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jbhifi.com.au
54
APRIL
2017
visit
stack.net.auGAMES
FEATURE
R
azer has had a foothold in the
gaming peripheral
market for
a number of years
now, offering quality,
streamlined products
(with the trademark Razer
Green glow) that appeal to casual
gamers and esports pros alike.
The first thing you need to know about
Razer’s mechanical keyboards is that they are
available with a number of different mechanical
key switches: the Green, ‘clicky’ switches with
tactile feedback; the Orange switches, that
are more quiet with the same tactile feedback
minus the click; and the new Yellow switches,
which are silent and linear – each designed
specifically for MOBA and FPS gaming.
Where the original Blackwidow Chroma
(now three years old) was an impressive
mechanical keyboard, the V2 makes a number
of improvements. Razer has added new
mechanical key switch types, a wrist rest that
attaches snugly to the bottom of the keyboard,
and a new keycap font.
We went hands-on with a Blackwidow
Chroma V2 featuring the Green switches
that offer a more responsive interaction and
feedback than the linear ones. To the untrained
finger, the feedback variation may not be
noticeable, but to the experienced PC gamer
it can mean the difference between (video
game) life and death.
The trade off with this handy response
feedback is the noise of the keys. You don’t
Razer has just revealed its new and improved keyboard –
the Razer Blackwidow Chroma V2.
Words
Alesha Kolbe
notice it
after a while,
but it’s something
that could bother
co-workers or people you
live with, so you need to keep
that in mind. Ultimately, it comes
down to personal preference as far as key
choices are concerned, with the change in
responsive feedback really noticeable if you’ve
used your fair share of both. The Blackwidow
V2’s clicky Green keys are more beneficial
(in our experience) to fast-paced multiplayer
games like MOBAs, with lower impact titles
like RPGs (which don’t necessarily require
lightning fast reflexes) showing little deviation
either way.
The new-look keys themselves are set
comfortably into the body of the keyboard,
and are built to withstand up to 80 million
key presses, so you won’t have to replace
your keyboard any time soon. Of course,
the upgraded Blackwidow also features the
trademark
Razer Chroma
lighting. This puts
16.8 million customisable
colour combinations at your
fingertips, and the ability to sync
your keyboard with the rest of your
setup. It’s a fun way to spend half an hour.
Razer’s updated Blackwidow V2 improves
not only on the keys of the original, but also
the comfort factor. Included with the keyboard
is a plush wrist rest, making it noticeably more
comfortable during extended use. This small
addition makes a remarkable change and could
alone justify the upgrade. Moreover, the rest
attaches magnetically to the bottom of the
keyboard and is easy to dispense with should
you need to move the keyboard, or decide it’s
simply not required.
Razer’s Blackwidow Chroma V2 is full of
noticeable, impactful improvements upon the
already quality original, and is certainly worth
the upgrade.
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