Razer BlackWidow Lite TKL Tenkeyless Mechanical Keyboard : Orange Key Switches - Tactile & Silent - White Individual Key Lighting - Compact Design - Detachable Cable - Classic Black

Impressive for the price. Razer has come a long way with their switches. My favorite keyboard switch is the Cherry MX Brown, and these are very close. Subjectively, this keyboard is a little bit louder but not by much. Typing on it feels great, very responsive. Pros: - Great backlighting, with fine control of the brightness. - Tactile switches, very close to Cherry MX Browns. - Braided cable. - Roughly 2/3 the cost of keyboards with Cherry MX switches + backlighting. - Dedicated media keys. Cons: - The larger keys such as spacebar and shift use the old metal crossbar style. This makes them more difficult to remove for cleaning / adding O-rings. Since these are things you dont need to do often, I consider this a minor inconvenience. - Slightly louder than Cherry MX Brown keyboards. - Razer Synapse bloat is required to customize it. - Alt / Fn / Menu keys are different sizes, so if you remap those keys you wont be able to move them around.

Its my first mechanical keyboard so i cant compare this keyboard to another mechanical keyboards, but as a affordable upgrade from a cheap membrane its a great choice. Its not perfect, but it have the satisfying clicks, its looking realy good with the white leds nd the aluminium cover under the buttons. However there is 3 downsides in my opinion, which is not really a deal breaker but a little annoying detail, when you are sitting low enough you kinda see the mechanical switch under i mean the oramge plastic) and its kinda looks weird - but again, you really have to sit on the floor in order to see that. Another downside, which is the main one - the terrible a laggi software. And the last downside is that this keyboard is a little bit higher than i expected, I got used to it so its not so terrible but you have to consider that.

I used a regular Black Widow Chroma for years before switching to this one. I use it primarily for gaming so I like the feedback and feel of a mechanical keyboard but I wanted something quieter. While this is definitely not silent, it is noticeably quieter than the green switches. I took to the feel of the orange switches immediately with no issue as they really do have a pleasant feel in my opinion. They still give satisfying feedback with each key press despite feeling different so it was easy to swap to this one without feeling like anything was lost between the two. If youre looking for something truly silent, this is not it, but theres an obvious difference compared to the green switches. This tenkeyless one doesnt have the USB port on the side like the normal one and I do miss that but I knew this upon buying it. The power cord is a very ample length though; my tower is several feet away from my desk and there is cord to spare. The RGB lighting is stellar and each key can be individually programmed to any color you can think of. With Razer Synapse, you can save multiple profiles that are easy to switch between and the level of customization you get is almost overwhelming because there is just so much you can do. You can set it to stay on the color(s) you want or pick one of many light patterns and also change the brightness. I think Synapse is quite user friendly and I was able to easily figure out how to do everything I wanted with it just by playing around with it a little on my own. Ive never used a wrist pad before but this came with one so I tried it out. Its magnetic and snaps right on and stays securely but I really disliked using it. Its nicely padded but I felt it raised my wrist a little too high for it to feel natural during use. Luckily it isnt built in so I just easily removed it and simply dont use it. After weeks with this, Im extremely happy with it. Its in perfect condition and I have no issues with any keys sticking or anything like that. I had my previous Razer keyboard for many years and its still going strong. I only switched because I wanted a smaller and quieter one and Ive seen nothing at so far that would make me doubt this ones longevity.

I saw this go on sale and I decided to try it out as I wanted a small form factor keyboard that was black instead of the white Ducky One 2 SF that I already had, to match the mouse/pad Im using at any given time. This keyboard is a TKL, meaning it does not have the number pad keys on the right side of the keyboard. This is great when you use a large mouse pad or have a small desk. It is marketed towards the office user, but Im not sure why anyone would personally go out of their way to buy this for office usage as it lacks the number pad that I use at work daily. I purchased this solely for gaming and home PC usage. This keyboard comes with tactile switches which are a good compromise between red (linear) and blue (tactile). They appear to be slightly lubed from the factory and feel very smooth. It also has included orange colored o-rings for the switches if you want to lower the noise a bit, but I personally found they made the keyboard feel a bit mushy, like a traditional membrane keyboard so I opted to not use them. It also comes with a keycap puller to remove the keys to clean them or install the o-rings. Another nice touch is the typical Razer stickers that they include with all of their products. My main keyboard prior to purchasing this was a Ducky One 2 SF, but with Cherry MX Brown switches. This uses Razers Orange switches, which are a Brown equivalent. Im fairly certain that they are made by Kailh, but labeled Razer. The Ducky I use is a very vibrant, full RGB. The Blackwidow Lite only comes with white LEDs, but Im fine with it for the price. For some odd reason, my Caps Lock key is brighter and a bit more yellow than the other keys, especially when I lower the brightness on the rest of the keys. You can adjust the brightness without the optional Razer Synapse software, which I try to avoid whenever possible. The Caps Lock key will also light up green when it is pressed. While I prefer the Ducky in terms of feel and looks, this is a great alternative for half the price (The Razer is on sale for $60 at my time of writing this review). There are no major QC issues and everything feels very solid with its understated looks. I highly recommend this keyboard for the price. UPDATE 10-4-20: This keyboard is still going strong, and I am using it to write this update. No issues or wear to report.

