After making its move into the gaming notebook market last week, Razer is now going back to its roots with the announcement of a new gaming peripheral: the BlackWidow Stealth mechanical keyboard. A follow-up to the original BlackWidow released last year, the keyboard also comes in both Standard and Ultimate versions, but has been refitted with a keyset that offers quieter feedback and lighter actuation force (45g versus 50g+ on the original).
This means the BlackWidow Stealth a bit lighter on the fingers and enables faster typing, while still offering tactile feedback to provide indication of key actuation. If you've done your research on mechanical keyboards, you'll also know that Cherry MX Brown switches have a nearer reset point than Blue switches, therefore you only have to lift the key a tiny bit after it has been actuated before repressing it.
In terms of features the BlackWidow Stealth Ultimate edition includes individually-backlit keys, via a 5-level lighting system, an anti-ghosting function that allows up to 6 simultaneous key presses, an Audio-Out/Mic-In jack, and USB-pass-through. The Standard edition forgoes these extra perks but still offers ten macro keys, multimedia controls, on-the-fly macro recording, customizable software profiles, a 1ms response time and a braided cable.
Both versions of Razer's new keyboard are available now for $80 or $130 depending on the model you go for.