Razer BlackWidow Ultimate review (Cherry MX Blue)

[chyros]

This week we finally look at a Razer! Hope you enjoy the video .

[Leslieann]

Wow, surprised to see one of these again, though they do come up for sale on Ebay now and then. Good review.

This was the generation that had the "hand picked" Cherry blues, which we all laughed at at the time and later came to realize Razer was actually onto something in that Cherry Blues were having consistency issues. We later ribbed Razer for abandoning Cherry (harshly I might add), but we probably owe them a debt of gratitude for helping kick start the alternative switches we now enjoy.

This model lasted only 3 years (2010-2013) with minor changes throughout before they revamped the entire keyboard and got rid of the Cherry switches. Quality inside seemed to vary as some people's plates still look new while I have seen some that were completely rusted. While this may be due to being model variances (ultimate vs non-ultimate), traditional Chinese manufacturing methods would hold that as demand went up corners were cut, so those who bought early ones in a batch got better parts while later ones often had shoddy parts as they struggled to keep up with demand (which could explain the switches in this one). Also the first ones produced were known for having keys that rubbed, on mine I had to sand the left alt and spacebar edges (?) to get them to clear each other.

If you want good Cherry Blues, these can be a goldmine, IF you get lucky and get one of the first made in that batch otherwise it's no better than buying a random board with Cherry Blues and possibly even worse. I got "lucky" in that I got good switches and a good plate, but still had to suffer using this atrocity. It wasn't the worst board I have used, and I did like the usb port feature (great for wireless mice!), but for the money at the time (I got mine relatively cheap as it was an open box), it should have been better. This was not a cheap keyboard at the time, one of the more expensive actually, so there is no excuse for the keycaps being sized improperly.

[klennkellon]

The non backlit version was my first mechanical keyboard. I miss it sometimes but then I remember the gloss and fonts on the caps. No thanks.

[Sakigjiwa]

This is so wonderful that I found it.

[corygrapher]

I'm typing with a battlefield ver. blackwidow now. I'm wondering what a filco blue feels like.