Razer - Huntsman Elite Wired Gaming Opto-Mechanical Switch Keyboard with Chroma Back Lighting - Black

As the title says, I am not a gamer. I am in mid-50s business professional who spends about 60 hours a week in front of a computer. So I went to Best Buy looking for a new keyboard to replace my old Logitech with the sticky space bar. I tried every keyboard they had in the business section and they all felt mushy and flimsy. I glanced over into the next aisle where the gaming keyboards are, and the sales rep said oh those are gaming keyboards, you probably don’t want one of those. Lured by the seductive flashing colored lights, I ignored his advice and went over and started typing on the Huntsman Elite keyboard. All I could say is WOW! The tactile feel and exquisitely wonderful clickiness of this keyboard is exactly what I was looking for. I haven’t felt a keyboard this precise since the old IBM keyboards of the 1970s and 80s. Again Wow! This is exactly what I was looking for! I tried a number of other gaming keyboards. All were good, but this one simply felt the best. Bringing it back to the office, installation was easy and flawless. It’s worth mentioning that it does require two USB ports. This is not a problem for me as I have a USB hub and docking station. Plugging in to the ports, my HP Spectre360 immediately recognized the keyboard and produced a welcome screen for me to download the software. The software provides a wide selection of settings and adjustments but is remarkably easy to use. As a business user, I certainly don't need all of the flashing lights, but to be honest they are so cool I could not resist setting up custom chroma profiles. Basically, you can make the lights and colors do pretty much anything you want them to do. The chroma set up allows you to build layers of lighting features in a method that reminds me of Photoshop. The one thing that my old Logitech keyboard had that I liked was a dedicated button for the Calculator app. It is something that I used several times each day. While the Huntsman Elite keyboard does not have this, I was able to create a macro and remap the pause/break key to perform this function. Took a little bit of research to figure out how, but it wasn’t difficult. After several days of using this new keyboard I am as thrilled as ever. The keys are silky smooth and have a precision that makes it a pleasure to use. One thing worth mentioning is that the keys are very clicky which I personally like. However, If you share an office with somebody, I could see where they might find the clicking to be a bit annoying. The overall build quality of this keyboard is superb. It is heavy and feels very solid. The volume control on the right side of the keyboard is perfectly placed and is very useful. I have only one complaint about this keyboard. On some of the keys that have a dual function for shift, such as the colon and semicolon, the markings on the key are upside down from the norm. The non-shift function is on the top and the shift function is on the bottom. And only the non-shift function is illuminated (see photo). It’s not a big deal as I am primarily a touch-typist, but it seems a little bit stupid. All I can say is I wish I knew but such an excellent keyboard existed years ago. I think this company should market this product to business people like me as well as gamers.

Aesthetics: Of course, this is always going to be personal preference. In my opinion, this is a gorgeous keyboard. Nobody does RGB lighting better than Razer. The font on the keycaps itself is 10/10. It’s small, crisp and attractive. The light shines through it brilliantly. The accuracy of the colors is also way better than Corsair boards. But I would say Logitech’s is a close second. However, they do not illuminate the secondary keys. I don’t know what the heck Razer is thinking with this. But I think it’s to make the light perfectly uniform across the board. Light does not shine from underneath the keys very much unless at max brightness. It does get bright but not as bright as say the Corsair Mk.2 SE. There is also a multistage brightness to fine tune however dim/bright you want, and they all look fantastic. Whereas, on Corsair boards they all look terrible except for max brightness. There is a crazy amount of customization options for the RGB between the keys, volume wheel, edge lighting on the keyboard