Razer Huntsman Elite Keyboard Review - #1 Selling Keyboard in US

Hello and welcome to Galahad Reviews. I'm Galahad, and today, we are going to be reviewing the Razer Huntsman Elite. I've been using this keyboard for the last year, and every time I am trying any other keyboards out, I'm always very giddy and excited to return back to this one. I want to share why that is with you today, and here, it also piqued my curiosity because I came across an article that said that currently, the Razer Huntsman Elite is the number one selling keyboard in the US, and I figured that was kind of interesting. If you are interested in that article, it is in the description here. Without further ado, let's dive in.

Here is one disclaimer before I get a little too far into this video. I just want to tell you that I currently have Razer's PBT keycaps on my Razer Huntsman Elite right now. They are the Mercury White Edition. I figured I would leave them on for this review as that will give you a unique kind of experience of what this would look like with different colored keys and the PBT keycaps, so if that was a mistake, I apologize, but I think you guys are going to enjoy the look of this with the white PBT keycaps.

Alright, the first thing that I always like to talk about are the aesthetics and build quality. We are going to start off by talking about the RGB lighting as when it comes to Razer, it is usually fantastic and over-the-top. This trend continues with the Razer Huntsman Elite with its edge lighting around the entire keyboard and wrist rest. Unfortunately, due to it needing the extra power to light those LEDs, it takes an additional USB and doesn't come with a USB passthrough. The accuracy of the RGB colors is the best I've seen on any keyboard, period.

Regarding the brightness of the keys, on most other keyboards, they usually give it to you in four different stages, the first being bright, the second being moderate, third being dim, and the fourth being off. Earlier, I was also talking about the four-stage brightness levels on the Corsair K70 MK.2, so we've got off, dim, moderate, and bright, while with the Razer Huntsman Elite, it's a bit different. With this keyboard, you can fine-tune it anywhere from 0 to 100% with adjustable control on the keyboard itself through the FN key or through Razer's Synapse software. Color accuracy continues to be great even at lower brightness, which most other keyboards struggle to do.

Watch a comparison from 2:33 to 3:12.

Alright, so here, this is Corsair's lightest setting, the dimmest setting. The colors just aren't as accurate, where if you come on over to the Razer Huntsman Elite, they're a lot less bright, but they're still just as accurate as they were at the brightest settings. Here's just another example of the Corsairs kind of going through at the lightest settings. It doesn't look bad, but then, when you actually come on over to Razer's at their lightest settings, it just looks so much nicer. Also, the Razer Huntsman Elite is so much lighter. It's not nearly as bright as the Corsair is even at the dimmest settings, but yet, the color is so much richer on the Razer Huntsman Elite than on the Corsair. The customizability is also numerous between the keys, volume wheel, multimedia keys, and multi-zoned edge lighting on the keyboard and wrist rest itself.

Moving on to the font on the Razer Huntsman Elite keys, it is professional, clean, and most certainly not gamer-like. The backlighting only shows the main keys and not the secondary ones, which is a common theme among Razer boards. I believe they do this to have uniform lighting across all keys, which it does excellently. However, due to the small size of the font, it limits how much light spills out, which limits the overall brightness.

Once you switch over to the PBT keycaps, it has a slightly bigger font, highlights secondary keys, and allows more light through, which increases overall brightness. If you're interested in looking at that, make sure you check out that video. The link will be in the description here. In comparison to other keyboards, the stock key caps on the Razer Huntsman Elite are less bright than the Corsair K70 MK.2. With PBT keycaps, they are at least as bright, if not brighter. The glow underneath for the keys is minimal as well, with the black aluminum matte top plate sucking most of it up, causing the keys to look like they are floating when in a dark room.

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Moving on to the actual keyboard layout, the Razer Huntsman Elite comes with a long, braided cable. I've never had a problem not having enough cable to plug this in, which is nice. There is almost no wasted space on this keyboard at all, and it is more compact than most. However, it is about a millimeter taller than others. It comes with 10-key rollover, which for this price, is disappointing. I expected NKRO, which would allow you to press all the keys and have them register instead of just ten of them. Contrary to how it looks, there is an aluminum matte top plate that honestly, unless I'm pressing on it in a cold room, I can't even tell that it's aluminum as it looks like high-quality plastic. Compared to Corsair's, there is no contest. Corsair's brush aluminum is better.

