Razer’s finally done it. They’ve created a gaming keyboard so sensitive, non-elite gamers should use it at their own risks.
What Is It?
The Razer Hunstman Tournament Edition is a tenkeyless deck (a familiar form factor for those of your who enjoyed the recent Star Wars Black Widow Lite) with a brand new switch, proprietary keycaps, and a USB C braided fiber cable.
Like Mechanical Keys, But With Fricken Lasers
The Razer Huntsman Esports Edition uses a completely new switch, created just for this keyboard and it’s all about performance. The Razer Linear Optical Switch boasts a 1mm actuation time, needs just 40g force for actuation, and has a 0mm debounce and reset point. As soon as you press a key, it’s ready again.
In fact with an actuation force that low, “press” is a bit of a misnomer. In the weeks that I’ve been using an early production sample of the Huntsman, I’ve constantly had to go back and clean up stray letters that I’ve typed just by resting my fingers on the keys. It’s that sensitive. I unintentionally entered a series of seven “L”s just rereading this paragraph.
Indeed, if you’re a touch typist and are looking to get an edge, maybe stick with Razer’s Huntsman Elite with its slightly less sensitive opto-mechanical switches. To use the linear optical switch without error, you have to train yourself to have a feather-light touch on the keyboard.
All of this is music to the ears of pro esports players. The last thing they need is to have an action not register the instant they press a key. Much like the Viper mouse revealed last month, this keyboard is meant to deliver immediate results.
That’s not to say that you can’t bang away at the keys. Pounding through a tense game (or long article) and you still get a satisfying mechanical click. With much less fatigue overall.
And Now, 120 Words About Keycaps
Speaking of keys, you’ll notice the keycaps of the Huntsman Tournament Edition are a little different. Razer created their own tooling process to create specially textured keys that resist daily wear and tear. In the month I’ve been using my pre-release deck, I’ve yet to see any sign of the familiar shine that or loss of keycap texture that usually happens over time.
The doubleshot PBT keycaps sport a pleasingly thin font, the thinnest available for a PBT cap. Before you dismiss that detail – Razer actually delayed the final production run when they weren’t happy with the font thickness in the early units coming off the line. They’re that dedicated to the Huntsman TE looking as good as it performs.
Chroma, Cables, and Availability
The Huntsman TE, of course, supports Razer Chroma (still Windows only, sigh). But if you need to adjust brightness on the fly, a quick press of FN plus the F11 and F12 keys will get you where you want to be. The Huntsman can also store five onboard profiles, accessed with a FN + Ctrl + 1-5 combo. While you’re on the bottom row, you might notice that the system keys have been standardized, so if you want to switch out the keycaps with your own, it’s easier to do.
The braided cable is on the left side of the unit and stays out of the way. I only wish that a USB-C to USB-C cable was in the box instead of a C-to-A. I get that USB-A is still the most popular connector for a lot of PCs out there, but the superior USB-C connector has gained traction in recent years, especially on mobile gaming rigs. The good news is, if you have a C-to-C cable, you can just use that (though I really do like Razer’s braided fiber cables).
You can pick up the Huntsman Tournament Edition for $129 right now on the Razer site. If you value speed above all other metrics, there isn’t a single keyboard on the market that can match it.