itself and wrist rest. There is an aluminum matte top plate. That honestly, unless I am pressing on it I can’t even tell is aluminum because it looks like high quality plastic. Compared to Corsairs there is no contest. Corsairs brushed aluminum is better. However, with that said the keyboard itself looks fantastic. There is almost no wasted space on this keyboard at all. They didn’t add extra space just to put their logo on it which I really like. The only place you see any razer branding is on the back label and on the wrist rest. It is stitched in there and looks fantastic, so it doesn’t distract or take away anything. The volume dial looks great especially with the RGB outline. The multimedia keys are cool with the RGB circle around them, but they don’t have any lights illuminating the play/pause or forward/backward symbols. What the heck were you thinking Razer?! The keyboard would look great in an office setting because it doesn’t have the gamer look... except for the RGB lighting of the keys and of course the lighting that surrounds the edges around the keyboard itself. But if you turned that off it would fit right in. That is if the clicky switches don’t drive your co-workers to kill you. Regarding the wrist rest, it looks great. It is made of faux leather with a slight bit of padding. There is a Razer symbol in the middle, but it looks classy. Around the edges is the RGB lighting and on the top is a magnetic strip to provide power and attach to the keyboard which is awesome. I enjoy that it is magnetic over just placing it close or snapping it into place like Corsairs. Hats off to Razer for creating such a great wrist rest. It also looks premium and doesn’t look gamer like at all. Feel: This keyboard feels solid. It doesn’t feel like it’s going to fall apart. But does it feel like it’s worth $200? I almost want to say yes it does. It feels just as solid as the K70’s if not more so. On the bottom of the board there are some rubber pads which make it not damage the desk that it is sitting on and also makes it so it won’t move. The actual steps to incline the board come in two stages and are vertical instead of horizontal. I know some people prefer those in a certain direction. But ergonomically you shouldn’t have those up. Last the keyboard comes in at almost 4 lbs. Moving on to the volume wheel and the play/pause forward/backward buttons. The volume wheel is awesome. Significantly better than Corsairs in every aspect. I like that when you press volume up it has a distinct click, it is incased in rubber with the RGB lighting in the middle, and the lights change to signify a change. When you press the button, it goes red notifying you that you are muted and has a very nice satisfying click. Moving onto the play/pause, forward/backward buttons they feel super cheap. Same click as volume wheel which is nice, but there is a lot of wobble, and they feel like they will break off at any moment. For a $200 board I find this to be unacceptable. I don’t understand why razer can’t just use something like the Corsair boards. Probably due to copyright. Also, there is no illumination of the symbols which is highly disappointing. Especially, since it’s hard to see the lights that surround the media keys from a normal typing position. Moving onto the keys themselves. To me this is the best part of the entire keyboard. I myself am a fan of tactile, clicky, and as fast as I can get. When I think of a mechanical keyboard that is what I expect to find (tactile and clicky). The other thing that makes these switches special is they require 45 grams of force with a 1.5 mm actuation point with a total travel of 3.5 mm. Which makes them one of the fastest switches out there. They are also a hybrid optical – mechanical switch. This means that they use light with less moving parts which makes them last longer. They say > 100 million clicks. Which is 50 million clicks more than Cherry’s. They also have stabilizer bars on every key which means you don’t get key wobble. But what about the feel?! They are very light when you go to press the key. Then you feel a very minor click when they actuate (and seriously I mean mild. Way softer then Romer G tactile) and then you hear a very satisfying click. Much like Razer Greens. A lot of people say they are really loud. However, I disagree. I think they are average in the sense of how loud they are. Me typing