Razer's Blackwidow Tournament Edition is great for gamers on the move

17.10.2012
The packs many of the high-end keyboard features gamers love, most notably a full and support for programmable macro keys, into a smaller, cheaper package.

At just over 2 pounds you won't want to carry this keyboard around with you just for fun, but when you do need to move it the comparatively low weight (along with the detachable USB cord and complimentary storage sleeve) make the process a lot easier. The BlackWidow Tournament Edition, as the name suggests, is ideal for gamers who frequent tournaments or LAN parties and would like a keyboard that's a little simpler to detach and move around than some of the higher-end gaming keyboards Razer offers.

That doesn't mean that Razer has sacrificed quality for portability, however. The Tournament Edition sports the same Cherry MX Blue mechanical keys as it's older brother, and it feels as sturdy and responsive as any keyboard I've used.

Razer even finds room for some nice extras, with the function keys acting as convenient multimedia buttons and swapping back out to their standard F1-F12 functionality when needed at the press of a button (specifically F10, which doubles as the "Gaming Mode" switch). The keyboard also has all of the standard anti-ghosting capabilities of other Razer models, so even if you're mashing ten keys at once you shouldn't have a problem.

While it's hard to find fault with the keyboard itself, Razer's software remains a mixed bag. On the one hand, it's incredibly powerful and allows you to script complex macros to make your gaming easier. It also gives you a great deal of control over how you organize your keybinds and lets you assign macros, alternate keyboard functionality and even settings for your other Razer devices to any key on your keyboard, then store those preferences on remote Razer servers and access them from anywhere by downloading and logging into your (free) Synapse account.

On the other hand, the latest version (Synapse 2.0) is frustrating both to set up and to use. The process of downloading Synapse, tying your peripherals to your Razer account and setting up your preferences is needlessly time-consuming even when you're familiar with the software; novice users can expect to spend some time learning the precise methods Razer prefers for you to record and bind your macros to your keyboard.