Razer Blackwidow X Chroma Keyboard

Tom's Guide Verdict

The Razer BlackWidow Chroma is a not bad keyboard overall and an like shooting fish in a barrel recommendation for gamers in nigh every genre.

Pros

+
Simple, colorful illumination
+
Streamlined pattern
+
Great gaming and typing operation
+
Excellent software

Cons

-
Expensive
-
Recording macros likewise difficult

The BlackWidow Chroma is a dandy keyboard overall, and an easy recommendation for gamers in almost every genre. It offers responsive typing, robust software and just plenty macro keys in a fairly compact design. The most exciting aspect of this $170 peripheral is that you tin customize its colors any fashion you similar. Sure, it'southward $70 more than than the BlackWidow Ultimate, simply gamers who intendance nigh style as much as substance will exist very happy with this keyboard.

Design

If yous're familiar with the Razer BlackWidow Ultimate 2014, you're familiar with the Razer BlackWidow Chroma. The dimensions and weight are identical: 18.7 x six.7 inches and 3.31 pounds. For reference, the similar Corsair Gaming K70 RGB is 18.half dozen x 8.three inches, and the Logitech G910 Orion Spark is 19.nine ten eight.3 inches. If you want a full-size gaming keyboard and desk infinite is at a premium, the BlackWidow Chroma is the way to become.

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The style the BlackWidow Blush saves space is past eschewing a large wrist rest, which most other gaming keyboards possess. I found the short wrist support to exist more than adequate, but gamers with wrist conditions may want to think twice.

I was also pleased that the BlackWidow Chroma forgoes Razer's usual "aggressively cool" style in favor of something a little less angular and more subdued. This is a keyboard that would wait every bit at home in an office and in a gaming nook.

Keys

The offset and near important thing to annotation about the BlackWidow Chroma's keys is that they practice non use industry-standard Cherry MX switches. Like the Ultimate 2014 earlier information technology, the BlackWidow Blush uses Razer-sectional switches with high actuations and satisfying clacky noises, similar to Cherry MX Bluish or Greenish models. Although these switches are by no means uncomfortable, they do not experience quite as responsive and refined every bit the real thing, particularly now that I've had a few months to evaluate them since my initial review.

If the keys aren't perfect, they're still very good. Using the Ten Thumbs Typing Test, I scored 108 words per minute with a 0 per centum error rate on the BlackWidow Chroma, compared with 102 words per infinitesimal with a 1 percent mistake with my standard Dell office keyboard. The BlackWidow Chroma is simply more than comfy and more than authentic than a standard membrane peripheral.

In that location are also five macro keys built into the far left side of the keyboard, and media-player functionalities for the acme row of F keys. Equally before, the media controls are disappointing, since the respective function button is nowhere about them. Separate controls would take been meliorate. The macro keys, notwithstanding, are well-placed and not excessive in number.

Features

The BlackWidow Chroma runs on the first-class Razer Synapse two.0 software. Using this program, gamers can programme macros, reassign keys, activate a gaming fashion (which disables keys that tin can minimize the game) and, most of import, control the keyboard'due south extensive backlighting options.

The software is snappy, straightforward and easy to navigate. You tin link profiles with individual games, which is particularly useful in conjunction with the BlackWidow Blush's full RGB options. Like the Corsair K70 or the Logitech Orion Spark, you can assign each individual key one of millions of colors, or add effects such equally a rainbow moving ridge or a pulsing color shift.

The color differentiation is admittedly not as good as it could exist. Although the keyboard advertises more than 8 million possible colors, many of them look pretty similar, fifty-fifty when the BlackWidow Blush is on full brightness. Yellows and oranges tend to run together, as practice whites and grays. On the whole, though, it's still possible to make extremely pretty combinations to link with each game. The special effects are not nearly as robust as the Corsair K70, but there's as well no complicated programming involved.

The other major selling point of the BlackWidow Chroma is its on-the-fly macro recording. Unfortunately, this characteristic has not improved since the BlackWidow Ultimate 2014. Beginning a recording is still a convoluted process that requires users to reach all the way across the keyboard and tap distant buttons in arcane combinations. Razer should have fabricated this process simpler.

Performance

The BlackWidow is about beyond reproach when it comes to gameplay. I ran Titanfall, StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, Assassin'south Creed Unity and Star Wars: The Erstwhile Republic, and most of the titles ran extremely well. The keys felt zippy and satisfying whether I was clicking them with as much rapidity as humanly possible for Titanfall, or slowly and methodically for Heart of the Swarm.

The only exception was The Old Republic. Like its predecessor, the BlackWidow Chroma could not record macros in-game, although this functionality seemed to piece of work just fine in every other title (including fellow massively multiplayer online (MMO) game World of Warcraft). Just as Razer did not improve the overall process of recording macros, it missed a gamble to fix one of the few flaws with its previous model.

Bottom Line

If you lot've got money to burn down, don't mind Razer switches and need a sleek gaming keyboard, the BlackWidow Chroma is the one to get. Since it'due south exactly the same equally its predecessor, but more colorful, it's technically a "better" product, nonetheless the asking price is quite loftier. If you already have a BlackWidow Ultimate 2014 or anything similar, a few pretty colors are hardly worth the $lxx premium.

Razer, Logitech and Corsair have all released full RGB gaming keyboards, and they're all excellent, but none stands out above the other. Personally, I prefer the Corsair Gaming K70 RGB due to its simplicity and extremely comfortable wrist rest, but I also don't generally utilise macros.

If you lot're in the market for a new keyboard, your best bet would exist to check out all 3 reviews, then decide for yourself: the K70 for those who want something streamlined, the Orion Spark for those who want a ton of extra keys, and the BlackWidow Blush for anyone in the middle.

Razer BlackWidow Blush Tournament Edition

UPDATE (7/17/15): Tom's Guide recently got its hands on a Razer BlackWidow Blush Tournament Edition. This tenkeyless variant of the BlackWidow Blush is more often than not identical to its total-size cousin, with a few notable exceptions. The peripheral lacks a numpad, reducing its overall size to 14.4 ten half dozen.i inches and weight to 2.1 pounds. Toss in a detachable USB cablevision, a slick carrying case and a (comparatively) modest $140 toll tag, and the keyboard seems like a reasonable purchase for those on the tournament scene, only as the name suggests. I did not see any differences in operation between the 2 models.

Specs

Actuation:55 g
Fundamental Travel:4.5 mm
northward-Key Rollover:half dozen (x in Gaming Mode)
Size:eighteen.7 x 6.74 x 0.8 inches
Weight:3.31 pounds

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Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site's coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a science writing groundwork, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology. After hours, you can find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi.