At first I would like to thank Razer for offering me a sample of their BlackWidow Ultimate Stealth Edition - Mechanical Gaming Keyboard for reviewing.

 

About Razer:

"Razer is more than just the world's leading brand in gaming.

We were founded in 1998 in San Diego, California by our CEO Min-Liang Tan and our President Robert “Razerguy” Krakoff in a tiny shared office with a couple other gamers. We have grown today to hundreds of employees worldwide with offices in seven cities, including San Francisco, Hamburg, Seoul, Shanghai and Singapore.

Our vision from the very beginning was to be the world's greatest gaming brand and we've set out to achieve that by designing the best gaming products that any gamer has ever seen.

We believe that truly great products are based on technology, designed with extensive human factors and user ergonomic studies and then tested by the top professional gamers. In simpler terms, our own world class scientists and engineers develop cutting edge technology in-house or with partners, design phenomenal products around core technologies – and test the hell out of them in the field with our pro-gamers before we launch them.

We are the only gaming hardware company in the world with dedicated gaming user interface research and development labs, and our technology and designs are incubated in three dedicated design centers located in facilities in California, Singapore and Shenzhen. No other company boasts of technology like we do – because we're the only guys who have what it takes under the hood.

We tell it like it is: some can pretend to co-develop products with professional gamers, but gamers don't develop technology: scientists and engineers do (and ours just happen to be gamers as well).

We develop and design our products in our own labs and then put them to the test with top professional gamers who use them in pro-level tournaments and then provide us with feedback. Then we iterate on the product, refining it with the feedback – over and over and over again. That's how it's done, that's how a Razer product is built from ground up. No marketing BS and no hype.

We pioneered the eSports movement with the world's first $100K tournament back in 2000 and we have continued to give back to the community by sponsoring top eSports athletes who give back to Razer by beta-testing our products. We remain one of the largest sponsors of eSports community sponsoring top global eSports teams worldwide.

The people that work here at Razer are gamers just like you – some amateur, some ex-professional gamers, some just play for fun, just ask our CEO who will lay the smack down on you in Quake Live or our President, who has over ten level 80's on his local server. Hell, he will even take you on a raid in the middle of the work day.

We are the same gamers who are told by the suits that we need adult supervision and we need a professional CEO or management team – and we're the same gamers who tell the suits exactly where to shove it because we like doing what we do – and we do it on our own terms.

We hope our passion for gaming speaks to you like it does to us, through our products and we hope you enjoy the competitive edge we bring to your game."

Product Features:

Silent mechanical key architecture for superior tactility and faster response

 

The Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Stealth Edition’s mechanical key architecture provides a distinctive yet silent tactile feedback in form of a light pronounced tap to your fingers giving you an entirely new feel on your gaming keyboard. With an optimized actuation force of 45g and a reduced actuation distance of 2mm, the Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Stealth Edition’s keys allow actuation of your commands faster than any other standard keyboard.

Extreme anti-ghosting for multi-key press destruction

 

Get the jump, crouch, shot on your enemies or the left turn, brake, nitrous on the track when the Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Stealth Edition provides complete anti-ghosting of up to 6 simultaneous key presses. With the ability to execute more than a single key command at one time, it’s an absolute competitive advantage for taking your game to the next level.

Individually backlit keys with 5 levels of lighting

 

Never miss a key in the dark with the backlighting on the Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Stealth. With light intensity configurable to your preference, you can launch assaults and flank foes even under low light conditions.

