Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review
by E. Fylladitakis on April 2, 2014 8:05 PM EST- Posted in
- Keyboard
- Razer
- mechanical
Final Words
In terms of design, there is little to say about the BlackWidow Ultimate, as the keyboard has essentially been around for years already. Razer refined it over time, adding one little upgrade after the other, the latest being their own Green switches. It is a proven, well-made product, owned and tested by thousands worldwide. The only thing that some people are sure to complain about is the lack of a blue backlit version, as the 2014 version only comes with bright green backlighting. However, like it or not, this bright green color is Razer's trademark and they pay top dollar to match everything with it.
My personal experience tells me that the choice of keyboard switches is a subjective matter, strongly depending on the taste of the user; therefore, my evaluation of Razer's Green switches is qualitative and based on my subjective preferences. As I personally type several and long texts, I like tactile mechanical switches and I have been using a keyboard with Cherry's Blue switches for the past several years. I have been using the BlackWidow Ultimate for the past few days, including for writing this review and I cannot feel even a hint of a difference between Razer's Green switches and the Blue switches of my old keyboard. I do not find them any better or any worse; they feel exactly the same. I suppose that my fingers are not nearly sensitive enough to appreciate the 0.3mm travel difference while actually using the keyboard.
With its firm, tactile feel, the BlackWidow Ultimate feels ideal for daily use, unless if noise is a major concern, as each keystroke generates an appreciable clicking sound. If there are going to be other people in the immediate vicinity of this keyboard, we guarantee you that its noise will eventually become a problem. As far as gaming goes, based on my subjective opinion, I strongly agree with my predecessor; the use of the Green (or Blue) tactile switches is far from ideal for gaming. Aside from the noise, these switches require a high force at their actuation point that drops fast once the key has been actuated, making it hard to keep the key from bottoming out anyway. If gaming is your primary concern, I strongly recommend opting for the version with the softer Orange switches instead.
Performance is a qualitative factor when it comes to keyboards, almost exclusively depending on the keys used and the features that the user requires. Beyond that, few quantifiable figures can be used to measure the performance of a keyboard, with the key rollover being perhaps the only exception. The BlackWidow Ultimate supports 10 key rollover, which should be more than adequate for any given purpose, including gaming, unless of course if we are talking about a gamer so advanced that can simultaneously press more than one key with each finger. Many competitive products nowadays support N-key (infinite) rollover but we cannot really consider it an actual performance improvement.
The only real problem of the BlackWidow Ultimate is the hefty price tag. The BlackWidow Ultimate is currently retailing for $139.99 plus shipping in the US and €119.99 plus shipping in the EU. We could name a few dozens of keyboards with various mechanical switches that fall near or below this price point, so Razer is going to be facing massive competition. In terms of features, the BlackWidow Ultimate is fairly good. There are five programmable macro keys, it has multimedia functions and, above all else, it is fully programmable. The ability to reprogram every single key to your liking is far from common and it can actually be extremely useful, especially to gamers. In our opinion, this feature is by far the most important of this keyboard. On the other hand, the lack of dedicated multimedia keys is a major flaw considering the price range of the keyboard. Some MMORPG gamers might find the five macro keys to be too few but that is easily overshadowed by the ability to program every key on the keyboard to your liking; that includes assigning macros to any of them.
In summary, the BlackWidow Ultimate is a very good product that, in our opinion, has its marketing focused on the wrong direction. The improvement that the Green switches offer hardly is measurable, let alone significant. However, if you actually take a moment and look beyond Razer's marketing focus on the Green switches and their claims of adamant durability, the BlackWidow Ultimate is a very well made keyboard with very good features. If you are looking for a high performance mechanical keyboard in the $120-140 price range, then it is a product worthy of consideration.