The Razer Huntsman Elite weighs in at 3.74 pounds. On the top right of the keyboard, you have your multimedia keys, which include Play, Pause, Forward, and Backward. However, they look cheap, wobble a bit, and are edge-lit instead of backlit, which is disappointing, but they do feel crisp when pressed. A lot of people also complain about the multifunction dial. I however, think it is great. It is covered in a texturized rubber with very distinct steps and requires light pressure to move, and it doesn't wobble. In the middle of the dial, is your mute/unmute key, which feels crisp to press and turns red to signal that it is muted, and then, it returns to normal when pressed again. Once again, it is edge-lit instead of backlit. Overall, for the price of this keyboard, and especially since they are charging you a premium for this specific feature, I expected a lot better.

On the bottom of the Razer Huntsman Elite, you have several large, rubber pads to help prevent it from moving. There are also two inclined steps that come in two stages that are vertical instead of horizontal. Alright, regarding the wrist rest, it is one of the best I've ever seen. It is made of faux leather with a slight bit of padding. There is a stitched Razer symbol in the middle of the wrist rest, which is the only Razer symbol on the entire board. Since it is the same color as the rest of the wrist rest, it blends in and makes them look professional. Around the edges is the RGB edge lighting, and on top, is a magnetic strip to attach to the keyboard and provide power for the lighting.

Alright, let's get nerdy about dem switches. Currently, Razer has two optical mechanical switches. The first is for their Razer Huntsman line, which includes the Razer Huntsman and the Razer Huntsman Elite, which uses Razer's Clicky Opto-Mechanical Switch. This gives you an audible click and tactile bump when activated, which are made to compete against Cherry MX Blues/Browns or similar. What separates it from the competition is that it is faster and lighter, which includes Razer's very own switches with the exception of the second Opto-Mechanical Switch, which is Razer's Linear Opto-Mechanical Switch, which is used exclusively on the Razer Huntsman Tournament Edition TKL Gaming Keyboard. This is their version of a fast linear switch and is their fastest switch overall. Linear means that there is no click or tactile bump and is smooth from top to bottom to compete against Cherry MX Red speeds and similar.

Moving on to the main attraction, which is the true reason why most will choose the Razer Huntsman Elite over others. The keys themselves are fantastic and fitted by preference perfectly. They are considered clicky keys, which means they have a tactile bump with an audible click. For some, they will love this, others they will hate it along with anyone else in the room. It uses a hybrid clicky optical mechanical switch, which means they use light to actuate, have less moving parts, and our contactless, which makes them last longer, they say greater than 100 million clicks. Most other keyboards offer 50 million, but that number has been increasing to 100 million recently. They have stabilized bars on every key, which means you get a balanced key press each and every time without key wobble no matter where you press.

But what about the feel? Tell me about how they feel. They are very light, requiring 45 grams of actuation force. At approximately 1.5mm, you will hear an audible click and then feel a mild, tactile bump. When I say mild bump, I really do mean mild, softer than Romer-G Tactile Blues and Browns. The travel time is 3.5mm of the click sounds like Razer Greens, which I think sound a lot better than cherry Blues. A lot of people say they are very loud. However, I disagree. I think they are par for the course, and I found that me typing on the Corsair MK.2 SE with Cherry MX speed switches were significantly louder. The spacebar on the Razer Huntsman Elite also has a nice bass sound to it with a satisfying click and isn't ridiculously loud like it is for the Corsair K70 MK.2.

Alright, I'm going to do a quick sound test of the Razer Huntsman Elite Keyboard with PBT keycaps, which I think sounds a little bit different than the normal stock keycaps, so you can get an understanding of how both of them sound, and I'm also going to compare it to the Corsair K70 MK.2 Speed Edition, which also has PBT keycaps on it.

For the next two points, we are going to be splitting hairs. I'm bringing this up because one of the major marketing points for the Razer Huntsman Elite is how faster its switches are compared to the competition, so I want to address it, but the difference in speed in real world scenarios is likely to not be noticeable. What you should focus on instead is the durability and reliability of the switch, with speed being an added benefit. I would say that these are the fifth fastest key out there regarding the movement of the switch itself, meaning the actuation force, which is how much pressure it takes to press the key, the actuation point where the computer registers the keystroke, and the reset point, which is where the key resets to allow another input.

