Razer BlackWidow Tournament Edition

The Razer BlackWidow Tournament Edition takes the solid Razer BlackWidow Ultimate 2013 Elite?a including the mechanical, backlit keys?and lops off the 10-key pad, making a more compact keyboard that is easier to pack up and take along for a LAN party or tournament.

Design and Features
Like the Razer Ultimate 2013 Elite, the BlackWidow Tournament Edition is a mechanical keyboard, with adjustable backlight, solid construction, and Cherry MX Blue switches that offer a superb tactile typing feel. Cherry MX Blue switches also have two stages of actuation, providing a better tactile response than most other switch types. The result is extremely durable, so marathon gamers can bang away without the keyboard wearing out.

Anti-ghosting, a special key switch technology which allows up to 10 keys to be pressed simultaneously instead of the usual maximum of three or four, lets you to fire off the most complicated commands without fear of overwhelming the keyboard. The 77 mechanical keys require only 50 grams of downward force to register a keystroke?silicone membrane switches usually require 60-70 grams of force, while buckling spring switches may require as much as 80 grams of pressure?and the combined 1000Hz polling and one-millisecond response time means that you won't experience lag due to the keyboard no matter how fast your fingers fly.

Unlike the Razer 2013 Elite, however, the BlackWidow Tournament Edition ditches the numeric keypad in order to give the keyboard a shorter overall length, lighter weight, and increased portability. The lack of the numeric keypad will surely be an irritation to some, especially anyone who uses the arrow functions, or who uses their keyboard for any productive work outside of gaming, such as working with spreadsheets.

The BlackWidow Tournament Edition features a detachable USB connection, which allows you to pack the keyboard without having to worry about excess strain being placed on the cable connection. To further protect the keyboard while it's in your suitcase or backpack, the BlackWidow Tournament Edition comes with a protective sleeve, complete with a separate storage pocket for the detachable USB cable.

The height is adjustable, with foldout feet adjusting the height and?unlike the 2013 Elite?the BlackWidow Tournament Edition doesn't have pulsating backlight set as default. The green-glowing backlit keys feature Razer's stylized block letter font, which looks cool, but might be problematic for non-touch-typists, since the lettering can sometimes be too obscure to read.

The construction is quite solid, with a sturdy ABS plastic enclosure and mechanical keys that provide a solid typing feel. The keys are coated with a matte black, anti-fingerprint finish, but the chassis itself will still show fingerprints and smudges.

The bundled Razer Synapse 2.0 software is easy to use, and lets you select from a list of preset macros or record your own. Thanks to a macro record button on the keyboard, you can also record macros on the fly. Razer also covers the keyboard with a one-year warranty.

Use and Performance
After two weeks of using the BlackWidow Tournament Edition, the keyboard proved itself to be competent in both gaming and office use, with crisp keystrokes and responsive tactile feel. In gaming, the anti-ghosting worked perfectly, and the programmable macros worked like a charm. Whether you're mowing down enemies in an FPS or leveling in an RPG, the BlackWidow Tournament Edition is on par with other top mechanical keyboards, like the Corsair Vengeance K90 and the Rosewill Mechanical Keyboard RK-9000I, but like the Rosewill, the BlackWidow Tournament Edition may be too stripped down for a lot of gamers.

Outside of gaming, the lack of a numeric keypad was a source of constant irritation. With every spreadsheet I worked in and every specialty character I needed the numeric keypad to enter, I was reminded that the keyboard was missing a standard feature. While the compact dimensions and slightly lighter weight of the keyboard may be marginally easier to transport, it's hard to see that this minimal improvement is worth the diminished functionality.

All things considered, the Razer BlackWidow Tournament Edition is a well-made mechanical keyboard, and if portability is a big concern, the compact travel-friendly design will be a boon. For anyone else, however, the limitations of this keyboard will be frustrating. For a better all around gaming keyboard, the Editors' Choice Corsair Vengeance K90 still leads the category, though there are other decent alternatives, like the similarly basic Rosewill RK-9000I or the extremely similar Razer BlackWidow Ultimate 2013 Elite.

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Razer BlackWidow Tournament Edition with several other keyboards side by side.

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