Product Specifications:

Full mechanical keys with 45g actuation force

Silent, tactile feedback on key press

Extreme anti-ghosting capability

Individually backlit keys with 5 levels of lighting

1000Hz Ultrapolling / 1ms response time

Programmable keys with on-the-fly macro recording

Gaming mode option for deactivation of the Windows key

10 customizable software profiles with on-the-fly switching

5 additional macro keys

Multi-Media Controls

Braided cable

Audio-Out / Mic-In Jacks

USB-Passthrough

Approx. size in mm: 475(L) x 171(W) x 30(H)

Weight: 1.5kg

System Requirements

 

PC with USB port

Windows® 7 / Windows Vista® / Windows® XP

Internet connection (for driver installation)

At least 75MB of hard disk space

 

One of the latest gaming keyboards from RAZER has a really long name: BlackWidow Ultimate Stealth Edition. The original BlackWidow Ultimate model has a similar shape, but is a little noisier when the keys are pressed, because it comes with the Cherry MX Blue switches; for the Stealth Edition, Razer have chosen the Cherry MX Brown switches, so we do not get extra “click” noise the Blues come with. The Stealth Edition is shipped inside a large cardboard box and on the frontal side we can find the main product highlights, along with a small opening through which we can press the directional keys, even without unsealing the box, to see if this type of switch suits our needs or not:

 

 

 

On one of the sides, we can find some icons that represent the product features:

 

 

 

The compatibility with the latest OS from Microsoft is represented with an icon; near it we can see listed the system requirements:

 

 

 

On the back of the box, we can see the main components of the keyboard explained:

 

 

 

The box is fully sealed, as we have also seen at the previous Razer product enclosures in the past:

 

 

 

After the removal of the first packaging layer, we can see the keyboard surrounded by cardboard material; the documentation is located inside an envelope under the keyboard and the cable is hidden inside the cardboard frame :

 

 

 

The keyboard comes with a black braided cable to enhance durability:

 

 

 

The Stealth Edition surface and keys have a matte finish, soft to the touch; each key has an optimized actuation force of 45g and a reduced actuation distance of 2mm:

 

 

 

On the left side we can find five extra programmable keys (M1 to M5):

 

 

 

The F keys have double function as multimedia controls, like Volume Up/Down, Mute, Play/Pause and so on:

 

 

With the last F keys we can also enable Gaming mode and set up one of the backlight intensities:

 

 

 

On the bottom, near the Spacebar, we can find the key with which we can set macros on the fly, but also the Fn key:

 

 

 

As on the previously reviewed keyboard from Razer, this one comes too with a small Razer logo, which lights up the same blue color as the keys:

 

 

 

On the right lateral we can find an USB 2.0 port, along with the headphone and microphone jack; I find this placement a little odd, because a lot of us use the mouse and its pad to the right of the keyboard and keeping our headphones jack plugs connected here, along with the mouse connector or an USB Flash Drive may become a little uncomfortable:

 

 

 

Here are some additional views of the keyboard from the other sides:

 

 

 

 

On the bottom side, we can find a sticker, along with the rubber feet:

 

 

 

The plastic feet that can be used to raise the motherboard at an angle are also equipped with rubber endings, for a better grip:

 

 

 

 

On the central sticker, we can find the product name, serial number, power rating and code name:

 

 

The braided cable that comes out of the keyboard goes into a small plastic splitter; 4 separate cables exit on the other side:

 

 

 

One of the port is used to power the keyboard and the other takes care of the integrated USB port:

 

 

 

The other two cables end with the microphone and headphone jack plugs:

 

 

 

As every product tested before from Razer, the rest of the documentation is found in their well known cardboard envelope with the logo on top:

 

 

 

On its back, we can locate the Razer saying “For Gamers. By Gamers”, the website address along with an open sign:

 

 

 

Inside it, we can find registration information, the Quick Start Guide, Master Guide and two Razer stickers:

 

 

 

The Quick Start Guide keeps us informed regarding the main keyboard components and how to install in our computer:

 

 

 

In the Master Guide, we can also find detailed information on how to operate the software interface:

 

 

 

The Razer stickers are very nice to have and can be put on our desktop machine case, laptop or our devices:

 

 

 

The lighting can be customized right from the keyboard, without the intervention of the software application; it can be adjusted on 5 different levels: off, low light intensity, medium light intensity, maximum light intensity or pulsating light. A dim led light can be also observed between the keys:

 

 

 

There are different details that we can see during the day, compared to what we can see with absolutely no light in the room:

 

Artificial light

 

 

 

No light

 

 

