Razer’s new keyboards drop the price on powerful gaming features

Razer has insisted that optical keyboard switches are the best choice for competitive esports stars and the sweatiest of try-hards, but it’s now relenting slightly by offering cheaper keyboards with magnetic switches and a similar array of gaming features. The $120 Razer Huntsman V3 HE Magnetic Mini and $140 Huntsman V3 HE Magnetic Tenkeyless, both launching today, are the company’s first keyboards to use Hall effect switches. They’re wired-only boards loaded with gaming-first features, and I’ve had a brief chance to test both and take them for a spin.

The new Huntsman boards offer the hallmarks found in many other Hall effect mechanical keyboards, like programmable actuation points, faster key releases with Rapid Trigger, and an 8KHz polling rate. Their linear switches have an average latency of 0.6ms, which is of course very fast but ever-so-slightly slower than the 0.48ms of optical Huntsman boards like the V3 Pro. Razer can stand by its claim that optical analog boards are faster, but we’re really splitting hairs here.

The new magnetic models offer plenty of speed at significantly lower prices, as the optical Huntsman Pro boards start at $220, and they have Razer’s full arsenal of deeply customizable gaming features. This includes things like Snap Tap, which prioritizes your last movement input on the A or W keys and makes for easier counter-strafing (considered cheating by some and banned by Valve); Snap Flex, for setting up keys to trigger specific actions upon release; and Dual-Keypress Priority, preventing an accidental movement input from interrupting two previously held keys (like diagonal movement). Those last two features are also available on the mid-range optical Huntsman V3 Tenkeyless 8KHz, and coming to the higher-end Huntsman V3 Pros via firmware update.

Do these all sound like pretty niche features for specialized use cases? They are. While these cheaper keyboards are designed to appeal to a wider audience, these kinds of features are designed for the most competitive of online shooters — specifically, games with nuances to their movement techniques, like Counter-Strike 2. Razer is primarily competing with Wooting, Asus, and SteelSeries in this space, going feature-for-feature to cater to this hardcore subset of gamers. Wooting’s 80HE and 60HE v2 are some of the most praised gaming keyboards around, but Razer’s new HE boards undercut them by about $60.

I spent some time testing both the 65-percent and TKL versions of the new HE Huntsman pair, and since my Counter-Strike days are long behind me, these keyboards feel more than fast enough for any speedy inputs my aging fingers can muster. There is obviously not much reason to buy either of these boards unless you primarily care about their deep-in-the-weeds gaming features and making detailed customizations in Razer’s software (especially since entry-level mechanicals have gotten so good). The Razer Synapse app is as burdensome as ever, but you can also use a web version if you don’t need to make frequent changes or just don’t want to deal with it constantly running.

Razer’s doubleshot PBT keycaps have a nicely textured feel that’s more coarse than typical keycaps, but boy, do I dislike these shine-through legends. Some lettering and symbols are oddly proportioned and ugly, making an otherwise simple-looking floating keycap design look basic. The plastic base sitting beneath the aluminum top case makes these keyboards pretty light and portable, but the combination feels a bit cheap compared to full-metal keyboards. And there are no added conveniences like a volume knob, included wrist rest, or status screen like on the Huntsman Pro models.

But the magnetic Huntsman pair both sound much better to my ears than Razer’s pricier models. The new HE keyboards create a nice clacky tone, while the Huntsman V3 Pro is louder and clunkier sounding. (I’ve got a high tolerance for noisy keyboards, but the latter can get on my nerves after typing for a while.) Preferred typing sounds are pretty subjective, but as improved as Razer’s new HE boards are in the sound department, I’ve tested other 8K wired Hall effect keyboards that are much more pleasing to the ears.

For the same price of Huntsman V3 HE, you can get more unique looking and nicer sounding keyboards, but if your sole focus is competitive gaming, these new models are a good value compared to other popular (and pricier) boards. Enjoy your speedy keys and all the RGB lighting your heart desires. Just don’t get banned.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge