Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro Wired Mechanical Gaming Keyboard: Yellow Switches Linear & Silent - Doubleshot ABS Keycaps - Command Dial - Chroma RGB - Magnetic Wrist Rest - Snap Tap

The only reason I bought this was because my original Black Widow Chroma V2 got drenched in tea. So I go on the hunt and find out they no longer make that keyboard. I purchased two other Razer keyboards and even though they were great, nothing to me beats the Black Widow keyboards. The comfort of the wrist rest is great and it doesn't matter if I'm working, cruising the net or gaming, it's a comfortable go.I do love the color picking ability and I keep it on one color for everything and it looks awesome! You will have to be careful of the buttons on the left side of the keyboard but other than that the smoothness of typing is great. I am a very particular person when it comes to what my keyboard feels and sounds like. Yes, this is a "clicker" keyboard and I absolutely love that. The speed of typing is awesome, the response time keeps you moving, so no complaint there.The biggest complaint I have is the software. I never had a problem with it keeping my settings, starting back up after a reboot, opening up in general. I have all the buttons clicked for it to start up at boot, log in and everything, but 9 times out of 10 I have to open it back up, log in to Synapse and then it starts doing what I want. Also, I truly miss the Chroma extras of the headphone jack and usb port on the right side. This does have a usb port on the back, but you tend to forget about it because of the location.So, everything is great about this keyboard, some things take a little getting used to, like the roller wheel volume control, but like all new things it will grow on you. Is it worth the money, that all depends on your own personal preference. I broke down and spent the money because I knew I would be happy with keyboard and will last for years, as long as I don't spill tea on it.

loving this keyboard. it has a usb port on it too! The keys are tactile yet more silent than the typical clack of a mechanical, and the chroma effects are pretty cool. Some games plug into the lighting effects and highlight keys used, and all sorts of things like that. Very neat keyboard to add to my pile of RGB gadgets!Hand rest is a masterful upgrade to previous hand rests, feels better, little fatter too.Price is a bit steep, but you'll use this more than anything else besides your mouse, splurge!

