Razer BlackWidow TE Chroma v2 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard review

Razer BlackWidow TE Chroma v2 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard review

Razer BlackWidow TE Chroma v2 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard review

PROS
Satisfying clicky keys.
Very good configuration software.
Magnetic wrist rest.
Detachable, braided USB cable.

CONS
Key clicks (while nice) are too loud during gaming.
High price.

Weight	2.73 lb (1.24 kg)
Dimensions (L x W x H)	20.57 cm x 37.08 cm x 4.06 cm 8.1 in x 14.6 in x 1.6 in
Brand	Razer
Colour	Quartz Pink
Model Number	RZ03-02191700-R3M1

hey everyone the razer blackwidow tournament Edition v2 mechanical gaming keyboard good mercy what a mouthful so anyways as far as in your boxers during a gift you're gonna get your keyboard hopefully right you'll get your USB cable pretty nice a strong US be braided detachable cable here and then you're gonna get your wrist rest right here those really nice incredibly soft Razer wrist rest probably some of the best wrist rest you will find all right so a little bit about the keyboard here now I'm gonna give this wrist rest out of the way and we'll talk about that a little bit more when we get to the sound test but anyways as far as the keyboard I am using the Razer yellow switches but you can get the keyboard in a variety of Razer switches the green which are very tactile quickly kind of compared to blue switches you're gonna need orange switches which are tactile and silent which is more or less

comparable to brown switches and then the yellows like we have here which are comparable to say Cherry MX red or something like that linear and silent all right so what did you think about that sound test right there me personally I really like the sound of it and I love the feel of it and I think the reason I like both of them right there because my favorite switch on any other board is cherry MX red I love cherry MX red switches Cal Reds coming in at a close second right there but anyways as far as these razor yellows and Cherry MX red they're pretty much almost identical now both switches use 45 grams of actuation force right here and then the razor's used three point five millimeters of travel distance when the Cherry MX red uses four and then as far as actuation point the razor's use one point two millimeters and then a cherry MX red uses two so again even though some of the numbers are difference there with the actuation point and then the travel distance you can tell it but it's not like this Wow difference you know what I mean if you catch you they're like yes you can't tell the difference but it's not like this world changing difference they feel very very similar and honestly if you're a

blindfolded it'd be very hard to tell the difference all right so now what I wanted to talk about with that wrist rest as well and then again going back like State and beginning this thing is incredibly stinking cozy just smoosh she's like you can fall asleep on this dang thing anyways it does attach magnetically right onto the front of the keyboard right there but you're gonna be attach it leave it out a little bit as you want to scooch it over if you desire but again really nice it attaches right there for you but the thing I don't like about it I know it's hard to see any camera but if you can see right here it kind of raises up quite a bit almost right in line with the keys so whenever I use the wrist rest I feel like I gotta kind of bring my hands back down if that makes

any sense it's not really straight and ergonomic so if I get here and I'm gaming or whatnot you know or typing as you see my fingers kind of come up and then BAM shoot down when usually I go without a wrist rest and my hand just flows perfectly with it so again as far as that wrist rest right there it could just be personal preference maybe it's just the way I like playing or the you know the length of my hands and whatnot you know but I was looking really forward to using this wrist rest right here cuz I've used them before and I love the Razr wrist rest you know again probably some of the best but I just personally couldn't use it even if I slid it back or anything you just didn't get comfortable for me and my just used to use them without it probably so let's just mark that off as personal preference now the key caps on this board here

are ABS but they feel fantastic very very nice and smooth but they do attract some fingerprints but not talking to key caps right there how about this RGB I mean my gosh and there's also all sorts of other customization you could do with the board whenever you dive into the Razer synapse software right there as far as key customization your shortcuts and everything then you dive on over to the RGB and it's just so many different options you do right here within the synapse you can even download chroma and get even further into it I personally don't like using the chroma I stick right with the synapse and there's plenty of options right here to adjust your RGB now a really weird thing about this talk about that really nice are keycaps well that for some one reason my function key actually the actually switch right down there there's no

RGB light within it it's just weird and I looked at many other reviews or other pictures and everything and they're all like that why I don't get it I don't understand why it's like that if you know please let me know it out in the comments now as far as the rest of the build of the keyboard I mean this thing is stinking solid very minimal flex and I really got to put something in it right there you know what I mean but it's actually quite heavy a lot heavier than I expected the entire body and build is plastic the top right here and then underneath now underneath the key captures you have a metal base and everything but it does have some very nice weight on it but unfortunately even though there's a lot of weight on if you're just on a hard surface like this you know what I mean it does tend to move around a little bit on the bottom you do have quite a few rubber feet right there you got two right there in the middle

and then in the back right here but where it's missing is right there in the middle right so I think you see the keyboard it kind of slopes up has a really nice slope up right here and that's right where you get that drag or that slip right there as you can see right here I'm just moving it with my pinkies not pressing really hard but it's right there in that metal that touches a little bit so I don't know maybe just run to a store and pick up a little rubber strip right there slap right down there private cost you 25 cents you know what I mean and then I think you'd be perfect but anyways at the desk on an actual mousepad if you have maybe a wide mousepad you're perfectly fine it doesn't budge one bit but aesthetically just the physical appearance of

the board and the build of it you really feel like you're getting your money's worth right here the biggest bummer to me is that I couldn't use the wrist rest but again like I stated before that's got to be personal preference you know what I mean if you can use this right here you got a complete package you know but again as far as the basic build and a look at this board a little razor light write that down a logo I think is super cool it's just quite minimalistic but with enough Flair in it to really make it just kind of pop on your desk I really like it and that's also where I come into the price of the board I think regular MSRP is like 140 bucks right there you can usually find it all the time now for like 129 and yeah I think it's worth that you know if you find anything underneath 129 SATA 99 bucks scoop it up right away of your question and you know what I mean because it's completely worth it yes it's worth at 130 you get into 140 I still

think it's worth it I really do if you can use this wrist rest again because you aren't paying for that you know what I mean so it's kind of a stinker that I couldn't use that but again at that 1:30 again if you could find it at a hundred bucks maybe during this holiday season coming up Wow do not pass it up cuz you're gonna love it right here hey thank you so much for stopping by watching my review on a BlackWidow chroma v2 mechanical gaming keyboard good night if anyone's got to search that into Amazon me just shopping for this engraving youtube looking for it good night now can we shorten this up just black widow thank you so much for stopping by and watch this one I do highly appreciate it

Razer so we thought we'd make it a little bit special the Black Widow is probably one of their most renowned products that they have on the market and they approached us and basically said that they wanted to send over the Black Widow te or tournament Edition chrome up v2 so that's exactly what we've got here for you today as you can see very very small keyboard but don't let that put you off you're gonna find that this is gonna be extremely great for competitive gaming general kind of day-to-day stuff and to be honest it looks absolutely great so let's jump straight in and have a look at the Razer BlackWidow te chroma Vita raise our back once again with the latest iteration of one of their most popular keyboards the BlackWidow chroma v2 tournament Edition it comes equipped with all the high-end features we've come to expect from Razer or any flagship gaming keyboard for that matter this includes their chroma RGB lighting engine and their fantastic in-house design mechanical switches so what is the tournament Edition well that's just razors fancy way of saying this is a ten keyless design meaning there has a shorter keyboard design and doesn't feature a number pad cutting off the

number pad isn't an option for a lot of PC users but those who don't need it for gaming removing it is a great way of freeing up extra desktop space giving you more room for your mouse while also making the keyboard easier to transport in the store Razer now offer three mechanical switch types having moved away from using Cherry MX they now produce their own in-house models coming in green orange and yellow variants which deliver performance similar to MX blue brown and red however they also have a shorter travel distance much like the cherry MX speed switches making them great for gaming of course with this being a gaming keyboard it also comes with ten key rollover anti-ghosting a gaming mode option to disable the windows key 1,000 Hertz ultra polling and instant trigger technology when you open the box you'll find more than just the keyboard there is a detachable wrist rest that is by far one of the nicest quality wrist rests we've ever seen it's got the sleek and stylish design but

