Razer Blackwidow Chroma v2
Comfy and clicky.
There was once a time when a $300 keyboard would’ve made us cough and splutter, but these days, the premium end of the gaming board market is littered with similarly-priced units all vying for space.
Razer’s first BlackWidow Chroma was a great gaming keyboard, so we were interested to know what had changed. Our test unit came with Razer’s own tactile and clicky Green switches, but there’s also the option of orange (tactile and silent) or yellow (linear and silent). Another nice addition is the USB charging port and headphone jack on the right-hand side of the board.
The design and layout of the keys have thankfully not changed. These are great under the fingertips — you won’t be hitting the wrong keys in a hurry — but that said, we do feel as though the function keys are just a tad too far away to comfortably find quicksave (aka F5) without looking. A minor niggle, perhaps.
There is a bank of four dedicated macro keys down the left. Another similarity is the lighting effects, powered by Razer’s Synapse, with 16.8 million colours to choose from. One useful effect is the static per-key templates, useful for Dota, CS:GO, League of Legends and Starcraft II players, as each has a template. It also caters to default MMO, MOBA, FPS and RTS styles.
The best new thing, though, is the ergonomic wrist rest. Razer has included a magnetic and super comfy cushioned wrist rest that sticks to the original shape of the board, meaning it’s optional, effortless to add or remove and doesn’t impact on design. Bit pricey, though.