Razer’s strategy to designing the BlackWidow V4 Professional was to throw all the things at it, a becoming plan for something with the phrase ‘Professional’ in its identify. It’s a mechanical keyboard that dominates your desk because of it being barely bigger than a daily full-sized board and being adorned with sufficient lights to confuse a UFO into pondering it’s a pal. It’s peppered with macro keys, has nice mechanical switches and comes with a brilliant comfortable wrist relaxation. However all of the bells and whistles equal a hefty worth of round £230, which makes my financial institution card quiver in worry and my coronary heart skip a beat or ten.
Curiously, Razer has ditched the wi-fi capabilities of the BlackWidow V3 utterly, going again to good outdated USB cables to energy the entire thing. Two come within the field, each USB-C to USB-A, however just one is required to make use of the keyboard. The second is just to allow the passthrough operate of the BlackWidow’s third USB port, helpful for plugging in drives or charging units. Having to make use of two slots on the pc is a little bit of a bummer, however that’s the truth of passthrough ports – one to cable to energy the keyboard itself, and the second to energy the passthrough.
Dropping the BlackWidow onto my desk, alongside my Basilisk V3 mouse, my preliminary impressions had been dimension. I’ve been utilizing my trusty BlackWidow Lite, a small tenkeyless board that suited me completely since I don’t have a use for NUMpad. The distinction in dimension is like Godzilla staring down at shocked Iguana, and I spent the primary whereas with the BlackWidow getting used to having my mouse all the best way over there once I was typing. It’s even greater than a daily keyboard. For comparability, a typical keyboard might be roughly 43cm by 15cm, whereas the BlackWidow measures 46.6cm by 15.27, not counting the wrist relaxation. That’s only some extra centimetres but it’s stunning simply how way more chunky it makes the entire thing appear and feel.
With such a excessive price ticket it’s solely proper to anticipate good construct high quality, particularly from an enormous identify like Razer. The excellent news is that other than one or two small niggles the BlackWidow V4 Professional is sturdy and feels premium. The chassis is constituted of an aluminium backplate to provide it power, bringing the load to about 1.5 KG. There’s no flex whenever you’re typing and even whenever you push down on the keyboard, and the 2 totally different heights of ft on the rear don’t really feel like they’re going to snap off. That niggle I discussed? Nicely, it’s that Razer went for ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) keycaps somewhat than the extra sturdy PBT (Polybutylene Terephthalate) discovered on a number of different premium keyboards. Merely put, ABS plastic tends to put on away slowly, leaving your most used keys with a shiny, shiny look and may even outcome within the legends being worn away. PBT is far thicker and way more sturdy. However from what I can inform, Razer did go for doubleshot keycaps, which means there are two layers of bonded plastic on the highest which is usually fairly sturdy.
Razer is understood for subscribing to the idea that extra lights equal extra efficiency. Their dedication to that mantra is straight away evident when the BlackWidow V4 Professional is plugged in, each key out of the blue bursting with mild. They’ve gone with an underglow design right here, which means the important thing caps aren’t flush with the body in order that the RGB lighting can stream out, giving the impression that the keys are floating on an ocean of color. Should you aren’t a fan of RGB lighting then it will probably all be turned off, however I occur to like me some fairly lights and I reckon it seems superior. Each secret is individually lit and the color copy is beautiful, even stuff just like the notoriously exhausting yellow.
By way of the Razer software program, you possibly can set choose from a good collection of preset lighting choices, like spiralling colors, mild waves or only a static hue. However twiddling with all of it your self is way extra enjoyable, and the vary of choices that the software program offers you is fairly rattling spectacular. It doesn’t matter what garish idea you take note of, you must have the ability to replicate it.
