The Razer Huntsman Elite, released last year, stood out from other gaming mechanical keyboards not only with its price tag (even now it costs UAH 6,000), but also with interesting opto-mechanical switches. Today we have a new model in the Huntsman line – a shortened keyboard focused on e-sports, with a more affordable price tag and new switches.
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Equipment
In the Razer-branded box, you can find the keyboard itself, a USB Type-C cable (the keyboard is wired, but the cable can be detached), and a user manual.
Design and construction
Externally, the Razer Huntsman Tournament Edition resembles the same Elite, only in a more compact and easy-to-carry TKL (tenkeyless) case – without an additional digital unit. In this version, it is much more convenient to take the keyboard with you, for example, to cybersport competitions (it is no coincidence that the tournament edition is included in the model name). From this point of view, the presence of a detachable cable can also be explained – although the keyboard does not work in wireless mode, it is more convenient to keep the cable separately in a backpack.
The case is relatively thick, with a metal top, which is why it is visually perceived as a “bar of metal” with buttons hanging above it in the air. The case has a minimum slope, if it is not enough – you can extend the legs, and they are double here, which gives the user a choice of two additional angles of inclination. The USB cable connects to the left side of the keyboard, near the Esc key. The cable is thick, slightly bending, in a fabric braid, it is inserted into the connector securely, it will not work to loosen or accidentally pull it out. Like any mechanical keyboard, the Razer Huntsman Tournament Edition is quite tall and lacks a wrist rest.
The key layout is classic, with a long left Shift and a single-row Enter. There are no additional multimedia keys (with the exception of the second functionality of the standard F1-F12) here – after all, the Razer Huntsman TE is a purely gaming keyboard.
The keys have Chroma RGB backlighting, its behavior is configured in the proprietary Razer Synapse utility. We immediately note one nuance: in Ukraine, the original version of the keyboard is sold with an English layout, without Cyrillic – again, this is not critical for a gaming model, but if the user is going to not only play on it, but also type text, and at the same time does not have the skill touch typing, he must take this into account. On the other hand, this solution allows preserving the original properties of double-layer PBT keycaps, namely their durability and wear resistance, so the owner can be sure that even after long intensive gaming battles, the keys will not be polished to a mirror finish and retain their tactile properties.
Switches
The Razer Huntsman Tournament Edition uses an updated version of the optical switches that we first saw in the Huntsman Elite last year – they do not use a physical contact closure to register a contact, but block a light beam at the moment the key is lowered. The Huntsman TE uses red linear switches – unlike the purple “click” switches of the previous model, they have a soft and smooth stroke without punching, which makes them actuate even faster (travel depth is only 1 mm versus 1.5 mm for purple), plus they are pressed even easier (the pressing force has decreased from 45 g to 40 g). As before, the durability is declared at the level of 100 million clicks. Note that these characteristics are not only higher than those of optical click switches, but also than linear mechanical ones (the standard characteristics of which are a travel depth of 1.2 mm, actuation force of 45 g, and a durability of 50 million clicks).
In work
Like any other keyboard with linear switches, including mechanical ones, the Razer Huntsman Tournament Edition is primarily a gaming model; typing on it is not very convenient, a soft and easy stroke without a click during fast typing lubricates the feeling of feedback, and a very short stroke before actuation causes unnecessary pressing, especially at first – fingers lying on the keys now and then cause extra characters to appear in the text . However, it is difficult to expect increased comfort in the “typewriter” mode from a keyboard designed for e-sports – after all, these are completely different tasks, and their requirements for a keyboard differ very much.
In games, the keyboard is fully revealed – at first it even feels “too” fast, it reacts so instantly to your not even pressing, but just light touches on the keys. This will also take some getting used to, especially for owners of membrane keyboards – for example, in Gears 5, where the reload speed of a weapon depends on how quickly you press the R button a second time, at first I could not achieve a perfect reload, because, according to an old habit, I automatically made a correction on the inertia of my old keyboard.
As for an opto-mechanical keyboard, it emits a moderate noise – a little quieter if you adapt and do not press the keys all the way, and noticeably louder if you habitually “hit” the keys and choose the entire course of their springs to the very base.
In the rollover test, we were able to hold down more than 30 keys, after which we gave up – this is clearly several times more than a keyboard in real use may require. Like the Huntsman Elite, the Tournament Edition also has built-in memory that stores up to 5 user profiles, which can be created and edited using the already mentioned Razer Synapse utility.
