Razer Huntsman Elite Overview
As I mentioned earlier the Huntsman Elite is a full-size keyboard so you have a full compliment of keys as well as a full number pad. Like most Razer keyboards you have an all black design with black keycaps. One thing that I did notice about the keyboard is there really not a lot of “empty” or wasted space.
For those wondering this keyboard does have an aluminum top-plate, which is nice to see on a Razer keyboard. This gives the keyboard some good weight to it and makes it so you won’t have any flex when typing. The top-plate is anodized aluminium and just looks great. The rest of the keyboard is made of plastic though.
We do get dedicated multi-media controls on the keyboard as well, which are located at the top-right. These include back, play/pause, forward, and mute. Around the mute button there is a dial, which by default will control volume, but you can program it to do other things in the Razer Synapse software.
Right above the arrow keys you’ll find five notification LEDs, these are for Caps Lock, Num Lock, Scroll Lock, Macro Recording, and Game Mode. Game mode will of course disable the Windows key so you don’t accidentally press it when you are in the heat of battle.
The keyboard makes use of ABS keycaps, which is a little disappointing to see, but it is expected. We did see Corsair add PBT keycaps on their K95 RGB Platinum XT earlier this year. Under those keycaps you’ll find Razer’s Opto-Mechanical switches. Currently Razer offers these in Purple and Red. Purple is a more clicky switch (think Cherry MX Blue), while Red is a more linear switch. As you can see below we received the Purple clicky switches. These actuate at a 1.5 mm actuation distance (30% shorter than other clicky mechanical switches). At only just 45 g of actuation force. For those not familiar with optical switches they use an optical light sensor inside the switch. Upon pressing a key, you allow a receiver to be activated by this light signal, instantly actuating the switch command. These type of switches are considered faster and more accurate than mechanical switches. The switches do use standard Cherry MX stems so you can easily switch out the keycaps if you want.
The keyboard comes with a very nice wrist rest, which is made of faux-leather and has a razer logo in the center. It connects to the keyboard by way of six small connections on the Huntsman Elite keyboard. These connections bring power to the wrist rest in a convenient way so you’ll have RGB lighting (more on that in a bit).
One really unique thing about this keyboard is that you have three different adjustment levels. Typically you just have the option to sit the keyboard flat and then you have pop-out feet for a slight adjustment. The Huntsman Elite has 2 sets of pop-out feet giving you not two, but three different adjustments for the best feel.
Flipping the keyboard over there are six rubber feet on the keyboard as well as six more on the wrist rest so you know the keyboard is going to stay in place. There is a large braided cable that comes out of the top of the keyboard (non-detachable), which separates into two USB connections. You would think one would be for the keyboard and the other would be for say a pass-through USB port, but the second is actually to power the RGB lighting on the wrist rest.
