At first we would like to thank Razer for offering us their BlackWidow Tournament Edition Chroma V2 Keyboard for testing and 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:

 

Need for Tournament Speed

 

Introducing the Razer BlackWidow Tournament Edition Chroma V2—the keyboard with the fastest performance we’ve ever produced. When you’re in the middle of an intense tournament match, every millisecond counts in trying to secure that winning edge over your opponent. With this keyboard, you can now make that a reality.

 

Tournament-Grade Precision

 

Designed specifically for gaming, Razer™ Mechanical Switches provide optimized actuation and reset points so commands are executed exactly as they should—with blazing fast responsiveness. And with different switch types, you’ll find one engineered to suit your preference.

 

Compact & Portable

 

With a tenkeyless design, the keyboard provides all the essentials while freeing up desk space for your mouse movements. Its sleek form factor and detachable USB cable also makes the keyboard perfect when travelling.

 

Instant Transmission. Immediate Response.

 

Upon actuation, the new Razer Instant Trigger Technology (ITT) immediately sends the signal to your system, canceling any need for a debounce delay. Thanks to this instantaneous response, you get industry-leading speed for an unfair advantage no matter what game you’re playing.

 

Powered by Razer Chroma

 

Featuring individually programmable backlit keys and 16.8 million color options. Choose from preloaded lighting effects or create your own unique palette of colors for a gaming experience that’s truly yours—all easily set through Razer Synapse.

 

Product Specifications:

 

 

In this article we will concentrate our attention upon another interesting peripheral from Razer, the BlackWidow Tournament Edition Chroma V2! Yep, a pretty long name for a gaming keyboard but in one way it explains the series it comes from (BlackWidow – self-explanatory; Tournament Edition – its compact format; Chroma – proprietary RGB lighting available via software; V2 – since it is the second revision of this type).

 

The product is shipped inside a medium-sized cardboard enclosure, with the usual Razer theme all-around:

 

 

 

On the top right corner, the manufacturer does remind us that a wrist rest is included with the product, along with support for the well-known Razer Chroma:

 

 

 

The BlackWidow Tournament Edition Chroma V2 is currently shipped with two different switch types:

 

-Razer Green Switch – Tactile and Clicky / 50G actuation force

-Razer Yellow Switch – Linear and Silent / 45G actuation force

 

 

 

On the side of the packaging, we will be able to spot the list of box contents, along with the system requirements, approximate size and weight but also the dimensions with the wrist rest:

 

 

 

The keyboard main features are explained in more detail on the bottom enclosure area, along with a comparison between the Razer mechanical switches:

 

 

 

After unsealing the box and lifting the top cover, we will be able to spot the main product right away, which does also include a transparent dust shield (great addition in our book):

 

 

 

The underside layer, will also reveal the documentation:

 

 

 

We are receiving a small leaflet with links to online resources, the User Manual but also two nice Razer stickers:

 

 

 

Razer does explain the installation procedure in more detail, but also explains the additional functions of the keys:

 

 

 

As a bundle, we are receiving the USB cable, but also the previously-mentioned wrist rest:

 

 

 

 

The wrist rest is very comfortable to use thanks to the soft foam, covered in leatherette:

 

 

 

The base is made of black plastic and is anti-slip thanks to the small plastic feet:

 

 

 

 

The USB cable does come with a preinstalled Velcro tie and is also braided for additional durability:

 

 

 

Both ends of the cable are customized:

 

 

 

BlackWidow Tournament Edition Chroma V2 does sport 366mm x 154mm x 39mm dimensions and weights about 950 g; thanks to the removable USB cable and protective transparent cover, it is fairly easy to transport at LAN parties:

 

 

 

The F-keys do also do sport additional mappings -> F1 is Volume Mute, F2 is Volume Down, while F3 is Volume Up:

 

 

 

Next, we do have the music track controls on F5, F6 and F7:

 

 

 

F9 does allow Macro recording on-the-fly, Gaming Mode is next with the F10 key, while F11/F12 take care of setting the LED lighting brightness:

 

 

 

The usual keys are found to the left and right of the Spacebar key:

 

 

 

 

