Tech Review: Razer BlackWidow Chroma V2

Manufacturer Razer
Release Date 24 January 2017
Where we got our copy Apex Interactive
Where to buy price check , Rebeltech

TheStrangerHAZ

Published March 3, 2017

One thing should stick out in this comparison however, even though many of us have replaced our screens and our mice, I would hazard to say a large portion of our population still use a dome-switch/membrane keyboard (non-mech keyboards in layman’s terms).

That brings me to our topic of conversation, the Razer BlackWidow Chroma V2 Mechanical gaming keyboard. Those observant of you will notice that this is in fact NOT the same BlackWidow that was released in 2014 (though you’d be hard pressed to see that based on the packaging) and as such just a quick caveat when purchasing one here, make sure you know what you are buying, many local retailers still stock the original BlackWidow Chroma.

“So what’s the difference?” you may ask. Well you do get an included magnetic wrist rest and have the option of Razer’s yellow switch this time. Immediately I’ll say that I do not think this in itself would be a worthy upgrade if you already have a BlackWidow. However, I don’t think the V2 is meant to be an upgrade, but rather an update to the existing product (as it also seems like Razer do not have the V1 visible on their homepage either).

Enough about the name! Let’s jump into what makes this keyboard its own, independent of its predecessor.

The Box

Razer did a pretty good job in their packaging, take a look. I should also mention that the keyboard came with a single mechanical key and switch that cycles through the available colours and effects while also being a keyring! This is a nice way to feel what the switches feel like without actually removing the keyboard from its packaging.

The Visuals

From a distance, the BlackWidow would look like any other keyboard – apart from the glowing Razer symbol in the centre of the lower edge – there really isn’t anything that sticks out about the shape or the layout (not that this is a bad thing). It has five macro keys on the leftmost side and no other extra buttons along with a small piano-finish covering over the lock buttons status illumination lights. All the keys have individual RGB backlighting however the lock status lights, only have a solid white illumination.

Let me firstly begin with the RGB backlighting itself, each LED is incredibly bright and you WILL get significant colour bleed between keys, especially if you are using colours which contrast heavily with each other. You can change the brightness of these LEDs, however the colour bleed will still almost always be visible. Secondly the background illumination of the lock status keys is a solid white colour which becomes difficult to notice in any sort of light whatsoever. Honestly would it have been too much effort to add a single RGB LED behind this panel so it would be visible in all lighting?

As there are no dedicated media keys, the media functions themselves are bound from F1 to F3 and F5 to F7 which require a separate function (Fn) key to be depressed before their functions are used much like how most laptops do.

Perhaps the most egregious problem with this setup, is that the Function key is on the right-hand side of the keyboard which requires you to take your hand off your mouse to reach it. This was incredibly frustrating in cases where I needed to lower the volume while I was in game, as I was left completely stationary.

The V2 comes bundled with a hard foam wrist guard with a soft leather finish that has the Razer logo embraided on it. It’s one sexy wrist guard.

The Build quality

The V2 is quite a heavy board with a thick braided cable, which was difficult to bend (much in the same way, Corsair’s keyboards are). This didn’t bother me much as I would rather deal with a difficult cable than a broken one.

The keycaps themselves have a matte, almost rubbery, texture to them which feels really nice and premium.

The V2 also includes a USB and audio jack pass-through which allows you to plug a pair of headphones into the keyboard if you have trouble reaching your audio plugs on your PC.

The Performance

The V2 is able to use any of Razer’s different switches (namely the green, orange or yellow switches) and the specific model I was using, had the Razer greens under the hood. While definitely too heavy for my liking, the switches themselves felt great and never caused me any trouble with ghosting or registering key presses I did not intend to happen.

With most people using a keyboard for a long period of time, ergonomics becomes a major design concern which probably sparked the creation of the foam wrist guard in the first place, fixing probably the biggest problem the original BlackWidow had. And oh boy, did they REALLY make up for it! I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that this was the most comfortable wrist guard I have used so far. The length and width give plenty of space to rest, even for those with large hands. The padding itself is not too hard or soft, genuinely surprising when you first feel it. The covering is a thinnish layer of leather that seems not to soak up too many of your hand juices, however, I do think this will wear out fairly quickly. Luckily it’s incredibly easy to remove the wrist guard which is fastened using the invisible power of magnets.

Just a quick mention for those of you who care about the acoustics of your mech keyboards. The V2, coupled with the green swicthes is LOUD, I mean, VERY LOUD. It may be the loudest keyboard I’ve ever used; however I feel a large portion of that is due to the tactile click the green switches have.

The Software

This, dear reader, is the absolute biggest problem with the keyboard. The incredibly annoying Razer Synapse software. Before being able to actually use Synapse, you first need to create an account (requiring your email address) which just feels unnecessary. After eventually getting into the program, you are greeted with your typical keyboard tabs, including a lighting and profile section.

