Razer BlackWidow Lite
A real work of (quiet) genius
“NOTHING STRENGTHENS authority so much as silence,” remarked Leonardo da Vinci, no doubt when working on his greatest invention, the mechanical keyboard. There are some who would argue against the bearded old master— Michelangelo, according to our dubious renaissance sources, liked a serious clack to his keys—but the philosophy still has legs. If you want to game hard without distraction, if you want to treat your fingers to a quality keyboard in an office that won’t tolerate the sound of a thousand snaps a second, if you’re often streaming or making voice calls while typing, a silent switch is the solution.
Razer has taken more than one bite at the silent cherry. We’ve looked at its yellow switches before, and probably used adjectives like “horrible,” “swampy,” or “disgusting” while doing so. As you might imagine, we don’t think they’re particularly great. Tested here in the BlackWidow Lite, though, we have the notched orange variety. They’re pretty much the polar opposite of the yellows: definite, firm, with a notch that’s slightly more resistive that its closest rival, the Cherry MX Brown. These switches feel absolutely superb, not quite as sharp (or, naturally, as snappy) as the Razer green switch, but you know when they’ve been actuated. If we had one complaint, they can be a little rough on the upstroke, with quite a heavy spring—if you don’t tend to retract your fingers from the key caps, this might prove annoying.
Silent though the switches themselves may be, this isn’t an entirely silent keyboard. There’s a little tap to be heard as the stalk of these needlessly low-profile key caps (we think it’s an entirely aesthetic choice) bottom out on the switches; Razer thoughtfully includes a big bag of grommets, which almost completely alleviates this particular sound if you’re willing to put up with the solid bottom-out being replaced by a disappointing rubbery one. The grommets also can’t do away with the pop of these well-sprung keys returning to zero, so true stealth typing is out of the question. We should give a bit of page acreage to the space bar here, too: There’s not an ounce of the usual rattle. While it’s acoustically different from the rest of the keys, it’s one of the best space bars we’ve ever used. That’s a phrase we don’t utter often.
In terms of its looks, the BlackWidow Lite is a keyboard worthy of a sketch in Da Vinci’s notebook; it has some of the cleanest lines around, with a minimal round-edged bezel surrounding the keys, individually lit switches (white only, though you can tweak the brightness), with lenses over each LED to diffract the beam, a detachable cable, and a cool matt finish that means the combo isn’t harsh on the eyes even at full brightness. There’s no wasted decoration; were it not for the signature key cap font and the barely perceptible Razer logo (and, er, the box), we’d not have pinned this as a Razer keyboard at all. A company with a reputation for brashness putting out a wonderfully understated keyboard? It’s like dogs and cats living together.
Perhaps, though, that understatement has gone a little too far. If this is a keyboard doing double duty on the desktop and driving gaming, it doesn’t do the best job of fulfilling the needs of the former. There’s no number pad; yes, that’s sort of the point of a tenkeyless keyboard, but they do come in damn useful. Media keys are on an FN shortcut rather than being dedicated buttons. There’s not even a half-hearted plastic wrist rest included. Sounds like we’re being picky, but there’s a world of well-equipped keyboards out there that double up just as well, with number pads, too, all at a similar price. It’s almost like old Leonardo’s flapping-wing flying machine: Beautiful design, impeccable ideas behind it, but it just doesn’t quite work the way it was intended to.