on-board memory, and bring profiles from PC to PC. And if you have other Razer products, you can sync them all together to get a really cool in sync lighting effects.

Cable routing options

You can hide cable through between the edges to either side. Another good thing is if you have a hole drilled in desk, the cable can never be seen, because the cable can go directly through the desk, and it will look like your keyboard is wireless! And because of that clever solutions, Blackwidow takes a nice advantage against competition.

Cost-effectiveness

Now, you have to ask yourself: What features do I care for, and how much I plan to pay for them? If you don’t care about little quirks, Blackwidow will do right by you, and it retails for less than most keyboards in its class.

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