Review: We’re not just loving Razer's Black Widow Ultimate keyboard – we’re drinking the kool aid!
Well, the tide, as they say, has turned. We’re seriously thinking about taking our loved, key-worn and remarkably trustworthy Microsoft X6 keyboard and replacing it with a new, shiny, and oh so responsive Black Widow.
For anyone who knows our love of the X6, which has only increased since our initial admittedly lukewarm review, that’s probably enough of a review right there. But we wouldn’t be doing our job (or filling this page) if we didn’t go a wee bit further to illustrate the Black Widow’s awesomeness.
Clickety-click Hell – even the Black Widow’s packaging is classy, with tabs and slots all over the place that mean you don’t have to actually destroy the thing to get your keyboard. And when you do pull it clear of all that shiny plastic and cardboard... it’s impressive without even being plugged in.
Like all mechanical keyboards, it’s heavy – but it feels solid and liable to take a lot of punishment. There’s an outer strip of high gloss plastic that we just know is going to piss us off eventually, but at least the keys themselves are a good matt black. The long, cloth-braided cable is also a pleasing addition – this board’ll plug into your PC no matter where it is in your desk setup.
Further helping with connectivity, the Black Widow boasts pass-throughs for audio and a single USB device. You could plug your mouse in, but it makes for a handy point to access a USB stick or similar device when you need to. There are two adjustable feet under the board, and, impressively, these can be set to two heights.
About the only thing the board lacks physically is an extended wrist rest – we’ve rather gotten used to one.
And then, of course, there’s that key action. Even before it’s plugged in and in-game, just pressing the keys is an almost... well, sensual experience. Call us weird (we’ve heard it before), but it’s just so good! The deep travel, the incredible tactile and sonic feedback – it’s all so satisfying.
But there’s a learning curve involved with the Black Widow that’s going to take a lot of time to get on top of.
The vast majority of us do most of our computing on a keyboard that uses a rubber in-lay – a non-mechanical solution. Sure, it’s mushy and not all that tactile, and prone to wear, but it’s what we know. Switching from this kind of rubber dome setup to a mechanical keyboard is actually no easy act, and the BlackWidow at first seems like it’s pretty crappy to use. In our initial testing, in terms of gaming and day to day typing, it seems stupidly clumsy and inaccurate to use.
But give it time. Serious touch typists swear by a good mechanical keyboard, and after while, you’ll begin to see why. The sense of feedback – and the BlackWidow delivers both an audible and tactile click – really helps typing accuracy once you get over the hump of the deeper travel and seemingly wider spacing between keys. Gaming does take more getting used to, and our timed runs through Call of Duty 4’s Killhouse level were slow at first using the BlackWidow, not to mention full of disastrous mis-keys, like flashbanging ourselves in the face, but after some practice the keyboard’s a real joy to use.
However, we suspect it’s not really the shooter fans that’ll get the most out of the BlackWidow, but rather strategy and MMO players. Such games use much more of the keyboard, and with elegant on the fly macro creation, plus software-based macro setups and ten profiles to switch through, this is where the BlackWidow comes into its own. The kind of solid feedback you get with this board also helps – you really know when you’ve gotten off a Frostbolt.
Not that we know what that means, of course...
About the only issue, of course, is the price. With the effort that Razer’s put into the BlackWidow, you’re certainly getting your money’s worth, but $160 is still very steep. If you don’t need the OTF macro functionality, you can always get the normal edition, which is about $40 cheaper. All that said, there’s every chance that further use will see this crowned our new favourite keyboard.
A bloody good effort from Razer.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012