on the Corsair Mk.2 SE was louder than me typing on this board. Also, the space bar has a nice bass sound to it with a satisfying click but isn’t super ridiculously loud. It is just as loud as the rest of the keys. Perhaps just slightly louder. All the clicks feel great. I would rate this switch a 9/10. The 10/10 being a slightly more tactile bump, and low profile like the new cherry mx low profile speed switch. But the sound is perfect. Seriously, I love typing on this thing. I’ll talk about gaming in the performance section down below. Personal Pros and Cons: Pros: A. Razer opto-mechanical switches: Light and clicky with per key stabilizer bar with new stem shape provides balanced keypress. Balanced 45 g force of actuation. > 100 million keystrokes. Travel distance 3.5 mm. Actuation point 1.5 mm. Zero debounce delay. B. Sound of keys. C. Gorgeous font on keys. D. Perfect RGB with outer RGB zones. E. 5 onboard profiles with account/cloud storage. F. Great multi-function digital dial. G. Magnetic leatherette wrist rest with customizable zones. H. Multistage brightness. I. Shortcut key for sleep, brightness, and macro J. Incredibly power “fn” key allows you to change all the keys on the keyboard with a touch of a button and then immediately go back to original settings. (Seriously this is like amazing). K. Build quality. L. Did I mention how freaking amazing the RGB looks on this. I’m not one that usually goes that crazy with RGB but it just looks so incredible on this board. M. Aluminum matte top plate. N. Did I mention how awesome these keys feel? Because they are great. Cons: A. No USB passthrough B. Only 10 key rollover. (expect at this price NKRO) C. Ok media buttons. D. Only lights up the primary key. Except for numpad. E. Takes two USB’s to fully power the keyboard lighting. Overall Impressions: Before buying this keyboard, I researches sooo many keyboards, switches, companies, reviews, and everything that I went from a complete noob to almost a subject matter expert. I bought a Logitech G Pro (which is my 3rd favorite keyboard) The Logitech G513 or something, Corsair K70 MK.2 SE Rapid-fire, Tried one with blues and brown cherry switches, this and then the Corsair K70 mk.2 low profile rapid-fire. The only two that are left are the Razer Huntsman Elite and the Corsair K70 mk.2 low profile rapid-fire which ended in a tie. I couldn’t decide and will be keeping both. Using this to type and look pretty on my desk and the rapid-fire to game with. Which isn’t to say that this isn’t fantastic to game with. Because it is. Then one of these will eventually go to my stream PC when I get it. What I’m saying is this is an incredible board. Better than the mast majority out there. The only board that comes close is the K70 low profile rapid-fire. This beats the regular rapid-fire. It’s stupid expensive. But dang is it nice. Still think a lower price point would make it more alluring and perfect. Performance: These keys feel great. Between the 45-gram force, actuation distance, total travel time, being optical-mechanical, and tactile they are perfect for gaming. Maybe not as perfect as the Corsair K70 MK.2 Low Profile Rapid-fire. But better at gaming then every other board I tried above except for the low profile rapid-fire. The speed makes them ideal for anything competitive. The tactile click allows you to be fully aware of what you are pressing, when, and the moment it takes effect without needing screen feedback (which is different with linear switches where it is either when it bottoms out or when you see the screen change. Unless you have it timed perfectly with your fingers which almost no one does). The keys are spaced well too which makes hitting far to reach ones such as the “F1”, “T”, “G” etc… easy. If I had a rating, I would put this at a 9/10 for gaming and the low profile rapid-fire at a 10/10 with the original rapid-fire at a 8/10 and all other switches at an 7/10. The reason why the low profile rapid-fire takes the cake is it’s slightly faster which is notable in game. And it’s easier to glide across the top of those keys, and less fatiguing, over these. But they are so freaking close that really, it’s a tie and you should go with whatever fits YOU best. You won’t go wrong picking this board if you like clicky and tactile. If you like linear and low profile I recommend the Corsair K70 MK.2 low profile rapid-fire.

IN MY OPINION, the Top 3 of the "gamer" type mechanical keyboards on market right now are... + Roccat Vulcan 120 AIMO + Corsair K70 MK.2 SE + Razer Huntsman Elite The features you want will determine the ranking as with everything else of course. It's always difficult for me to pick a new keyboard and mouse because I'm so particular, picky even, especially when it comes to the keyboard. I rank the switch feel, build quality, and aesthetics the highest on my list. I don't care for rows of extra macro keys spread all over the place, I prefer a standard layout but I really like being able to reprogram any key on the board to do whatever I wish (this is why Logitech's keyboards didn't make my top 3 list unfortunately). Now that I've given an idea of what I'm looking for personally, how does the Huntsman Elite stack up? It's honestly an amazing keyboard and it would be the one taking up real estate on my desk right now if it weren't for what I feel to be the best keyboard on this list... so I guess that puts it at second place. Razer's new purple optical/mechanical switches feel nothing short of excellent to type on. They give me a great tactile feeling without being fatiguing or too unnecessarily noisy, feeling is 9 out of 10. The lighting on the Huntsman Elite is also very nice, every key is very vibrantly and evenly lit. There is a lighting strip that runs the perimeter of the keyboard as well as the wrist rest, if you choose to use it (you really should), the lights cast onto your desk surface and it creates a very beautiful show. Speaking of the wrist rest, it's an extra plush PU leather type rest that attaches and detaches effortlessly with magnets, very nice. The Huntsman has a very clean, even elegant, layout with no extra BS going on. There are dedicated media transport keys and a volume disc available, the volume disc feels high quality and can be reprogrammed to whatever functions you'd like (are you paying attention to this functionality Corsair?!). I have been using a Razer Black Widow Chroma that my wife gave me for Christmas several years ago and I've never encountered a single issue with it, I'm saying that to qualify the fact that I feel like the Huntsman Elite is a superior board in every way from build quality to the design. I am giving it 5 stars because it's honestly an amazing piece of hardware, but there is one board that I would recommend more than this one if you happen to be minded like myself in your pursuit for the perfect keyboard... and that is the Roccat Vulcan 120 AIMO, which I will have a review here on that one also. If the Corsair K70 MK.2 SE had Cherry Browns available then it might just unseat one the others because of it's beautiful white double-shot PBT keycaps that are included. All in all, if you go with one of the three boards I've listed here then you are going to be in good shape, it all just depends on what you place higher on your list of desires in a "gamer" type mechanical keyboard. If anyone has any questions regarding these keyboards I have them all and would be happy to answer.

I got this to replace a Unicomp Model M, which surprisingly died after only a few years of use. I was going to order another Model M, but fate intervened, because Unicomp was out of stock. PROS: 1. The optomechanical keys have a nice feel - good clicky sound, not nearly as heavy to use or fatiguing compared to MX Blues. This is also the only keyboard with optomechanicals outside of the Bloody keyboards. 2. Media keys are very useful, especially the instant mute switch and the volume jog dial. 3. Lack of USB pass-through is not a problem for me, since I just use the USB pass-through on my monitors. 4. Razer Chroma is definitely the most customizable and powerful RGB software out there - better than Logitech and Corsair, though the learning curve is steeper. 5. There is uber-1337 RGB lighting everywhere - even on the wrist rest - which, by the way, was very comfortable. The only rest I've used that's more comfortable is the one included with the Logitech G513. 6. The caps lock/num lock/scroll lock indicators are moved underneath DEL/END/PGDOWN, which is a much better use of space given the compact, floating-key style layout of the Huntsman, which is very trendy now. 7. The stabilizer bars make each switch extremely sturdy with little to no wobble, especially compared to the original Cherry MX switches. CONS: 1. The secondary keys are still not lit - e.g., the !@# on the number row. Though on the numpad, the secondaries are lit. This is a consequence of the "high-LED" construction of the optomechanical switch. I'm still waiting for a manufacturer to incorporate a light-pipe solution to ensure even lighting. 2. The keycaps are ABS, and are non-standard size on the bottom row. It'll be quite a chore to try and replace these with PBTs. 3. The IBM buckling spring is still the best feeling switch in my opinion - nothing can ever match it. 4. Price is very high - for the same money you could get a top of the line Ducky, Vortex, GMMK, Massdrop et. al that has PBTs. 5. Only offered with a clicky switch. If you want a tactile or linear switch you have to wait for Razer to make those variants available, or go with a Bloody. Overall, this is still a great keyboard. If the price dropped to $150, it would be 5-stars, no doubt. THIS REVIEW PROUDLY TYPED ON A HUNTSMAN ELITE

The price tag was rather difficult to stomach, but after over a month of use, I feel that it's well worth it. The switches are fairly light, clicky (quite loud, actually), and feel very responsive; I can't say if their opto-mechanical switches are faster than something like a Cherry MX speed switch, but typing and gaming on this keyboard are always satisfying. The wrist rest makes typing and gaming feel very comfortable, although if you wear a wristwatch of any kind the leatherette padding can push the band into your skin. The lighting is fabulous, as can be expected from Razer, and the overall design is very nuanced and elegant. My only gripe is with the media control buttons: in Windows 10 Home, the preset keybindings don't do anything (though I've only tried to use them in Spotify and the Windows default video playback software); even if I could use them, the shallow keypress is pretty disappointing and doesn't live up to the delightful tactile feel of the rest of the keyboard. The media wheel isn't as offensive, mainly because it does its job, but neither it nor the mute button on top feels good to use.

The lighting and build are very nice. The keys are not my favorite type, but very responsive. I prefer the less noisey ones. The "media keys" in the upper left of the keyboard are always a nice to have. I don't really game much, so the macro keys are not used on this device. I have a Razer Orbweaver that I use for macros and such. The new Synapse 3 does not offer the same amount of customizations as the Synapse 2. But, I understand that it's still work in progress. I have to run both versions of the Synapse app, since I have the Orbweaver chroma and the new Synapse 3 will not recognize it. The lighting and the indicators for capslock, numlock scroll lock, gaming and macros, are much brighter, but is only a solid white color, which makes sense for me. The wrist rest is a nice solid piece, which has the lighting incorporated into it. So, it provides a complete lighting look. Versus having a wrist rest without it. The rest looks good, but is barely useful, since it is made of fake leather with the logo embossed on it. The support or foam feels very little to none, after about a minute or less. So, it looks good? I keep it on, just to keep the look complete. When I type, I just keep the wrists off of it. The cable is the standard Razer braided cloth mesh and it's a pretty sturdy cord. The two USB connectors are labeled, but hard to see in the dark. You need both to power and light the keyboard and rest. I have gotten used to this keyboard, it has replaced my Black Widow Chroma V2 with yellow switches.

I really wanted to love this keyboard. The only reason I wanted to give it a try was so that it would flow and match my Razer (Keypad, mouse and mouse pad). So as you read my thoughts, I'm not a Razer Hater. Things that didn't work right. *The RGB lights from Z to the arrow keys (Bottom row) were dim, not as bright as the other keys. *At times it would double type Letters Thing I just didn't like * Media keys. Round knobs, they just look cheap, out of place and not what I think should be on a $200.00 keyboard. *Volume wheeel. Moving it up turns the volume down, moving it down turns the volume up. And the design I HATE, it wasn't smooth IMO. I really wish Razer would have used a wheel/roll type like on Corsair K95. *Typing felt cramped to me (IMO) *I'm not a CLICKY fan but I would have lived with it, I wish they had other keys to offer in this model. Overall I am returning this keyboard today. You can do much better for less. (Unless you just want all Razer in front of you like I did but even so, I'm not in love with this keyboard to justify the price paid

I don't usually write reviews but after using this keyboard for almost a week and finishing playing wofenstein 2 with it , I am compelled to do so. I am 44 years old but have been a gamer ever since I was very young. I took my old PC apart that I built in 2012 . The last keyboard I used with it was the logitceh g910 and although nice for a mechanical keyboard. It never quite gave me the clickiness I yearned for. I went in to Best buy and purchased an Alienware desktop and wanted a new keyboard. Initially I decided on the Razer Black widow but then I saw the huntsman elite. The keys felt clickier and the keystrokes crisper . The hunstman also uses razers opto mechanical switches where the keys break a lazer in middle of pushing them and the result is a much quicker response . So you get the best of both worlds . The fast response with nice crisp feel of the mechanical keyboard . Also the wrist rest is very soft and the most luxurious wrist rest you will ever feel. The multimedia keys with a volume knob are a very nice bonus. The lighting affects are awesome and carry through the sides if the rest rest as it attaches to the keyboard with pogo pins effortlessly . Razer also has other plans to make more accessories for the keyboard to attach through the pins . I initially was hesitant to spend $200 in a keyboard. It just sounds crazy but now am glad that I did. This one is well worth it and I can see my self using it for years to come. So I say if you can afford it then go for it . You won't regret it either.