rather than being made from tough rubber or hard plastics it uses a soft pad pillow-like design which is easy going on your wrist you're in those long long gaming sessions even better it doesn't use those nasty plastic clips on the underside to attach it to the keyboard which I'm sure many of you will know are prone to breaking instead it uses hidden magnets that simply lock it into place this makes it easy to install but is also easy to quickly remove and pop it to one side when it's not needed also included in the box you'll find a detachable USB cable it comes with a thick black cable braiding which not only looks great but also gives it added strength of course since it is detachable and just uses a standard mini USB connector you can easily replace it with your own custom cable which is handy if you ever lose or damage the original the keyboard should look pretty familiar to any razor fan as it follows the same design principles we've seen them use on previous models and that's not a complaint as the keyboard simply looks stunning

the lightly textured finish to the keyboard chassis as well as the key cap all finished in matte black looked great plus it provides a strong contrast for the RGB lighting don't worry about it being too dark though as there is a reflective gloss white coating on the interior to help better reflect the RGB lighting the keyboard comes with all of the usual features you would expect with the top row of keys housing a second set of functions allowing you to control your multimedia system volume internal gaming modes and more on-the-fly macro recording allows you to quickly set the commands you need without having out of your game which is handy for MMO and MOBA gamers there's also a master lighting control allowing you to change the brightness from zero all the way up to a hundred percent on the fly the built-in controls are great but to get the most out of this keyboard you absolutely want to install the Razer synapse

software from here you'll be able to customize the chroma RGB lighting engine on a per key basis which means you can create some stunning effects to suit your individual tastes you have millions of colors to choose from as well as a wide range of built-in pre-programmed effects the only limit here really is your imagination you'll also be able to program much more complex macros and since every key on the keyboard can be fully customized and configured to multiple profiles you can easily set up the keyboard exactly how you need it on a per game basis most users won't need this level of customization but of course it's better to have it I need it than to need it and not have it the type of response on the keyboard feels great and from working in the office type in those long emails to competing in eSports tournaments it certainly got something to offer for everyone with three switch types you'll find something that is best suited to you as when gaming is obviously a bit subjective our editor Peter he prefers the Razer yellow switches with the linear and silent design while I'd prefer a more tactile feel of the orange or green

Razer BlackWidow TE Chroma v2 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard review

switch press down around 140 pounds here in the UK the keyboard is obviously not cheap but it is comparable to any other flagship gaming keyboard in terms of features and price and you could look at brands such as corset Rockette Logitech to name a few this is certainly up there with them it's clearly not lacking in features and the build quality is top-notch so we think it's well worth the money overall given the added value from having one of the best RGB lighting engines on the market a feature pack software suite for added customization and that truly amazing wrist rest it's easily one of my favourite gaming keyboards on the market today so guys hopefully you enjoyed that video and it gave you a bit more of an insight into the te chroma v2 exactly what it can do who it's for and so forth and hopefully like always you just enjoyed the video in general and now for the good stuff if you want to win this exact keyboard that's sitting right next to me we're gonna package it all away clean it all up put it back in that box and it will be shipping to one of you lucky viewers right here so essentially what you've got to do is have a look in the description below and you will find exactly how you can enter the competition to win the Black Widow te chroma v2 and that's pretty much it really so good luck to everyone

the Razer BlackWidow chroma v2 keyboard this keyboard is a revision of razors very popular BlackWidow keyboard and I'm going to take a look at the features in the v2 version and how they compare to previous versions so the keyboard that I reviewed is the tournament edition of the chroma v2 keyboard and that basically means that it's a 10 kilos keyboard it's designed to be portable so it's great for taking to LAN parties it's great for taking to eSports events or it's even quite good for those of you that might have a bit of a smaller desk or even if you want more space on your desk so this was my first time using a 10 keyless keyboard and I did actually find at times I sort of missed that numpad but overall it was quite nice for me to move it around my desk and I found it a little bit more comfortable because I could actually move it closer to my mouse mat and that meant that the way that my arms are positioned on like the ws and D keys and on the mouse it was sort of a bit closer together and I found it a lot more