The first spot goes to the Steelseries Omni-Point Switch. The second spot goes to Cherry MX Low Profile Speed/Silver. The third spot is a tie between the Razer Linear Opto-Mechanical Switch and the Cherry MX Speed/Silver, and the fifth spot goes to the Razer Clicky Opto-Mechanical Switch, which comes on the Razer Huntsman Elite. Rating for the overall fastest key, I would say this is the third fastest with the first spot going to Steelseries Omni-Point switch, and the second spot going to Razer's Linear Opto-Mechanical Switch. I would say this is the third fastest switch due to having instant actuation, which is at the speed of light having zero debounce delay. As with normal mechanical switches, there is always a debounce delay where the computer is filtering out signals you don't want to send to the computer while it resets. But this is usually rated at 5000ths of a second, so once again, real world difference negligible.

Alright, let's talk about the pros and cons not already mentioned. For Pros, using Razer Synapse 3 allows you to have account/cloud storage, which makes it easy to download custom profiles immediately on a new computer, or if you go over to your friend's house or something like that, you can immediately have all the lighting and settings that you want on your Razer Huntsman Elite. It also has an incredibly powerful FN key, which allows you to change almost all 104 keys at the press of a button and then immediately go back to original settings. It also shuts off all the lighting except for the sleep key, brightness keys, and macro keys. However, you cannot edit the colors of the rest of the keys, which is frustrating when you are in this separate mode. 

It also has excellent build quality with no creaking of the board with excellent overall feel. Gaming performance is great. It feels like it is directly attached to my brain. The keys are spaced well, so it is easy to reach whatever you need. I have found that I game best on the Razer Huntsman Elite due to the switches and overall layout of the board, as I can feel right when my character is supposed to move with the tactile bump, and it immediately registers on the screen. My fingers also don't get tired with the light actuation force and easily reachability.

Moving on to the cons, it comes with five profiles, but you can't store lighting on any of these profiles without having Synapse open, which makes it completely pointless for most people. Seriously, Razer, it's 2020 and you still haven't implemented this? I genuinely do not understand that. It is also difficult to find PBT keycaps to fit on all the keys, but Razer now has their own PBT keycaps. Razer Synapse software is also very frustrating and leaves a lot to be desired. It is a complicated mess that is buggy and likes to not work. It also doesn't automatically apply RGB lighting to new keyboards and peripherals, so you have to do that manually, which is a pain in the butt. Also, if you go to edit lighting later, it doesn't automatically apply the previous settings for the colors. You have to remember the hex code, which is just stupid. Don't get me wrong, Razer's Synapse 3 is a very powerful program, and there's a lot of things that it does well, but there's a lot of things that it also doesn't do well that is just frustrating.

Moving on to the conclusion, the Razer Huntsman Elite comes in at a premium price of about $200 (prices may change). Yes, you heard that right, $200 (prices may change), but you are getting a premium product, and I truly believe that. I think a better price for this keyboard would be $150 to $175, but you are paying for exclusivity of the switches and an experience which drives that price up. This keyboard comes with one of the most reliable and durable switches on the market as they have less movable parts, which means less breakable parts, are contactless and have no key chowder or debounce delay, which also makes them very fast. These switches will be the reason why you buy this keyboard over everything else. If you like clicky keys, you will be hard-pressed to find another keyboard that delivers an enjoyable typing experience as the feel and sound of this keyboard is fantastic.

Add that to the incredible RGB, excellent gaming performance, professional looking font/overall appearance, compact size, and incredible wrist rest, and you have yourself a real winner. However, you are paying an extra $50 for the wrist rest, multimedia keys, and edge lighting, which for most, won't be worth it as they will instead opt to get the Razer Huntsman instead. If you don't enjoy clicky keys or it will annoy the people around you, then it won't be in contention, and you would be better off checking out the Razer Huntsman TE or other linear boards such as the Corsair K70 MK.2, both of which reviews you can see on my channel already. I will leave links to those videos in the description here. I will also be reviewing the Razer Huntsman Mercury Edition, so be on the lookout for that if you are curious about the difference between the Razer Huntsman and the Razer Huntsman.

With that, we are at the end of the video. