Every so often, we see Razer's BlackWidow Elite gaming keyboard go on sale, and now is one of those times. Over on Amazon, it is marked down to $99.99. That is a savings of $70 over its list price, and around $30 cheaper than what it typically goes for.
The BlackWidow Elite is essentially an upgraded version of the regular BlackWidow, which itself is a broadly excellent deck. What separates the two? On the Elite model, you get dedicated media keys and a multi-function dial, a magnetic wrist rest, and the choice between three key switches—Green, Orange, or Yellow (the regular BlackWidow only comes with green key switches).
Razer's Green switches are tactile and clicky, similar to Cherry MX Blues. The Orange switches are also tactile, but quieter, similar to Cherry MX Browns. And its Yellow switches are linear (smoother keystrokes) and quiet, similar to Cherry MX Speed switches. All three versions are on sale.
My daily driver for the past several years has been an older BlackWidow model, the BlackWidow Ultimate 2014 Edition with Green switches. It has held up well, despite me neglecting to clean it out more often than I should be (cat hair and other gunk routinely find their way into the crevices).
You can program secondary functions and macros to the keys on the BlackWidow Elite, a feature Razer calls Hypershift. It also features a USB 2.0 and audio passthrough, onboard memory and cloud storage to save your settings, 10-key rollover, and customizable RGB ("Chroma") lighting.
If this one doesn't tickle your fancy, check out our roundup of the best keyboards for gaming for some alternative options.