comfortable so I think that the Razer tournament Edition v2 is a really attractive keyboard it has a nice chief and designed to air and I really like the RGB logo you get along the bottom this keyboard also has a good build quality the body has made a sort of textured black plastic and although it doesn't look as good as the aluminium bodies that you get on keyboards like the BlackWidow chroma X it I still found that it was still quite strong and sturdy and it doesn't have any flex to it and it also has quite a surprising amount of weight for such a small keyboard so on the back of the keyboard you get a braided cable and this cable is actually removable so it connects to the keyboard itself using a mini USB and it's quite a nice feature to have on a tournament addition to a keyboard that the cables removable because I think that it takes into account that people have me carrying this keyboard around so rather than having to

awkwardly wrap the cable around the body of the keyboard you can actually remove it and then you can pop that into like your bag or your pocket and then you can easily carry the keyboard separately without a cable sort of dangling around so an extra feature that you don't get on previous versions of the BlackWidow chroma is the wrist rest so the wrist rests that comes with this keyboard I think is really nice it's made of a nice soft faux leather fabric and it's got a very attractive Razer logo sort of indented into the front of it and with this fabric though I haven't really seen it on any wrist rest before so it's quite a unique feature but I do I have had sort of bags and computer chairs made of a similar fabric and it does seem to sort of crack and peel over time so it would be quite interesting to see how this wrist rest holds up with a sort of day-to-day use and whether it lasts very long it does feel very comfortable though and

I found that my hands glide really well over the surface while I was typing on it it connects onto the keyboard we have some magnet so you just sort of place it next to it and the magnets do the work for you so it's nice and easy to take on and off and I found that when I was moving my keyboard around the desk it holds on well enough so when you're moving it doesn't sort of come apart yeah a very comfortable and nice to use I also found that was and I found a bit more comfortable nervous gaming so you can pull the wrist rest slightly away from the keyboard and I like that more for sort of when I was seeing the W s and D Keys it it just moved my hand just the right sort of distance and so it's quite nice a lot of refreshed you wouldn't be able to do that with the only problem I have had with this wrist rest is that I think that the

cushion is a little bit too high because I use my keyboard with the feet out anyway but if you prefer to use a cube with the feet flip down I found that the sort of padded cushion was too high and it forces your hand into quite an uncomfortable position sort of not what you want from a restaurant you want it to give you support but you don't want it to be uncomfortable so I think it would be a bit better if they made the wrist rest a little bit slimmer or maybe made out of a sort of softer memory foam so that it was a bit more comfortable so this keyboard has a few

extra functions with the function key so it's got media keys and the only problem I found when the media keys I couldn't actually reach the the mute and the volume controls using one hand so my thumb on the function and then trying to reach my fingers across I couldn't actually reach a one hand so as a bit of a negative and you also have if you press the function and the f9 key this keyboard you can record macros on-the-fly so that's a nice feature you can record your macros in-game you don't have to tab out of the game and then if you press function key and f10 this keyword has a gaming mode so the default setting is that it disables the Windows key and then you can also configure for it to disable other keys within the software and then using

the function key and even the f11 or f12 buttons you can change the brightness level of the keyboard so either up or down so yeah a small keyboard with quite a bit of functionality thanks to you that function key Razer tournament Edition v2 has fully customizable RGB lighting and I think it has just about the right level of brightness and that's probably thanks to you the sort of white backing underneath the keys I think really helps the light shine out and it's fully customizable and you control it using the Razer synapse software and this keyboard actually works with the right Razer synapse 2 software which is sort of raises original software because

of course they've now brought out Razer synapse 3 and I actually prefer to use the Razer synapse two at the moment because Razer synapse 3 is still in beta and using it with the Razer lancehead Mouse on my review I did find it was still a little bit buggy so I think this kid's gonna be moved over to raise the synapse very eventually but for now we'll just take a look at the Razer synapse to you software so I'm currently on the customize tab so this is where you can set up different profiles for this keyboard so you can store those on the cloud and you can switch between different profiles if you want to set up a few different ones for different games you can also reprogram any key on this keyboard and this is also another screen where you can set up some macro and then you've got the lighting tab so all that fully customizable RGB backlighting this is where it's controlled so you've got some nice presets I'm using the currently using the wave option and there is also breathing reactive spectrum cycling static and ripple and yeah a pretty standard when it comes to start and the lighting effects like the basic ones you can sort of change the direction of them and you can change the color of them as well depending on which sort of selection you go for and then if you want a little bit more control bring out that fully customizable side you can open the creamer configurator I've had a little play around with this and I do do quite liked it I think that it's nice and easy to use you can set the sort of like timing you can set the width you can set the direction that lighting goes in and you can use any of those sort of like preset effects and you can tune them to sort of what you

want so yeah full control over the lighting and you can also adjust the brightness as well so you can do that on the keyboard or you can do it in the software and it's sort of gradual so you can drag the slider along and you can do it in sort of increments of one so your nice control over the brightness and then you can configure what the gaming mode does so when you turn that gaming mode the default is that the windows key is disabled but you can also disable the alt tab and the of4 if I jump into the macro tab so this is where you can configure your macro so you've got the option to do it on board the keyboard or you can do it from within the software and you can also edit them as well and then you've got the creamer apps tab so this is quite a cool feature of the Razer synapse software and it basically means that if I was to even again now sort of like over watch the keyboard or the software sort of detects I've opened that game

and it'll adjust the lighting on the keyboard sort of match your gameplay which i think is quite a nice feature it's really easy it just runs in the background and you didn't have to do anything apart from turn it on and there detects when you open a game and yeah it does it stuff and it does look quite good so another tab and this is quite a unique feature of the Razer synapse software and this is the stats tab so pretty completely pointless and but it is quite cool it sort of lets you see um how you use your keyboard in different games so it's sort of told you your keystrokes what macros you used your keystroke distance not entirely sure what that means and yeah it's quite good you can sort of see how you use your keyboard in different different games and you've got like a heat map and things as well so pretty pointless um but quite a cool

feature and I think it is quite quite unique as well so overall I do quite like the Razer sign up software I think it gives you a lot of options some of them very unique to sort of Razer and it also gives you full control over the lighting and it's nice and easy and intuitive to use so everything you could really want from software so this keyboard features something that razeq or instant trigger technology and I think this is the first keyboard Razer brought out with this new feature and I did a little bit of research onyx I wasn't entirely sure what it was and it appears there is something that removes debounce delay in the keyboard so debounce is a feature that keyboards have so when you go to press a key once it only registers as one key pass on your computer and so the keyboard does a little bit of calculation because of the way that

circuitry work sometimes when you press a key once the circuit doesn't pick up as one key press and the keyboard knows you and you want to press the key once so therefore it tells your PC you only want to press the key ones and this little calculation takes a little bit of time to take out those sort of like folks key presses with the instant trigger technology Razer I've removed the need for this and at this it means that that signal when you press the key gets to a PC well a fraction of a second faster than it would without the debounce do so I think that this is a little bit of a marketing thing to be honest I didn't really notice much of a difference it's something that is probably mmmm kept on there to sort of try and sell the keyboard to people it's like oh look at this extra feature but I don't think that I've noticed notice the different using this

keyboard typing game on it it's definitely I think a bit of a marketing term and but yeah it can't do any harm it's definitely not going to cause any problems that I've noticed but at the same time it's definitely not a big deal like Razer sort of made out out to be you definitely don't need a keyboard with this particular feature so something you do need is an q roll over and anti-ghosting and this keyboard doesn't actually have any key roll over it has tank you roll over and anti-ghosting so it's not too much of a problem I don't think there's many situations where tank you roll over is going to be an issue but it's definitely something to note so you can only press