The BlackWidow V4 is available in two distinctive flavours of mechanical swap: inexperienced or orange. The orange switches are quieter and linear, the objective being a clean and fairly hushed expertise. However I like noise, so naturally, I opted for Razer’s inexperienced switches that are clicky, loud and quick to activate. They want 50g of actuation pressure which is definitely somewhat on the heavier facet however are by no means tiring to make use of. They’re quick and responsive, with a 1.9mm activation level. Every press feels crisp and the keys bounce again like Rocky Balboa Razer says these are good for avid gamers however I discovered them to be simply as gratifying for typing attributable to their tactile, satisfying nature. Every stroke leads to a tasty bump and really audible click on that sounds somewhat plasticky, though that didn’t cease them from pleasing that little little bit of my dumb mind that loves loud keyboards. Two layers of inside foam assist deaden the noise generated by the case itself and do a good job of it. The exceptions are the bigger keys just like the spacebar and enter which have a much less pleasing thump to them.
For an concept of what the keyboard feels like, try the video beneath, courtesy of Rawr Audio.
Naturally, this doesn’t lend itself effectively to a piece setting or for anybody who has a household and likes to sport at night time. The loud keys are fairly more likely to lead to your premature dying by the hands of a colleague, associate and even offspring. It may be an issue throughout multiplayer video games as a result of and not using a good noise-isolating microphone the sound of you desperately hitting the crouch button might be travelling on to your group’s ears.
As for the orange switches, they want a bit much less strain at simply 45g and actuate at simply 1.2mm. In concept, then, they need to make fast typing simpler, and the silicon sound dampeners will assist preserve them good and quiet in comparison with the inexperienced switches that are fairly able to rousing the lifeless. Nevertheless, I didn’t get to attempt the orange switches myself. The closest I obtained is my BlackWidow Lite which sports activities orange switches, however that was a number of generations in the past and I don’t know the way a lot Razer has modified its design since then.
Typing may be exhausting work so it’s good that the BlackWidow v4 Professional comes with a somewhat luxurious padded wrist relaxation that magnetically clips onto the keyboard. It has a gently textured floor that feels nice in your pores and skin and it does a superb job of supporting your wrists. Earlier rests from Razer had been fundamental metallic frames with padding, so you might often really feel it by means of the fabric. This time Razer has folded the fabric across the body, making it look nicer and really feel nicer I additionally respect the delicate Razer brand on the remainder. It’s surprisingly understated for a corporation like Razer which firmly imagine an empty area with out lights is an area wasted. Talking of which, as quickly because the wrist relaxation is hooked up, a strip of LED lighting is activated that runs across the edge, making the wrist assist appear to be it’s constructed into the chassis as an alternative of an exterior part.
For testing, I attempted to place the keyboard by means of its paces as a lot as I may. Typing wasn’t exhausting since I do a number of that anyway. My final three critiques plus this one have all been performed on the BlackWidow V4 Professional and it carried out brilliantly. My velocity and accuracy did take a small hit however that’s been attributable to altering over and my outcomes have been going again to regular. Stuff like Firm of Heroes 3 and Pharaoh: A New Period aren’t precisely keyboard-heavy video games, so I fired up a bunch of different stuff like Doom: Everlasting and Atomic Coronary heart to see what it could do underneath strain. The reply is extraordinarily effectively, and a few of that stems from the very fact the keyboard can go all the best way as much as an 8,000Mhz polling fee. It’s overkill for almost all of individuals, myself firmly included, however the choice to have the keyboard reporting to the pc that rapidly is great and essentially the most aggressive folks on the market may really feel the distinction. Personally, I didn’t go above 4,000 on the most and felt like all the things was tremendous snappy at that.
There’s a purpose the V4 Professional is barely outsized: Razer needed to cram in a complete bunch of additional buttons and goodies positive to please anybody who makes use of shortcuts and macros to their fullest. Over on the left, there’s a column of 5 macro keys to fiddle round with and the Razer software program makes creating macros fairly simple. Their location proved a tad tough as a result of I stored reaching out with my pink to hit the shift and ended up urgent a macro key as an alternative, however I adjusted to that rapidly and began taking part in round with them for numerous in-game makes use of like swapping weapons in Atomic Coronary heart or rapidly deciding on a construct tab in Firm of Heroes 3. With a little bit of apply, it was simple to flick my pinky finger over there. For extra on a regular basis stuff I assigned one to repeat and one other to stick.