For an easy positioning on the keyboard without having to actually look at it, we do have bumps on the F and J keys:

 

 

 

Under the Spacebar key, we do also have a nice RGB-enabled Razer logo available:

 

 

 

On the sides of the keyboard, you will not spot any additional interfaces:

 

 

 

In the frontal keyboard area, we do have the central USB port:

 

 

 

 

On the bottom keyboard layer, the manufacturer has placed a large sticker with the product internal code name, but also the serial number:

 

 

 

Rubber feet are available in the corners, so the keyboard won’t slip on the surface it stays on:

 

 

 

The kickstands do also feature rubber coating, so this is another plus in our book:

 

 

 

 

By using a key puller (not included with the original packaging), we could expose the Razer switches, which are the Yellow ones in this case. This type of keys is ideal for repeated presses, due to less resistance versus the Greens and we could say that they are quite in-line with the Cherry MX Speed. They do also come with shorter actuation points (1.2mm):

 

 

 

The wrist rest can be attached to the keyboard in just a snap, thanks to its magnetic properties:

 

 

 

After connecting the keyboard to a spare USB port, the LED light show will begin:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This keyboard can be customized in detail thanks to the Razer Synapse software, which is downloadable from the manufacturer’s website. This unified software handles updates for all compatible hardware and creates custom GUIs depending on the device. The main Keyboard menu comes with several sub-sections and the first one is Customize, where we can remap the keys:

 

 

 

 

A separate window will pop-up for the assignment:

 

 

 

We can select from different available functions:

 

 

 

Keyboard Function

Mouse Function

Inter-Device

Macro

Launch Program

Multimedia

 

Windows Shortcuts

Key Disable

 

From the Lighting section, we can choose some of the preset values or go in-depth thanks to the Chroma Configurator. Here we can also we can adjust the brightness of the keys, but also enable the function to turn off the lighting while the display is off:

 

 

 

 

Depending on the preset we are selecting, we get other options to work with:

 

Reactive

Breathing

Static

Wave

Ripple

 

Chroma Configurator does allow us to work with multiple Effect Layers at once, each coming with a large number of configuration options:

 

 

 

Presets are also available here, for different game genres:

 

 

 

Here is the list of Effect Layers we can choose from:

 

 

 

Reactive

Breathing

Spectrum Cycling

Static

Wave

 

The Gaming Mode can be further customized from the dedicated menu:

 

 

 

Moving on to the Macros menu, we can record sequences easily, with or without delays:

 

 

 

Next, we can enable Chroma Apps, so compatible applications will be able to control the lighting system on the keyboard for more immersion:

 

 

 

Detected applications will be shown in the list, but for a list of compatible programs/games we can navigate to the Chroma Workshop page:

 

 

 

Stats area will log usage per application and we do also have Heatmaps available:

 

 

 

With the BlackWidow Tournament Edition Chroma V2, we have conducted several gaming sessions in Secret World Legends, Black Desert Online, Kritika Online, Wolfenstein II The New Colossus and we were very happy about the key response time that is very similar to the CHERRY MX Speed switches. Other benefits of using this keyboard is its compact chassis, that leaves more room on the desktop, but also you will be able to keep the mouse even closer to the frequently used gaming keys. By using an actuation distance of just 1.2mm, you might need some time to adjust while doing regular office work such as writing documents, but after some time you will realize that this keyboard is great for such activities as well.

 

The Yellow Razer switches are considerably more silent versus their Green counterparts and deliver the same nice Chroma lighting effects when paired with the supplied keycaps; there is no key puller supplied with this keyboard for maintenance, but retain compatibility with custom CHERRY MX keycaps.

 

Razer does supply a high-quality wrist rest with foam and leatherette for additional comfort, that can be attached to the keyboard in just a snap thanks to magnetic force.

 

Lastly, we’ve got the Razer Synapse software that makes the BlackWidow Tournament Edition Chroma V2 in-depth configuration a simple process, for key remapping, macros, LED lighting and more!

 

The BlackWidow Tournament Edition Chroma V2 keyboard is available online for about 151 Euros.

Razer BlackWidow Tournament Edition Chroma Keyboard V2 is Recommended for:

 

 

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