ten key simultaneously instead of all of them on the keyboard and so it might be a problem with some games maybe or some applications and but I haven't really noticed any issues with what I use my keyboard for and but yeah it's definitely something and worth noting because some people might want the full Enki Rolly about which this keyboard doesn't have so the mechanical switches used on this keyboard of razors on mechanical switches and I knew that with the previous version of the BlackWidow chroma there are actually switches by kail and if you take the actual key cap off of them you can notice that the older version says KO on it and the new version actually says razer so yeah rate of decided to use their own mechanical switches and also with the key caps they've changed the font so I actually prefer the new font quite a bit because I think the font on the old back window looks a little bit odd yeah it's definitely

improvement I'm glad that they have changed the font with a new v2 version so the switches the razor mechanical switches you can get them with a razor green version a razor orange version or I tested the razor yellow switches and these are the newer razor switches and they are linear and silent so that makes them and pretty similar to what you find on the trailer max speed switches which I tested using the Corsair k95 so they have a very low actuation point of one point two millimeters same as the trailer max which is and they do feel pretty much the same to me the only difference is that sort of they both have the same actuation point of 45 grams the sort of when you go past the actuation point which you do quite easily because they are very light and you notice that I well I noticed that the razor switches do actually feel a little bit firmer so yeah that is is a slight difference between them the razor switches for a little bit firmer compared to the cherry ones and but other than that they're pretty much cherry and max speed switches so the razor yellow switches are definitely designed for gaining they have

that low actuation point and when I was playing games I felt as I sort of like pressed my keys that a little bit quicker and they would register that a little bit faster and unfortunately for the exact same reason that doesn't make them very good for typing on the low actuation means that I found it quite easy to accidentally press keys while I was typing fast so I'll take a look and compare the razor yellow switches to the razor green switches so the razor yellow switches they sound very quiet and new sort of sound comes from when you bottom out the switches whereas the green razor switches are very similar to Cherry MX blues so they're tactile and they are noisy it they're going to click and they are just probably one of like the noisiest mechanical switches I've ever heard but because they are a tactile switch they are very good for typing on

and then the other option that you get with this keyboard which I can't really comment on too much because I've never tried them it's the razor orient switches and from what I know they're basically just a silent version of the razor green switches so they're still tactile but you don't make as much noise when you're typing really so if you want that same sort of like good for typing on but you don't want as much noise as you get with the green switches at the end of the day though and I think it comes in mechanical switches it is personal preference but I think that the razor yellow switches that I have tried are a good addition to the raising mechanical switch lineup you've got greens which are great for typing on you've got the oranges which are good for typing on and they're also quite silent and then you also have the race yellow so they're linear they're good for gaming on not so great for typing on and but yeah you've got got a little bit of choice there I think it adds a good rounded addition to the razor switches that are

available on this keyboard so overall I think the Razer BlackWidow tournament Edition chroma v2 keyboard with a really long name is very decent it's got great build quality it's very aesthetically appealing with great RGB lighting it's also got that removable wrist rest and a braided cable its price of around 140 pounds from mechanical tank ILA's keyboards are to be lighting seems to be about average and however its predecessor the chroma Black Widow and the non b2 version the original version it's currently an offer for 110 that's at the time of recording this review and to be honest there's not much difference between this new v2 version and the previous version you get the wrist rest and you get the new Razer yellow switches but I don't think that's going to be enough to sort of there's not gonna be much of an incentive for people that might already have the original version and it might be enough to sort of like tempt

new buyers and I do think this is a good keyboard but I am sort of trying to compare it to its predecessor and it does go up in price and you don't seem to get much extra really so if you're sort of looking for a tankyness keyboard this is a good option it's sort of middle of the range market I mean there's keyboards more expensive than it this keyboards cheaper than it and but yeah it is decent it doesn't have anything particularly wrong with it and but it's also sort of like if you've got the old one you're not really worth upgrading yeah like this keyboard and I quite enjoyed using a ten keyless keyboard I do miss some of the features but I think if you haven't got much space on your desk all your going to be sort of like one or maybe a second keyboard that you've got the option to sort of like take with you to places like if you go to like quite a few eSports events and things then a 10-qs keyboard is probably worth considering I mean how often do actually use a numpad and how much do you value this based on your desk