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00:00Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here. So Razer has some new flagship keyboards, the Razer
00:08Huntsman and the Huntsman Elite. And these aren't designed to replace their super popular
00:13Black Widow keyboard, these are kind of like a secondary flagship device, but I think these
00:17are going to be the future of their keyboards. So what makes these things special is their
00:21switch. They're using these Razer Opto-Mechanical switches, which are optical switches. So the
00:27traditional mechanical switch uses metal contacts to actuate the switch, but these
00:32use an infrared light beam that's detected when you press the switch down. So when the
00:35switch is up, that red beam gets blocked, press it down, the red beam goes through and
00:40the sensor picks it up, and that's an actuation. So these guys aren't the first people to come
00:44up with an optical light switch. It's been done before by other companies, but Razer's
00:48one of the first big players in the gaming industry to do it. And I wouldn't be surprised
00:51if Logitech and Corsair or any of the other bigger companies, if they do it relatively
00:55soon as well. So what makes an Opto-Mechanical switch special? For one, these switches have
01:00fewer moving parts, so they just have a longer lifespan. These are actually rated for 100
01:05million keystrokes. Your standard mechanical switch, like something from Cherry, is rated
01:08for like 20 to maybe 50 million keystrokes. These are 100 million. Significantly longer
01:13lasting, significantly more durable. Now whether or not you're actually going to break your
01:16keyboard because you pressed it 100 million times is a different story, but just by the
01:21nature of how the switch works, these are more longer lasting. Secondly, Opto-Mechanical
01:26switches don't have something called debounce. So on a regular mechanical switch, manufacturers
01:31have to implement an input delay. So this is a purposeful delay of around 5 milliseconds,
01:36and they do this to prevent something called chatter. Opto-Mechanical switches don't have
01:39chatter, so they don't have to implement this delay, so that input is just received by the
01:44computer a little bit faster. I feel like Razer built this entire keyboard around speed.
01:48So in addition to that optical sensor that's reading a little bit faster, they have a lower
01:52actuation force and a shorter travel on each keystroke. And they've ended up with this
01:57gaming keyboard that feels really fast. I'm not sure if it's the actuation force, or the
02:01shortened travel, or if it's the optical sensor. I think all of them are working together,
02:05but it actually feels significantly and noticeably faster than a regular mechanical switch. It
02:10feels crisp and sharp. It's just a faster and snappier experience. If I'm being honest
02:15though, I notice it most when I'm typing. When I'm gaming, my inputs feel a little bit
02:18cleaner, but when I'm typing, my fingers feel like they're doing stuff faster and with
02:22less effort than normal. Alright, in terms of how these feel, these are clicky switches,
02:27so they have that very distinct tactile bump as you press it down. It's not as pronounced
02:31as like a Cherry Blue or the Razer Greens. Like, it's not as sharp of a bump as those,
02:37but it is distinctly a tactile bump as you press it down. In terms of how they sound,
02:42it's a very audible click, but not as loud as a Cherry Blue or a Razer Green.
02:50The switches themselves have purple stems, and the shape looks a little different from
02:54your standard mechanical switch, but it uses a regular keycap. And there's actually stabilizers
02:59on each key, so that metal clip that runs around the edge, normally you only see that
03:03on bigger keys like the spacebar or the shift key, but these have stabilizers on each key.
03:07Okay, so other features that you get on the regular Huntsman. You have onboard memory,
03:11so you can actually configure your device and store that configuration on the device
03:15itself, as well as the cloud. You get programmable macro keys, you get individual lighting, which
03:19you can customize pretty heavily. You get 10-key rollover, and it's an aluminum top
03:24panel. It's pretty good. But on the premium version, the Huntsman Elite, you get all of
03:28that stuff, but you also get media keys up here, as well as a jog dial. So the jog dial
03:32controls volume by default, but you can customize it to scroll or zoom or switch apps. Like,
03:37it's got a lot of functionality. There's also pogo pins up front on this device, and
03:42these allow you to connect the magnetic wrist rest. It's not a super comfortable wrist rest
03:47to me, but I'm not a wrist rest user. If you're into them, then you might like this. But it
03:51also gives you, on the Huntsman Elite, underglow lighting. So the whole device lights up underneath
03:56and on the sides, and you can control that as well quite extensively through software.
04:00Now, because these are connected through pogo pins, Razer could develop other modules, like,
04:04I don't know, like a trackpad or a wireless charging thing for your phone. Whatever they
04:08want, they could develop different modules in the future instead of this wrist rest.
04:12So I've been using this keyboard for a little bit over a week, and I like a lot about it.
04:16It feels fast, and there is a noticeable difference in speed compared to my regular mechanical,
04:20but there's a few things I don't like about it. Number one, I wish that it was USB pass-through.
04:24I also don't like that it only comes in a full keyboard version. I wish there was a
04:2810-keyless version. I also wish it came in a different color. But my biggest complaint
04:33is that if you're interested in this keyboard, if you're interested in this optomechanical switch
04:37technology, you have to use this type of tactile switch. There isn't a linear version of this.
04:42There isn't a variant in terms of the tactility. It's this one and only switch. And if you don't
04:47like the way that it feels, then you won't be able to adopt this whole optomechanical technology
04:52for now. But overall, great keyboard that I think most people will like.
04:56Now, the million-dollar question, though, is whether or not this keyboard or whether
04:59or not this technology is actually going to make you a better gamer. And my take on it is this.
05:03For 99.999% of the time, it won't. I mean, if you're a good gamer, you're a good gamer.
05:09A keyboard won't affect your gameplay. But there is that time. Like, you've probably experienced
05:15this. When you're in a game and you want to use an ability or an alt or whatever it is,
05:19you press a button, it should have gone off, and it didn't, whether it's lag or whatever it is.
05:24But on a keyboard that's recording your inputs a little bit faster,
05:28there is the chance that it goes off, you don't die, you don't wipe, you save your team,
05:32you're a hero. And in that 0.001 chance that that happens, this will make you a better gamer.
05:38But I think for most people, it's just a really fast, nice keyboard.
05:42Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video. Now, I just realized when I made this video,
05:46because of this product, the Razer product line is now an excellent dodgeball team.
05:52Allow me the pleasure of introducing you to Blade. Laser. Blazer.