5
BlackWidow Elite
RAZER £170
Brilliant design with thoughtful extras
Another excellent
gaming keyboard
offering from Razer, the
BlackWidow Elite is a big, bold
deck running the manufacturer’s
clicky, tactile Green switches. It’s
a great board for typing, but it’s
no slouch for gaming either.
Naturally, being a Razer
product, it comes with the
requisite 16.8 million colour RGB
backlighting, and each key is
individually programmable. Even
the media controls are lit, and
include play/pause, fast forward,
and rewind buttons as well as an
excellent volume wheel that juts
just slightly over the edge of the
board, making it easy to adjust.
Even better are the subtle
additional touches Razer has
packed into it, like a 3.5mm audio
passthrough alongside the more
common USB passthrough, so
you can plug headphones directly
into the keyboard. There’s also a
channel underneath the board
that the braided cable fits snugly
into, so it’s guided out of the way,
which is convenient because it’s a
massive cord. Even the indicator
lights are bright.Razer’sexcellentGreenswitches
USBand3.5passthrough,cord
management,andotherhandyextras
Cordis massiveandcumbersomeVERDICTSPECS SWITCHES: RAZER GREEN, ORANGE, OR YELLOW / SIZE: FULL-SIZE / BACKLIGHTING: 16.8 MILLION COLOUR RGB
/ PASSTHROUGH: YES, USB AND AUDIO / MEDIA CONTROLS: DEDICATED / WRIST REST: BUILT-IN
6
G Pro X
LOGITECH £130
The best mechanical keyboard for analysis paralysis
The Logitech G Pro X
is a reimagining of
the original G Pro
tenkeyless design. Virtually
nothing has changed here,
with a small exception, that you
can now swap key switches.
Logitech has fully embraced
hot-swappable PCB designs,
allowing you to change the types
of switches you use on their
keyboard with relative ease.
Because of their general
uniformity, you can use just about
any aftermarket key switch you’d
like on the G Pro X.
However, due to small
differences in switch
manufacturing sizes, it’srecommended that you use
Logitech’s switches, which are
offered in linear, tactile, and clicky
varieties. This is the first time
we’ve seen this feature outside
of the DIY market, and it is
certainly a welcome and
interesting way to shake things up
with a tried and tested design.
Other features include a
removable microUSB cable and
programmable RGB lighting, plus
12 programmablemacrokeys.Simple,elegantdesign
Hot-swappableRomer-G switches,
possibletouseotherbrands
LightonfeaturesVERDICTSPECS SWITCHES: LOGITECH ROMER-G BROWN, RED OR BLUE / SIZE: TENKEYLESS / BACKLIGHTING: RGB
/ PASSTHROUGH: NO / MEDIA CONTROLS: FUNCTION KEY INTEGRATED / WRIST REST: NONEHARDWARE
Group Test
6(^45)