New Razer BlackWidow brings the (expensive) stealth

Razer makes a less grandiose announcement, this time spruiking a new and quieter version of its excellent BlackWidow keyboard. Be warned of the price, though...

To say we like Razer's BlackWidow Ultimate Edition keyboard is a bit of an understatement. We loved it at Gamescom last year when we first saw, and we loved it still when we reviewed it earlier this year. It's a good looking, highly responsive piece of gaming kit.

However, if there's one thing that's likely to annoy some gamers, it's the clicky keys. The current BlackWidow is very noisy, erring on the side of maximum audio feedback for touchtyping gamers. If you like quiet keys, though, perhaps you'll be interested in the just-announced BlackWidow Stealth Edition.

It comes in both Ultimate and normal editions, and otherwise features all the same good stuff as the regular, noisy BlackWidow 'boards. They are pricey, though, and rather bloated by the Australia Tax - the Tournament Edition will retail for $229, the regular for $129. In the US those prices are $140 and $80 respectively. We've asked local Razer reps for comment, but I think we can guess how that's going to go.

Ultimate Stealth Edition

• Full mechanical keys with 45g actuation force
• Extreme anti-ghosting
• Individually backlit keys with 5 levels of lighting
• 1000Hz Ultrapolling /1ms response time
• Programmable keys with on-the-fly macro recording
• Gaming mode option for deactivation of the Windows key
• 10 customisable software profiles with on-the-fly switching
• 5 additional macro keys
• Multi-media control keys
• Braided cable
• Audio-Out/Mic-In jack
• USB-passthrough
• Approx size (mm): 475(l) x 171(w) x 30(h)
• Weight: 1.5kg

Stealth Edition

• Full mechanical keys with 45g actuation force
• 1000Hz Ultrapolling /1ms response time
• Programmable keys with on-the-fly macro recording
• Gaming mode option for deactivation of the Windows key
• 10 customisable software profiles with on-the-fly switching
• 5 additional macro keys
• Gaming optimised key matrix for minimised ghosting
• Multi-media controls
• Braided cable Approx size (mm): 475(l) x 171(w) x 30(h)
• Weight: 1.5kg