Founded in 1998 by two close friends and other inspiring gamers, Razer has brought style, technology and ergonomics to the gaming scene. The Blackwidow Ultimate Gaming Keyboard is definitely a testament to this long and fruitful history.
Design
The Razer design has always prided itself on being sleek and powerful to the touch. As is popular with many popular gaming keyboards at the moment, the Razer BlackWidow Ultimate has an LED backlight. This illuminates each key with five different types of lighting using Razer’s very own program, Razer Synapse.
This is not a small keyboard and managing it can often be a bit of a handful due to its weight. However, this doesn’t have to be a burden, as due to its large size and heavy frame you are looking at a keyboard that can take a lot of punishment and outlast the more aggressive of gamers.
Comfort
The Razer BlackWidow Ultimate is definitely a comfortable tool, more due to its practicality than ergonomics. The convenience of having illuminated keys makes it easy to type, navigate and play at any time, whether it be late at night or in a windowless LAN. With its large size the keys have been heightened to ensure that any touch is recognised and makes the user feel the response from the bounce back of its mechanics.
The Razer BlackWidow Ultimate might not be known for comfort but the convenience for any gamer to freely macro any keys is comfort in itself. Working with the corresponding program, Razer Synapse, each key becomes programmable and having profile changes makes games easier to play without having to spend hours beforehand key binding.
Features
Razer definitely create loveable products. The best feature I found personally, was the Razer Synapse. This program allows users to manage all of their Razer gear in one easy program. Certain features will allow users to create many profiles that will make organising their gaming life much easier. From playing MOBA games such as League of Legends, to MMORPG and open exploring on World of Warcraft, this keyboard is flexible and personal to your unique gaming style.
All of the Razer BlackWidow Ultimate’s keyboard keys are fully mechanical with 50g actuation force. This makes sure users have the responsive touch with a satisfying mechanical bounce back. This not only adds to the reflex of games and WASD interfaces, but makes it simple to navigate around the board without accidentally clicking the wrong sequence.
Programmable keys are available from editing Razer Synapse with an additional five dedication macro keys on the far left of the keyboard, making for a personalised user interface.
As ever, Razer has included multi-media keys and this will allow the user to increase/decrease the volume and mute; also forward, play/pause and previous buttons. This allows for the user to centralise their entire multimedia experience around the keyboard easily and efficiently.
A special key (that has saved me more than a few times) are the F9 & F10 keys. The F9 key allows on-the-fly macro recording, this is to aid the convenience of being in game more without having to alt-tab out. The F10 key is titled ‘Gaming Mode’, this disables such annoying keys that affect game play, like the Windows key.
In Practice (World of Warcraft)
When I had purchased the Razer BlackWidow Ultimate keyboard it just screamed durability, which is exactly what I needed as a gamer because of how heavy handed I am.
With playing World of Warcraft the Razer BlackWidow keyboard allowed responsive action, which helps when performing macros that would make or break my PVP composure.
The profile changing allows my style to change fluidly; going from PVP which requires a lot of button mashing and macro pounding; to PVE which is more lenient and relaxed.
In conclusion, when putting this keyboard under the spotlight I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend such a powerfully built, beautifully crafted piece of kit. As of what could you do with it? The macro and profile alternations make the possibilities endless.
The price definitely reflects its life span. The way it is constructed makes it feel as if it can take a large amount of force without it packing in for the day and burning, so you are getting a well constructed, durable piece of kit for the amount you spend.
