Razer Huntsman Keyboard Review

Razer is well known by now for the plethora of PC accessories they sell, most notably their keyboard and mice. The Razer Huntsman is one of the latest, featuring a 60% footprint compared to a normal keyboard, with outstanding switches that make using the keyboard leaps and bounds better than using those of the competition. Let’s dive in!

Packaging

While it might be weird to focus in on the packaging of a product, I’m noticing more and more that the way things are packaged when they arrive on my doorstep goes a long way in leaving a good impression of me regarding the product. Like all Razer products, the packaging was immaculate. Everything came in a nice box, neatly wrapped up. There was no way the contents of the box would shift in anyway. Cords were all there and nicely held together with rubber bands that you can resize to hold all the excess cord in order to make your workspace neat. It was nice to reuse the packaging to keep the workspace neat, another huge plus!

Keyboard Review

The 60% sized keyboard is awesome for a small compact workspace. While playing games, I like to rotate my keyboard to a more comfortable position, and this is often a burden with full size keyboards. With the huntsman, it’s small enough to move around and keep a large open space for a mouse. Having a detachable USB-C cord is really nice for moving it around, being able to unplug it, and use the re-sizable rubber band provided to neatly wrap up the cord and you are on your way. Very nice for people who move around a lot – as a student, this fits me perfectly.

The lighting on the keyboard is awesome, using the Razer app (Synapse) you can customize it to any colour you want. I was also able to pair my MSI app to the Razer app so I can set up lighting profiles in one app which is nice. Within the app, you can also map keys to do different things for different scenarios.

Besides the 60% footprint, the other major selling factor for the Razer Huntsman is that the Razor optical switches are very responsive. Rather than having a key go down and connecting to a metal connector to activate, the Razer Huntsman makes you break a plane of a light, meaning it makes repeated key clicks much easier than traditional switches. While this might not seem like the biggest deal, the second you start needing to hit buttons rapidly you’ll be happy for that feature.

Conclusion

The feel of the switches is great, and the small form factor makes it a lot more appealing to gamers, rather than having a full sized keyboard. The detachable USB is great for travelling, allowing me to store the keyboard and cable appropriately, as opposed to just wrapping it over and over again. The main downside for me is the volume of the switches. I can’t play games or even type with someone in the room because they are bound to complain about how loud they are. It’s likely not something that can be fixed either, as these switches, like all keyboard switches, are just loud. It’s worth noting here finally that the Razer Huntsman will command a higher price than the competition, but in our opinion, it is well wroth it.