After connecting the keyboard to our computer and starting up Windows, we can search for the latest software available on the RAZER website; at the time of the review, the v1.04 driver was available for download:

 

 

 

RAZER also has a Firmware Updater available for this keyboard and with it we can flash the latest firmware to our product; the sample already had the latest firmware available already flashed, so it was not needed to perform this activity:

 

 

 

Right after the software has be installed, we can access the BlackWidow Ultimate Configurator; its interface is split into three parts, one where we can assign key functions, one for managing the current profiles and also one for managing the macros. In the Assign Keys tab, we can assign various functions to each of the keys. The keys can be programmed using the following functions:

 

-Default Key → reverts to the default function of the key

-Single Key → changes the function of the key to another

-Macro Playback → assigns a macro to the key

-Profile Switch → assigns a profile to the key for quick profile change

-Launch Program → activates a program with a key

 

There is one exception though: all keys are programmable, except for the “Fn” key:

 

 

 

By hovering the mouse pointer over the keys, we can see a small window on the right showing their current function:

 

 

 

A profile that we have stored will save our various keyboard settings such as button assignments and macros as a single group, for an easier usage. In the Manage Profiles tab, we can create and launch customized profiles, which are based on the application we have activated; up to 10 profiles can be saved on our current computer. The Current column indicates the current active profile, the Profile column indicates the profile number, the Profile Name column can be right-clicked to modify the profile name of our choice, the Application column helps us assign an executable file to the specific profile and the Auto Switch column lets us activate the specific profile as an On-The-Fly profile:

 

 

 

From this menu we can also create new profiles:

 

 

 

The newly created profile will appear in the list:

 

 

Here are the options that appear when we right-click on a profile:

 

 

 

A macro is a sequence of keystrokes which are executed in a particular order and timing. They allow us to execute a chain of commands, with the press of just one button, for optimizing the gameplay. In the Manage Macros tab, we can record unlimited keystrokes; the macros can be also saved on our HDD for future usage.

 

 

 

After entering our macro name in the Macro Entry box, it will appear in the top right corner:

 

 

 

After pressing the “Record” button, we can start entering keystrokes:

 

 

 

The Delay(ms) option allows us to choose the amount of delay to be inserted between keystrokes of our macro:

 

 

 

The Basic Commands option helps us assign a list of basic commands in Windows OS that can be inserted between the keystrokes of the macro:

 

 

 

The Additional Commands option is another list of basic commands in Windows OS that can be inserted between keystrokes of our macro:

 

 

 

By using the well known Cherry MX Brown switches, the feeling is similar to the offering from DIATEC that was reviewed some time ago; these switches are good for both typing activities and gaming, by having a light and tactile feel and come with a 45g force at the point of actuation, compared to the Cherry MX Blue which have 50g at the actuation point.

 

The possibility to assign macros and to set functions to each and every key (except “Fn”) is a big plus for gamers or for people that perform activities in various applications. Many of the features seen on this keyboard are also present on the RAZER Anansi MMO Gaming Keyboard.

 

Compared to the BlackWidow Ultimate, the Stealth Edition comes with a matte finish, which gives it a nice feel to the touch and does not collect as many fingerprints.

 

The Game Mode on this keyboard disables the Windows key, so its function won't be activated for ruining our game experience when gaming online, or inside an action-intensive game. Macros can be also recorded on the fly, by pressing the “Fn”+ Right Alt key.

 

The keyboard does also feature an anti-ghosting feature, which means that it can register up to 6 simultaneous key presses, allowing us to execute more than a single key command at a time.

 

Razer has chosen to place the microphone and headphone jacks, along with the USB port on the right side of the keyboard, which is sometimes inconvenient because most of us keep the mouse close to the right side of the keyboard. I guess it would have been better to place the connectors in the back (like the Tarantula) or on the left side of the keyboard.

 

The BlackWidow Ultimate Stealth Edition keyboard is currently unavailable at the online shop but it had previously a listed price of 139.99 Euros.

Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Stealth Edition Recommended For:

 

I would like to thank again to Razer for making this review possible!