TLDR: slipshod programming, excellent marketeers.[NOTE: apologies for the typos - I had no time to proof my notes. But it takes ages to even list all the issues/flaws, much less document them--I'm far from the only person who has tried... and threw up their hands in defeat.]//skip to Part 2 for better grammar :)PART 1 ----- THE HARDWARE -----Literally every major feature listed (on the amazon page for naga pro and blackwidow v4 pro) has a major issues1. Media keys1. Sunken down too far to be visible, aka too short to see and use easily2. Hard to see. Symbols are faint. No through-key illumination, only peripheral backlight. Very difficult to see even in good light and without glare of the backlight.2. Indicators above the arrow keys1. No backlight, cannot see the text, not that you use these often.3. Command dial - modes + comments1. Keyboard brightness® Redundant. Dedicated fn keys already exist on this very KB2. Windows zoom.® Programmed with wrong output (e.g. deprecated in newer windows os)3. Track jogging.® Limited utility. Works only when player is in focus, which defeats the main purpose® Doesn't work will all apps® Windows media: dial ONLY WORKS WHEN FOCUS IS ALREADY ON TRACK SLIDER. Absolutley useless.® Under the hood, it's just "shift + left arrow" and "shift + right arrow"4. Vertical scrolling.® Good use case: gaming. For button mashing quick-events; perform scroll wheel up/dn if you've already mapped your physical scroll wheel's up/dn to something else® Useless? For me anyway5. Horizontal scrolling.® Actually works. Nice to have when synapse crashes, disabling horizontal scrolling on razer's naga pro mouse. (though I haven't tested this extensively).® UPDATE. Nvm. Does not work w/o synapse.6. Switch apps® Alt + Tab… but much worse.you already have alt-tab. But this is worse. Once you stop turning, it selects that app, but gives you little time to glance through them, so you have to key turning the dial. But if you overshoot and reverse dial turn direction…◊ It Scrolls in wrong direction // If you reverse scroll direction too quickly, it won't recognize the change in direction, aka the wheel doessn't work well7. Track selector® Basic next track, prev track8. Switch browser tabs® Why would you need this?9. Custom modes - user created® Can be useful, but YMMV® Gaming: map to scroll wheel4. Dedicated macro keys1. M1, M2, M3, M4, M5 - useful2. Side keys - too easy to bump by accidentOverall hardware quality - fine for <$100, but not remotely worth >$200PART 2 ----- THE SOFTWARE -----No review of Razer peripherals is complete without mentioning their software, Synapse.Razer Synapse - so, so many issues1. Required for most features to work, integral to the product listed.2. Frequently crashes (especially during games). Result:i. Your profile stops working: macros and keys return to default (or to some random ghost profile that you can't delete)ii. Your macros stop workingiii. Your lighting stops working3. Profiles1. corrupted2. Hybrid storage doesn’t work (white profile on Naga Pro): unable to retain settings when synapse disconnected3. Profiles and macros don’t work when signed IN to Synapse, but work OK on a guest account.4. Unable to sync profiles5. unable to factory reset / erase profiles (!)4. Macros don’t work in a dozen ways1. issues with combined modifiers (like win + ctrl)2. keys stuck in down-press or un-press3. keys do not respond4. corrupted in so many ways...1. random keystrokes removed from macros2. unwanted duplicates3. failure to run4. failure to duplicate correctly5. corrupted on import6. up/down keystroke pairs no longer “linked”7. no name “No macro”8. unable to edit9. unable to wipe from account5. Not synced6. Disappeared from account7. Nonfunctional1. When signed into Synapse2. When signed into specific user account3. At all8. NOTE: yes, I am sure many (if not all) the issues stem from Razer/Synapse, not the user. eg i checked the macro files themselves and discovered, for example, some were missing ID tags, had the wrong ID, sequenced my inputs differently from what was displayed in Synapse, were missing key-up lines (making your keys/buttons stuck "pressed down"), etc.9. Keys are incorrectly mappedExample: the inputs {up, down, left, right} are mapped to arrow keys® But with turbo, they are are mapped to numpad 2,4,6,8…® But Synapse doesn't automatically deactivate num lock.® So when you think you're rapidly commanding {up, down, left, right}, Synapse is actually putting out {8, 2, 4, 6} on the numpad.® Even when using "keyboard recording" i.e. they don't actually record faithfuly your key presses, they estimate.® This bug is hidden. Zero indication is visible to the user. I had to parse the macro files directly to finally figure out what on earth was going on.5. resource intensive1. Consumes 1 GB of RAM2. Consumes 100 MB to 200 MB of GPU VRAM(!) while machine is idle just after rebooting.3. Generated >10 GB per user in AppData. (Razer, what on earth are you doing that requires multiple gigabytes?!)6. Seriously, it's easdier to list what they did right than what they did wrong.This is literally the worst piece of software that I (or most people buying Razer products) will EVER use.PART 3 ----- SUPPORT IS TERRIBLE -----1. Razer Support actively dissuades users from contacting support:i. they require A LOT of personal info to even start talking to you.ii. they require VERY invasive logs to even start helping you1) even if their intent is completely benign, would you really trust Razer Security™ with your personal info? If you think Synapse code is bad, do you think their internal code is any better?2. they can’t help you anyway (so what was the point of collecting all your personal info?)i. their main advice:1) uninstall/reinstall everything.2) don’t get fancy:a) don’t make complicated (useful) macros,b) don’t use USB hubs, including their own accompanying peripheral,c) don’t ‘run too many things at once’3. Support forums are littered with tons of “yes-men” who just repeat official lines from Razeri. … even if the advice is irrelevantii. … even if the advice does not work (see a comment above), eg their driver removal tool doesn’t work on recent firmware patches4. And yes I’ve tried EVERYTHING while troubleshooting over the years:1. clean Windows installs2. new machines.3. laptops/desktops.4. different OS.5. different synapse ver.6. different combinations of razer products7. different Razer accounts8. Multiple of same product9. safe mode10. lesson: RAZER PRODUCTS WORK BETTER THE LESS YOU USE THEM.1. don’t use synapse2. don’t use macros3. don’t use chroma / lighting4. don’t reassign keys5. don’t mix/match razer products6. Don't use on multiple profiles on the same computer7. Don't use on multiple computers8. etc. ad nauseum9. … which defeats the point!I could go on for hours… this is just the tip of the iceberg… and these are just the issues i’ve experienced this year alone.Razer has written terrible software and fielded terrible support for years and years. Do you expect them to improve any time soon?From the start and for years on, I was a big fan of Razer products because they offered features not found anywhere else on the market. But their value soured. Their broken software is a deal-breaker. If they invested half as much on software as they did on marketing, they would not need marketing.But I can no longer recommend their products any longer. Even if Razer started discounting their products AND Razer’s competitors all went on vacation (no longer true in 2024, if ever), I could not recommend buying Razer products: they just DON’T work. They are tremendously tiresome, hassle-some, fragile, inconsistent, perpetually broken, and time-consuming. They have wasted thousands of dollars of my time. At minimum.I bought Razer products because they not only accelerated my work, but also enabled me to do things I could not otherwise. So I tolerated their terrible software for a long time... until now. This is the last straw.One can’t help but wonder whether their software issues are intentional. It would make more sense than this calamitous never-ending train-wreck.(Seriously, it's as if they slapped together every feature solely to satisfy a checkbox but performed zero user-testing and or zero quality control, especially in their software. )TERRIBLE PRODUCT.Just buy a Wooting keyboard instead. Or even a Wooting knockoff.