Lurking above the macro keys is a flowery aluminium dial that has a pleasant delicate diamond texture. Razer calls this the Command Dial, a dramatic identify for a cool-looking do-da. It has eight preset modes, of which a number of are activated out of the field, and by clicking the dial you possibly can swap between them. For instance, the dial can management the brightness of the lights, swap between open applications, horizontal scrolling and vertical scrolling. By delving into Razer’s software program you possibly can create new customized modes that alter how the dial behaves when turned left or proper. Personally, I didn’t discover a complete lot of use for it and so I wound up setting it to quantity management. I’m not totally offered on how helpful the Command Dial might be. However I do assume it may discover some area of interest use, like possibly somebody who does a number of video and audio enhancing will use it for scrubbing by means of their work.
There are three extra buttons hidden away on the left of the keyboard which might be, by default, programmed to take a screenshot, open up the Xbox app and convey up the duty view. However like virtually all the opposite keys on the BlackWidow they are often modified utilizing the software program to do no matter you’d like. Their positioning on the keyboard is somewhat doubtful, although, as a result of they sit precisely the place your hand falls everytime you go to shift the BlackWidow V4 Professional round. Since I swap between gaming and lengthy typing classes always, I ended up hitting the buttons by chance lots. I obtained used to it rapidly, although. For gaming, they’re just about ineffective as their location doesn’t make them simple to achieve in a rush. For productiveness and dealing they may very well be fairly helpful, although.
Over on the appropriate, there are 4 machined aluminium media buttons with only a trace of texture to them. These are media management keys which might be set to pause or skip forwards and backwards, although like all the things else they are often modified. They give the impression of being good and modern, however that comes at the price of legibility. The legends on every button are small and colored in a darkish gray, so the sunshine from my monitor was sufficient to utterly obscure them. Till I may bear in mind what every one did, I needed to squint like a grandma making an attempt to learn the fantastic print.
Simply up from these little media keys is a chunky quantity curler that has a properly balanced ratchet impact and the identical delicate diamond texture because the Command Dial. I actually like the way it feels to make use of, and like all the things else you possibly can at all times reprogram it to do one thing else.
However talking of programming stuff, we do want to speak about Razer’s software program which is usually cited because the weakest facet of its merchandise. Lately I discover it’s fairly respectable in most respects. Creating macros is a doddle, reprogramming all the things is simple and twiddling with the lighting is fairly intuitive. Actually, the largest subject is that generally the software program is sluggish to start out up, so the keyboard may out of the blue change color a couple of minutes after the pc boots.
The BlackWidow V4 Professional is undoubtedly a superb keyboard filled with options and boasting nice switches that talk to my love of loud keys. The query is whether or not it’s definitely worth the colossal price ticket of £230. That might virtually purchase you a Nintendo Change or an Xbox Sequence S. The straightforward reply is that you must by no means spend that a lot on a keyboard. It’s absurd. It’s a sensible device and all these additional bells and whistles are good to have however hardly life-changing for the overwhelming majority of individuals. However that doesn’t cease me from loving it, and it doesn’t change the truth that we tech geeks do are inclined to spend some huge cash on stuff like this on a regular basis.
So let’s put the value to at least one facet, for the second, as a result of value is a relative factor and what one particular person refuses to pay for fancy lights and mechanical switches, one other particular person is completely satisfied to. There’s lots to like right here: Razer’s inexperienced switches really feel glorious for typing and gaming, the padded wrist relaxation is extremely comfy, the macro keys are glorious and the lighting is attractive. There are a number of let-downs just like the Command Dial not being all that helpful and the truth that the keys use cheaper plastic than different premium boards on the market, however total the complaints are pretty small, and for the extra productivity-minded folks the Command Dial may very well be helpful.
For these keen to pressure their checking account for the very best typing and gaming keyboard, the Razer BlackWidow V4 Professional is an distinctive piece of equipment with quite a few helpful options that make it nice for enjoyable and work. There are a number of little points, however not one of the detract very a lot from the V4 Professional which can very effectively be Razer’s greatest ever keyboard.
