Razer Black Widow Ultimate

[Birdman]

Okay, before I get into this guys I would like to explain my reasoning for this. 

 

I've read a handful of reviews on the BWU and every review seems to be missing something or a review of it not long after it was purchased so I want to try and do a more detailed review if this keyboard.  

 

 

Pricing: $139.00 - USD

Amazon

Newegg

NCIX

 

When I bought mine I paid around $150 USD, personally I don't think this keyboard is worth that much. The keyboard has a nice feel and build quality, but I do think it lacks features, and I know there's other keyboards way better for the same price. 

I've used this keyboard for about 6 months now.

 

Build Quality: 

 

 The Razer BWU has a nice feel to it, there's no flex in the keyboard. One thing I do like is how high the keyboard sits with the feet down, and that there's full rubber nonslip pads on the bottom. While using this keyboard in surfaces from glass to wood I have never had a problem with it slipping. However it's not overly grippy, so if you want to slide your keyboard forward to get it out of the way for whatever reason you can do that with ease, and you don't need to lift the keyboard to do so.

 

The braided cable is also really nice, I like how they put it in one cable then put a splitter towards the end. One thing I do think should have included is a cable routing like most higher end keyboards do have, but personally I don't think that is that big of an issue, but that may be because of how I have mine routed. 

 

One thing I would like to note is that if you're going to be traveling with your pc a lot this will probably not be a good choice for you as it is on the bulky and heavy side. 

 

Keys/Keyswitches/Layout:

 

 This is probably the most controversial part of this keyboard. 

 

The keys themselves I think feel great, and I do love the block style lettering (kind of reminds me of 8bit) and that the letters are clear so they're not going to wear off and the LED's can shine through without a problem. The green halo effect is really pretty as well giving it a floating look. 

 

I do eat while using this keyboard, and I will admit that I have hit my WASD keys with sticky foods on my fingers still. I've done this various times throughout the months I've owned this keyboard and I have noticed nothing being sticky or a residue even the slightest bit. 

 

There's no keyboard sins going on with the layout here, there's a full size blackspace, shift, and enter buttons. Nothing else about the layout is wonky on it either. It has one windows key on the bottom left side, and a Function key on the bottom right side. It has the five macro keys on the left side as well. 

 

The Function keys it includes are (From left to right) 

Mute, Volume up, Volume Down, Rewind/Previous, Pause/Play, Forward/Next, Macro Mode, Gaming Mode, LED down, LED up, and Sleep Mode. 

For the volume keys, they work for everything, never had a problem with that. But with the Media controls, I've found it only really works on programs, and will not be useful for youtube or Pandora. 

 

The LED backlight does get insanely bright, I've counted about 20 different brightness settings, and quite honestly after about the tenth setting you start to not even really notice a difference. 

 

Now the keyswitches are as almost everybody knows by now Cherry MX Blue's. This is probably one of the biggest deal breakers in my opinion. I don't find this switch to be good at all.  I can type quickly with it and not have any issues, but for gaming I think they're pretty ridiculous. The reason I say this is because they're one of the louder keys, and if you're using something like Razer Comm's, teamspeak, skype, etc to talk to your team mates during a game or even recording, the people watching/talking to you are going to hear every little click, and it does get quite annoying. They're not hard to push by any means, I just think a keyswitch as loud as this one is quite insane for a gaming keyboard.

 

The USB, Mic In and Line in are probably the one feature I use the most on this keyboard, I do find that really handy. 

 

 

Synapse: 

 

 Razer Synapse is the software required for you to adjust macros, set macro keys, and pretty much fine tune your keyboard to your liking. Never really had any problems with this, but then again I hardly use it. 

 

 

 

 

[El Bejelando]

go for it

[Dudenstein]

go for it

Did you read the post?

[Ivyk]

go for it

This is his personal review and owns the keyboard...