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tbhatia4 - Sunday, October 12, 2014 - link
Got the keyboard yesterday, Awesome Built quality, Mechanical Keys with Backlit Illumination Looks CoolAli i can say that good quality
Anyways got a good deal from an indian website offered me Cash On Delivery and they charged me Rs 1000/- lesser than all big players Hats OFF!!!!
check yourself here
http://www.martnext.com/razer-blackwidow-ultimate-...
LanderLawrence - Friday, November 14, 2014 - link
I got the "Razer Black Widow Ultimate Stealth Edition" just over a year ago. Such a long product name. Mine's from the first line of these keyboards - since then they've lengthened the name even more by adding a year to it.Mine's been a solid keyboard so far. Feels solid and after a year's use, all of the blue LEDs are still fine. The thick braided cable is herniating a bit just after it comes out of the back of the keyboard. I'm planning on reinforcing that somehow, but don't have a plan yet.
I do have a few gripes about it though. It doesn't have the layout I'm used to (turns out that's the US ANSI one [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#Mech...]) and I miss that SO much. To the right of the spacebar there's no Windows key and the Function keys across the top are shifted right a bit.
I also miss having dedicated media keys. To adjust volume you have to hold the FN key in the bottom right and hit the Function keys in the top left. Sounds silly, but that takes 2 hands and if you're trying to mute the PC while answering a phone, it's a pain.
Razer also has some ideas with their software that bother me. This is before they started "big brothering" their Synapse software and requiring you to create an online account, but it seems they were already thinking along those lines.
The keyboard has onboard memory for storing macros and it has a physical key for starting "learning mode" (FN + Right Alt I think). Because all of that is in the keyboard itself, I thought I'd be fine using the keyboard without the Synapse software. Not so. When the keyboard "boots" it waits for the Synapse software to send the "all clear" signal before the keyboard will respond to the record macro button! If you have an OS that doesn't run Synapse or you don't want to install their software, you can't record macros.
Note this brilliant fellow's done something involving USB snooping software and a low level USB driver to make it work on Linux [http://www.finch.am/projects/blackwidow/]. If you're hoping to record macros while hooked up to an XBox 360 or something even more obscure, it's going to be harder than you think. Does Synapse run on MacOS?
GraXXoR - Sunday, November 16, 2014 - link
Khail? greens might not be worse than Cherry Mx Blues, but the QC certainly is. My Ultimate chroma has gone back twice. Once with an E key that lost its clicky sound within a week and the second replacement had a lousy delete key.Ok, so it serves me right buying a gimmicky in, I suppose. However, I have a very poor memory, so color coding is perfect for remembering different keys' meanings.
ss1980 - Friday, February 12, 2016 - link
BEFORE YOU BUY, I would like to share my story dealing with Razer "customer support" and you will decide for yourself.1. Recently bought the keyboard -- Razer BlackWidow 2014 Mechanical Keyboard in particular.
2. Keyboard happened to be missing one leg that raises it up and one rubber foot.
3. Naturally, I contacted Razer "customer support" to see if they could send me the missing parts (the missing leg and missing rubber foot), as without them I could neither raise the keyboard, nor I it was steady enough (it was actually rocking) when typing.
4. Razer "customer support" says they don't send or sell parts but can replace the whole keyboard.
5. In order to replace the whole keyboard, they needed all the whole gamut of information -- the serial number, model, etc. I provided.
6. A day later, they come back to me saying this -- "We will make an EXCEPTION for you and will replace it for you but you have to CUT THE CORD and send us a picture of it." I was like "WTF?!!! An exception? The keyboard is on warranty, I don't need any EXCEPTIONS. And cutting the corn on my $120 keyboard will render is useless. How soon will I receive the replacement keyboard?!!"
7. So I send them the picture of the keyboard with the cord cut and you know what Razer say???!!! "The photo looks photoshopped, so you're not getting any replacement!"
8. So I am left with no functioning keyboard, no replacement, and I can't even sell it now because the cord is cut!!!
Now you decide if you want to deal with the company that treats you like crap!