Preliminary Review/First Impressions
I just received this Friday, June 16th, 2017 so I've only had it a few days. So far, I absolutely love the new yellow switches that Razer developed. I prefer a short keystroke with minimal pressure needed to press the keys down (both for typing and for gaming), and this keyboard has an almost perfect keystroke for me.
I've owned the original Razer BlackWidow (with Cherry MX Blue switches), as well as a Das Keyboard Professional (with Cherry MX Brown switches). This new BlackWidow Chroma V2 with Razer's yellow switches is much better. The original BlackWidow with its Cherry MX Blue switches sounded like an old 1950's typewriter, and people on TeamSpeak would complain about the noise and mute me. The Das Keyboard Professional with its Cherry MX Brown switches was much quieter, however the keystroke with those Cherry MX switches was so long that I often didn't press the keys down hard enough to activate them, and that was obnoxious when typing. Thus far I am not having that issue with this keyboard.
Customizing the lighting isn't really the reason I purchased this keyboard, although it is a nice bonus. I was able to customize which keys were which colors, and that allowed me to color-code the keys by function. I've attached a picture of what it currently looks like. Color-coding they keys like this makes it super easy to see which keys are which. I was having trouble with accidentally pressing the Caps Lock key while typing, and then I added the purple color and made the Caps Lock light blue so that it was easy to see it, and so far I haven't accidentally hit the Caps Lock key while typing again.
Apparently Razer has Chroma integrations for some games that allow them to control the lighting effects on the keyboard. Supposedly Slack (a popular chat and team collaboration app) has one as well, however Razer Synapse doesn't seem to recognize Slack. The Razer test app worked fine, so I figure the issue must be with Slack itself. I have yet to test it on any games that are supported (I only have 3 that are on Razer's list, and don't usually play them anymore).
All of that being said, the style and spacing of the keys on this BlackWidow Chroma V2 is taking some time to get used to. The keys are very thin on top (presumably to allow as much light to pass between the keys as possible) which makes them feel a little odd, and since the size and shape of the keys is different than what I'm used to I often find myself pressing the wrong key. I imagine I will get used to it over the next week or two, and this is not much of a downside (adjusting to a new keyboard always takes a bit of time).
-Update-
(6-19-2017)
Beginning of day 4, and the red LEDs have started to go out on the number pad. Attaching a second picture showing the current color configuration on the screen (with a grayed-out "Apply" button), and the current state of the colors on the keyboard. Play close attention to the number pad in the lower-right.
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 1 |
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