Gaming peripheral maker Razer is not know for its understated designs. Its keyboards in particular are generally bulky and flashy; some might say a little gaudy. The Blackwidow Lite is none of those things.
Not that there’s anything wrong with big and flashy—some of my favourite Razer gear is pink, after all. But sometimes a typist just wants something simple to type on. Something that doesn’t look like a rave threw up on their desk. The Blackwidow Lite is that sort of keyboard.
It’s a basic tenkeyless board (that’s without the number pad) with a slight profile that’s quite popular in mechanical keyboard circles these days. The bezel around the keys is slight. There is LED lighting but it’s just white, more about visibility than showing off. It’s even got a detachable USB cable, for when you want to…detach your USB cable.
Since this is a keyboard built for typing, Razer has outfitted the Blackwidow Lite with its orange mechanical switches, which feature a tactile bump rather than a click. They aren’t silent, but they’re not as loud as the company’s clicky green or linear yellow switches.
And if the orange switches are too loud, the keyboard also comes with a bag of o-rings, rubber doughnuts that go between the keycaps and the stem of the switches to help dampen the sound. I do not use them, as my family has resigned themselves to their loud, keyboardy fate.
For a Razer keyboard, the Blackwidow Lite is an odd duck. It’s small, sleek and efficient. Instead of a garish design crafted to catch the eye at retail, it sports an understated style more akin to enthusiast keyboards. And there’s not a squiggly Razer logo anywhere on it, just the company name above the arrow keys.
It’s odd that the company even call this a Blackwidow. It’s a line that’s always shouted “Gaming Keyboard!”
The Lite works well enough for gaming purposes, but it feels more like a workhorse than a playhorse (which is totally a thing).
The Razer Blackwidow Lite is now available at Razer’s online shop for $US89.99 internationally, and $149.95 for Australians. Hopefully they will release it in pink soon, so I can fully commit.
Comments
11 responses to “Razer Releases The Least Razer Keyboard Ever”
Looks like a knock off of the Glorious PC Gaming Race’s GMMK keyboard, but with fewer features. For a little more ($110 USD), the GMMK has customisable full RGB backlighting and swappable switches. The GMMK also has no branding on it whatsoever, so it’s completely clean and minimalist (barring your garish lighting choices).
Also, looks like a non-standard bottom row, which might make cap swapping harder.
Knock off? There’s only so many ways you can do a minimalist plank with keys on it. Pretty much every tenkeyless board looks the same.
It was slight hyperbole, but the fact keyboards have common traits is why the small details stand out more. Floating keys on a flat plate, simple rounded rectangle (no tabs/projections), what looks like a metal top plate on plastic base, chrome on black? hard to tell but the first picture looks like it could be (or could be an option at least). Has more in common with the GMMK than with any Corsair, Code, Ducky, Das, Filco, Leopold, etc.
For the general price range (I’d put $90 and $110 in the same bracket) I think GMMK gets you a better board design with better switches (personal opinion but Gaterons are superior to Razer switches in almost every respect), swappable switches, better lighting options, standard cap sizes, zero branding.
Looks like the local price diff will be $40-50 though? At that difference it comes down to how much you want the features.
A bit moot for me anyway as I have a gigantic desk and frequently use the numpad.. so I don’t even see the benefit of tkl for my use.
I don’t use tenkeyless either. GMMK comes in a full board variety too if you’re interested. Just make sure full size and prebuilt is selected here (https://www.pcgamingrace.com/products/gmmk-full-brown-switch) or choose custom and pick your own switch set.
Happy with the board I’ve got but thanks
Haha, no worries. I’m always on the lookout for good minimalist mech boards. What are you currently using?
A 4 or 5 year old ducky shine 5 with cherry brown. Pretty happy with it. It’ll outlast everything else in my rig.
@beatsbynelly Good choice. I had a Ducky Shine before this one and it was fantastic.
I really like it, but it’s a shame a work-focused keypad has no numpad.