It took me a couple hours of using Synapse to finally work out how the program actually worked, allowing me to create a somewhat usable lighting profile. However, the more I worked with it, the more I started to notice the limitations.

Firstly, from what I can tell, most of the different RGB colours seem to get a bit muddy when trying to make some fine adjustments to lower-end, eventually devolving to a lighter or darker shade of the original colour you were using.

After longer periods of time, I started to notice some keys changing colour by themselves or getting confused between the different profiles I had set up (as you can see in the image below).

I had a wave effect setup and every now and again when the wave would pass through the Numpad on the right, a few of the keys would default to the original green colour. This would come and go. Please excuse the poor image quality, this was a rare occurrence and as such had no time to focus.

One thing I did really like was the ability to rebind every key on the board along with adding macros to those keys as well. It gives you a large amount of customisability to make this keyboard your own.

The Conclusion

So do I think the BlackWidow Chroma V2 is a good keyboard? Yes, I do. Would I recommend you buy it? Well, that’s a bit of a different story.

When compared to something like the Corsair K70, the BlackWidow has basically the same amount of features, bar dedicated media buttons (albeit with a much nicer wrist rest) for a much, much higher price than the K70.

At the time of writing, the cheapest I could find the V2 available for was R3000. The K70 however, starts at about R2330. So what do you get for an extra 700 bucks? A solid mechanical keyboard, 5 macro keys and a fantastic wrist rest, however you also lose out on small features such as dedicated media keys and much better control software. I really liked the BlackWidow V2, the only problem is that it doesn’t exist in a vacuum and in my personal opinion, there are other options which are a much better value for money.

The PC as a platform has been around for decades, the major drive since the beginning being the customisation of your setup for the way you play; whether that includes a CRT monitor, a roller-ball mouse or a dome-switch/membrane keyboard. If you aren’t old enough to know what it felt like to use a roller-ball mouse then count yourself lucky, the amount of time spent trying to pluck dirt out of the internals of those mice were about as fun as rewinding a rented video. One thing should stick out in this comparison however, even though many of us have replaced our screens and our mice, I would hazard to say a large portion of our population still use a dome-switch/membrane keyboard (non-mech keyboards in layman’s terms). That brings me to our topic of conversation, the Razer BlackWidow Chroma V2 Mechanical gaming keyboard.Those observant of you will notice that this is in fact NOT the same BlackWidow that was released in 2014 (though you’d be hard pressed to see that based on the packaging) and as such just a quick caveat when purchasing one here, make sure you know what you are buying, many local retailers still stock the original BlackWidow Chroma. “So what’s the difference?” you may ask. Well you do get an included magnetic wrist rest and have the option of Razer’s yellow switch this time. Immediately I’ll say that I do not think this in itself would be a worthy upgrade if you already have a BlackWidow. However, I don’t think the V2 is meant to be an upgrade, but rather an update to the existing product (as it also seems like Razer do not have the V1 visible on their homepage either). Enough about the name! Let’s jump into what makes this keyboard its own, independent of its predecessor. The Box Razer did a pretty good job in their packaging, take a look. I should also mention that the keyboard came with a single mechanical key and switch that cycles through the available colours and effects while also being a keyring! This is a nice way to feel what the switches feel like without actually removing the keyboard from its packaging. The Visuals From a distance, the BlackWidow would look like any other keyboard - apart from the glowing Razer symbol in the centre of the lower edge – there really isn’t anything that sticks out about the shape or the layout (not that this is a bad thing). It has five macro keys on the leftmost side and no other extra buttons along with a small piano-finish covering over the lock buttons status illumination lights. All the keys have individual RGB backlighting however the lock status lights, only have a solid white illumination. Let me firstly begin with the RGB backlighting itself, each LED is incredibly bright and you WILL get significant colour bleed between keys, especially if you are using colours which contrast heavily with each other. You can change the brightness of…

Tech Review: Razer BlackWidow Chroma V2

2017-03-03

TheStrangerHAZ

Razer BlackWidow Chroma v2

Total - 8

80 8

A solid keyboard, with solid features and a really nice wrist rest, it’s just a shame it wasn’t a tad bit cheaper.

User Rating: 3.7 ( 1 votes)

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TheStrangerHAZ

Tech Editor / Gaming Author at Geek Node

Gamer, programmer and pc masterrace-er, my heart has pumped all things digital for longer than I can remember. I firmly believe that if you want to see the best of human ingenuity and passion, you need not look further than your local group of gamers.

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Article Tags: Chroma · I would like my RGB with some keyboard please. · Mech Keyboard · Mechanical keyboard · Razer · Razer BlackWidow chroma V2

Article Categories: Tech · Tech Review