Razer BlackWidow Mechanical Keyboard May Be "The One"

We have a distinct love for mechanical keyboards around here, and we're always on the lookout for any new competitors. They aren't nearly as easy to locate as membrane keyboards, but the ones that are available are generally top-notch and built for gamers. But Razer claims that the units already out there simply don't live up to their new pair of mechanical keyboards, and while we would obviously need to test out one to confirm or deny it, there's no question that these two sound fantastic on paper.

Debuting this week at the GamesCom event in Germany, the Razer BlackWidow and BlackWidow Ultimate are two of the most fully featured mechanical  keyboards that we've seen. Razer claims that most mech boards on the market today are stiff and hard to operate, and they have worked for 3 years in order to create one that's elegant and easy to depress. To quote the company: "The Razer BlackWidow features a uniquely tactile mechanical key architecture that provides each key on the keyboard with a crisp response and tactile feedback similar to a mouse click. Coupled with a unique key actuation point halfway through the full travel distance, the optimized mechanical key structure found in each of the Razer BlackWidow's keys provide for greater precision and accuracy versus other traditional mechanical keyboards."So, light on your fingers but precise like a mechanical keyboard should be? We're in. And if the standard version isn't enough for you, the Ultimate version adds individually backlit keys with 5 levels of lighting, 3.5" audio and microphone out jacks as well as an additional USB port, all of which is on top of the fully programmable keys with on-the-fly macro recording as well as five additional gaming keys (available on both models). Razer plans to ship these two next month for $79.99 and $129.99, respectively.