Tiny but loaded with features.
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Razer is no stranger to the high-end mechanical keyboard market, so of course it offers a few tenkeyless models. These are distinguished from its larger keyboards with the label “Tournament Edition;” the idea being that these smaller keyboards are easier to lug around to LAN parties and tournaments, and they take up less desk real-estate so you’re not bumping into the guy playing next to you while also allowing more room for mousing.
The BlackWidow X Tournament Edition Chroma (See it on Amazon) takes Razer’s compact tenkeyless design (that’s the Tournament Edition part), has a flat deck with keys on top (that’s the “BlackWidow X” part), and incorporates fully programmable RGB lighting (that’s the Chroma part). All in all it's a smaller version of the company's BlackWidow X with RGB lighting.
Design and Features
If you’ve used any of Razer’s other keyboards, you’ll know what to expect from the general design of the BlackWidow X TE Chroma. It’s got a flat metal keyboard deck with angled front and rear edges, with a little cutout for the Razer logo. It’s a sort of rough, angular, industrial-chic design.
The switches are embedded into a flat, metal, exposed deck, with the key caps rising above. Such is the case with all of Razer’s “X” model keyboards, while their other keyboards have the keys recessed into a keyboard tray with the deck surrounding them. I tend to prefer the exposed flat deck style, as it’s easier to clean out dust and debris and the lighting is easier to see.
The key switches are Razer’s own proprietary “Green” switches, which are the “tactile and clicky” version. They feel and sound almost identical to Cherry MX Blue, with nearly the same actuation force, travel distance, actuation point, and reset distance. Razer’s switches are rated for 80 million actuations, compared to 50 million for Cherry MX, but you’d have to press a key 10,000 times a day, every single day, for over 13 years to get to even 50 million actuations. So it’s not like this durability advantage makes a practical difference.
Razer’s switches are manufactured by Kailh, causing some gamers to assume that they’re just re-branded Kailh switches (which are generally cheaper and inferior to Cherry MX). Not so—while Kailh is Razer’s primary keyboard switch manufacturer, they’re built to Razer’s design and specs.
The braided USB cable is permanently attached to the keyboard, which is an odd choice in a compact “tournament” style keyboard. In fact, none of Razer’s keyboards feature detachable USB cables. But it does have cable routing, allowing you to route the cable straight out the back or along the bottom to exit either the left or right side.
As with most compact mechanical “tournament-style” keyboards, there’s no USB passthrough, no audio passthrough, and no dedicated buttons for the various modes and features. You have to hold down the Fn button (located on the right between the Alt and Menu keys) and press a function button. F1-F3 control volume and mute, F5-F7 are media controls, F9 is for on-the-fly macro recording, F10 toggles game mode on or off (to disable the Windows button, and optionally Alt-Tab and Alt-F4), and F11-F12 turn the lights up or down. As with all these compact tenkeyless keyboards, I’d gladly sacrifice a little bit of vertical footprint for a row of dedicated buttons and, most importantly, analog volume control.
With most Razer keyboards, you have a choice of two or three different types of switches, but the BlackWidow X TE Chroma only comes with Razer Green. I prefer “quiet” tactile switches, like Cherry MX Brown or Razer Orange. More than once my wife came into my office and asked, “Is there any way you can make your keyboard quieter?” If you love the feel and sound of Cherry MX Blue keys, you’ll love these. If you prefer something quieter, or maybe with linear action instead of a tactile bump, you’ll have to buy a different Razer keyboard.
The RGB lights are situated just above each key switch, and they’re pretty bright. They bleed through the gaps in the keys and don’t really have a smooth “glow” like you see on those keyboards that sit in a recessed key tray.
Software
Though the keyboard lets you perform some control functions like recording macros and making the keys brighter or dimmer using Fn key commands, you’ll need Razer’s Synapse software to do most of your tweaking and tuning.
Razer gives you a good set of options. You can re-map any key to anything you want, including launching programs or mimicking mouse buttons. You can change Gaming mode to disable Alt-Tab and Alt-F4 in addition to the Windows key. You can set, tweak, edit, and save macros (and you’ll have access to any of the macros you’ve made for Razer mice). And of course, you can edit the Chroma RGB lighting.
Lighting adjustment is flexible, but not quite as intuitive as it could be. There are seven lighting modes—breathing, reactive, ripple, spectrum cycling, starlight, static, and wave—which can be applied to whichever keys you want, and “stacked” into layers.
The Razer Synapse software works well enough, but it’s really showing its age. The interface and design conventions are stuck in the “check out my cool black web page” aesthetic of 15 years ago, and the layout and information hierarchy just isn’t in keeping with modern design standards. Razer’s hard at work on Synapse 3, a completely redesigned version, which is due for release later this year.
Gaming
The key action on the BlackWidow X TE Chroma feels great; you’d be forgiven for thinking these are Cherry MX Blue switches. While I personally prefer the quieter MX Brown, which still have the tactile bump but a slightly lighter actuation force and no extra mechanical click, the MX Blue switches are enormously popular among enthusiasts. Speed and response are non-issues, thanks to a 1ms polling rate and speedy internal processing.
I played everything from PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Overwatch to Slime Rancher and Crypt of the Necrodancer, and the key action and response (if not the noise) were always delightfully on-point.
Razer only provides 10-key rollover technology, while the top-tier standard these days is N-key. That means after pressing down 10 keys (outside of modifiers like Ctrl or Alt), the Razer keyboard will stop registering new keys, while other keyboards can register as many simultaneous keypresses as you want. To be honest, you’re almost certainly never going to press more than 5 or 6 keys at once, and 10-key rollover is probably enough for anyone. But it is a point of distinction between this and other keyboards, and I was able to confirm with Aqua Key Test that the BlackWidow X TE Chroma stops registering new keypresses after enough keys are held down.
On-the-fly macro recording works pretty well, and is intuitive enough (considering that there are no dedicated keys for it). Just press the macro button (Fn+F9), type your macro, then press Fn+F9 again, and the key you want to assign for that macro. No dedicated macro keys means you have to “give up” something on your keyboard to be a macro button, but what are you using the right Ctrl button for anyway? If you want to tweak the macro, including changing it from “play once” mode to continuous playback or toggled playback, you’ll have to use the Razer Synapse software.
Purchasing Guide
The Razer BlackWidow X Tournament Edition Chroma has an MSRP of $129.99, but often hovers around $100-$110 on Amazon:
• See the Razer BlackWidow X Tournament Edition Chroma on Amazon
The Verdict
Razer wants $129.99 for its RGB-lit tenkeyless compact mechanical keyboard, which is a bit steep. But the Synapse software, aging though it may be, offers more flexibility than many competitors in this segment and the hefty weight and tough metal deck give it a durable feel. Razer should offer more than one choice of switch, as it does on its other keyboards, and I’d prefer a removable USB cable, but this is a quality entry in a competitive market.
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