Razer BlackWidow TE Chroma v2 TKL Tenkeyless Mechanical Gaming Keyboard: Green Key Switches, Tactile & Clicky, Chroma…

This keyboard touts its quiet keys, but honestly, they’re not so quiet as to make it a selling point; in fact they’re as loud, if not louder, than any other keyboard I’ve used. To their credit, if you go to Razer’s website, they have a preview of what this keyboard sounds like– listen to that, and tell me that’s considered quiet.Secondly, none of the secondary key functions ($, @, %, &, etc.) light up; this isn’t a big deal if you’re a good typist, but in the event you’re like me and have brain fart late at night and can’t recall which key is used for which secondary key function, you’re kind of SOL.Aside from those two points, it’s 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 you’re 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 that’s a big deal to you.

Review is for the BlackWidow TE Chroma V2 TKL. This keyboard had an unacceptably loose, wiggly space bar. I would have returned the keyboard but I took the space bar off and was able to tighten up the action by bending the wire guide and adding a rubber o-ring to the switch. Not ideal.When everything works properly this is a nice keyboard. I docked one star for the quality control problems and a second star, bringing it to three, because Razer made some design decisions with this keyboard that are bad for gaming.Let’s start with the wrist rest. I feel this is a real shame, because the wrist wrest is super comfortable, but: I find it sucks for gaming. It is too high, leaving the left hand elevated above the keys with no real tactile feedback on where over the keys the hand is positioned. The feedback from the wrist rest is uniformly pillowy. Again, very comfortable and feels marvelous, but not good for gaming. Particularly a game where the left hand is moving around and reaching a lot for hotkeys. Think RTS like StarCraft 2 or MMOs or MOBAs. I’m using the keyboard without the wrist rest which yields better results, but then the profile and angle of the keyboard feels tall and severe, respectively.Next, and this is a serious gripe: The keys are a slick ABS with no, and I mean NO, texture. This contributes again to problems with keystroke accuracy because there is no texture feedback from the keys. When using the wrist rest it is like having a keyboard that you can barely feel under your hand. Again, comfortable but it is bad for gaming.The fact that Razer sells textured PBT keycaps separately is pretty offensive. This is an expensive keyboard and they should have shipped it with the superior keycaps. I don’t love it enough to spend an extra $30 making the keycaps not-terrible, because that leaves the combined problem of the wrist rest and tall profile.Some positive points. There are more than a few.I got the orange switches and they have a light, satisfying tactical feel with none of the clicky noise. Rubber o-rings can be used, making this a very quiet keyboard with them installed. I used clear o-rings to minimize disruption to the lighting.I’m a forceful typist and I make all but the quietest keyboards obnoxiously loud, so this degree of quiet in a mechanical keyboard is exactly what I was looking for. Without the rubber o-rings it still clacks quite a bit when the keys bottom out. My spouse hates clicky keyboards in the house.The software allows a lot of customization of the lighting. It is very cool. The HyperShift functionality allows Caps Lock to function as a software-based modifier. Through software, every key with the exception of the Windows, Fn and F1 through F12 keys can be reprogrammed with alternative actions in either regular or HyperShift mode. The macro support is good, but note: Certain uses of the macro features on devices like this can get you banned from online games, especially competitive ones. So exercise caution and restraint. ;)This is a nice keyboard to type on even though I don’t love it for gaming. The palm/wrist rest is very comfortable, the key action is good with keys that don’t move around too much under my fingers. The ergonomics of the modifier keys is excellent, and the modifiers are large making it easier to find them. Windows key, Alt+F4 and Alt+Tab can be disabled through gaming mode.Key travel is a little shorter than your average mechanical keyboard, and with rubber o-rings it becomes even shorter, bottoming out around 3mm. I like that.I also bought a Deathadder V2 mouse and unfortunately had to return the first one for being defective and already retired the second one for being ineffective due to a poorly designed and implemented right mouse button. I tried to give Razer a go with this build but I won’t be staying with their products.

I wanted a mechanical keyboard to use with my mac. Razer was one of the few makers that seemed to support OSX well with their software driver. Unfortauntely, while the keyboard itself is very comfortable and responsive, it constantly flakes out (I have a friend using it as well with his mac and he has the same issues).At least half a dozen times a day a random key will stick and repeat, or pressing keys will result in special characters going to the terminal insteand of what’s intended, etc… and the only way to make it stop is to yank the usb cable and plug it back in. In the beginning I thought it was something I could live with but it happens too regularly and is incfedibly disruptive.I do not recommend this keyboard if you intend to use it with a mac.For the record, I have a 2015 macbook.

I am using this keyboard for extreme gaming… And extreme office work in data science/engineering. I love it, any reviews you see that say the thing is messed up or something, it’s got to be a fluke, driver/machine specific issue, or user error. Everyone I Know with a Razer keyboard loves it and they work perfect indefinitely.This is my second Razer keyboard, first using the orange switches. I absolutely love it. I replaced my old black widow chroma v1 because it started freaking out, giving me random input and stuff that just made it crazy unusable. It was about 7-8 years old (maybe less? Not sure been a long time), and I damaged it by sleeping on it the other day… Don’t judge too hard, I work and play on the computer.The orange switches are SO much better than the green IMO. They are basically dead silent by comparison (the green switched kboard I had needed o-rings to even dampen the super loud clacks to a tolerable level). The orange switches five you an extremely light tactile response, which I like personally. I also program in a reactive light layer over all of my profiles so I have a nice visual feedback if what was hit for a fraction of a second. Works really well for me, even with my super high words-per-minute typing and super spastic gaming.The only thing that is upsetting and it’s my fault… I bought the one without the number pad. I don’t know why I did this to myself because I used the number pad a TON… I needed the replacement keyboard, the numpad ones available on prime next day were white only, couldn’t wait the extra day because of work using my spare kboard (tiny folding Bluetooth keyboard, basically for limping through things or for raspi SSH/RDP setup). That said, I actually like this unit without the number pad. I’ll go find some goofball numpad peripheral to use later.Seriously, you can’t go wrong with these boards, especially the orange switch type. The green is good but it’s super annoying loud for me. Never used the yellow (I think they have zero feedback and just a linear response curve, that and they’re also really expensive for some reason).I can’t think of many people who wouldn’t like this keyboard, and the only people who wouldn’t like it are those who get frustrated super easily and are lazy for the lighting set-up. Yes, the LED set-up takes time and effort for useful awesome multilayer multiprofile config, but it’s so so worth it. I like to build profiles for every major piece of software and most games I use. Sometimes the included chroma plugin (some games and very few applications) are cool, but I usually prefer my own deal.