This keyboard touts its quiet keys, but honestly, theyre not so quiet as to make it a selling point; in fact theyre as loud, if not louder, than any other keyboard Ive used. To their credit, if you go to Razers website, they have a preview of what this keyboard sounds like-- listen to that, and tell me thats considered quiet. Secondly, none of the secondary key functions ($, @, %, &, etc.) light up; this isnt a big deal if youre a good typist, but in the event youre like me and have brain fart late at night and cant recall which key is used for which secondary key function, youre kind of SOL. Aside from those two points, its a great keyboard. The ability to program chroma configurations and macros for games is a huge win. And yes, it is very pretty to look at, and syncs beautifully with my Razer mouse in regards to coloring. If youre looking for a gaming keyboard that goes above and beyond--- and you were brought here by The Wirecutter reviews like me, either get this or its other model with the numpad, or splurge on the third model that has legitimately quiet keys if thats a big deal to you.

Its a great keyboard, but its not even close to being silent like they advertise. O-rings only help dampen noise when pressing the key down, not when it pops back up, and even then, it barely helps and is not worth the effort of putting them on. The metal plate base also makes keys create a slight ringing sound when you type on them. Its a mechanical keyboard, so youre not going to get extremely quiet keys unless you use Cherry MX Silent Red switches or something. Its small and has solid construction though and it doesnt get dirty from finger oil easily. It also has a detachable braided wire, which is great. It only has white lights, which is fine for me, and it has the ability to adjust the brightness through fn+f11 and fn+f12 without any of the unwanted Razer software. For keys that have two different symbols on them, such as [ { or 0 ), only the top symbol lets light through, so its not a great keyboard if you want to use it in a completely dark room, but I see no reason to even want to do that in the first place.

It was my first TKL keyboard and I was loving it ...until I spilled water all over it and it shorted and I had to throw it away. I really liked the fact that it had white LED backlights only, since Im kind of over the whole RGB GAMER phase of my life - it gives it a little more of that professional vibe. The keys were quiet, I did install all the O-Rings on the keys to make it even more quiet, but it was quiet enough without the O-rings too. I will buy it again when the time comes...

Edited to add: I am updating and reducing my rating of this keyboard. I absolutely loved it -- when it worked. I retain the complaints about the updates. And I loved the feel of the keyboard and the programmable light. Unfortunately, it just gives too much problems. After one update, it slowed down, didnt strike keys, and when I hit an O, it gave lines and lines of them. I gave up and am back to a RedDragon, which is disappointing because I cant program the keyboard lights in the same productive way. But its clacky and serves the purpose comfortably. So all in all I am terribly disappointed in this keyboard. I wish I wasnt. I love the clacky keys, and the feel is wonderful. When the personalized light pattern works, thats great and very helpful. Unfortunately, as far as I can see there is no way to stop automatic updates of this software, and every time it updates it screws up the lighting pattern. Right now it is doing the stupid and annoying phasing between colors, and I cannot even get the software to open up to change it. In a day or so it will probably unexpectedly kick in, leaving me to wonder, what the bloody hell? Only the top keys are highlighted, not the shift keys. And sometimes it turns itself on and off with no reason that I can see. Finally, the cord is bizarre and very sensitive. I ended up buying a second one because it fell off the table and the power connection broke. Despite these extremely annoying problems, the feel does it for me. Other than that, great keyboard!

Initially I was impressed, its a nice keyboard for the price. It looks well constructed, but the backlight does not change color or match my Razor mouse even with Razor software. After a few months of pretty mild use, certain keys have also started having duplicate or triple outputs. Like if I press / I get /// or aapple instead of apple. Its pretty annoying when it comes to passwords or using command prompt.

Works perfectly fine and comfortable to use. However the colors aren’t as vibrant as you would expect. Dark purples appear lavender.