Razer Gaming Keyboards are Full-Featured for Serious Play [REVIEW]

If you find yourself spending a lot of time on your PC gaming but you're still using a regular keyboard, you may get frustrated. For those looking for a serious keyboard for their gaming lifestyle, Razer has two unique products for you.

The two newest Razer gaming keyboards are decidedly high end. The Razer BlackWidow and Razer DeathStalker Ultimate both offer a variety of features for gamers who want to play more accurately and comfortably.

The BlackWidow

The Razer BlackWidow, pictured above, is a mechanical gaming keyboard. You don't really appreciate mechanical keyboards until you've used them for a while: Every key is its own independent switch, as opposed to most modern keyboards, which are set on a membrane. This independence means you don't have to press down the key as far for it to register, and that the keyboard just feels better for typing.

One downside of this is that you'll hear each key clack as you type, so in hot and heavy gaming moments your keyboard will be very loud. This may not make you very popular if you are using voice chat while gaming (as I found out first hand). That's not a fault of this keyboard in general, but something that's very important to know before purchasing any mechanical keyboard.

The Razer BlackWidow feels stable to use because of its mechanical keys, and because it weighs over 3 pounds. You never feel like it will slide around as you're typing or playing. The keys are also very easy to see as well — it comes in backlit varieties, though the model I tested just had high-contrast letters. There is also an audio out and mic in line attached, as well as a USB patch cable so you gain more ports, meaning it integrates well into your gaming setup.

This keyboard can also quickly record macros, which are single keystrokes that can function as multiple key presses. It can record onto 10 profiles that pair with your most often-played games. There's also the handy "gaming mode" that disables the Windows Key and Alt-Tab, so you don't accidentally switch out of whatever you're playing.

The Razer BlackWidow retails for $125, and it quickly becomes easy to see why you'd want to spend the money after switching back to a normal keyboard. It's a great complement to whatever you're doing on your PC.

DeathStalker Ultimate

The Razer DeathStalker Ultimate is the most customizable keyboard I've ever encountered. It's a bigger than average keyboard — it includes a built-in wrist rest and an extra section with 10 buttons and a 4-inch touchpad that doubles as an LCD screen on the right side.

The customization starts when you install Razer's Synapse 2.0 software, which allows you to change all the settings of your keyboard. You can start by tweaking the look: The individually backlit keys will glow with any color you can think of, or even cycle through colors for a particularly psychedelic effect. The touchpad's LCD screen is the same way: You can program it to display any image you can snag off the internet or your hard drive.

The 10 top-row keys are completely customizable, and I mean completely. You can set them to open any application on your computer or do any in-game actions. You can also decorate these with any image you want. Similar to the BlackWidow, you can switch between 10 profiles depending on what you're using the keyboard for. There are also built-in profiles for games like Mass Effect 3, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Team Fortress 2. Players can also crank up the brightness to easily see what buttons they're hitting.

The DeathStalker Ultimate also includes the same macro and programmable button features from the BlackWidow, along with the ability to shut off your Windows Key.

The touchpad and extra keys also have some cool-but-less-useful features, too. You can launch a tiny Facebook browser on the LCD screen, or YouTube, all through the keys. While it was easy to navigate through YouTube's menus — thanks to the 10 bonus keys transforming into its most needed features — I have to wonder why you'd need to watch cat videos on a tiny screen while playing your game. The touch pad was also great and responsive, but I couldn't find myself using it much.

Unlike the BlackWidow, the DeathStalker Ultimate is not a mechanical keyboard — it's a low-profile keyboard with soft keys. It also has an included, non-removable wrist rest that makes it feel a bit like a laptop. Another important hardware note is the keyboard requires two USB ports to function, so it might be tricky for anyone who uses a gaming laptop with an external keyboard, mouse and monitor. There was no USB pass-through like the BlackWidow, so this is really going to be the most functional for someone with at least 4 USB ports.

The $250 price tag is easy to balk at if you don't need a high level of customization in your keyboards, but for those who want to be able to tweak and access every part of their hardware, the DeathStalker is the way to go.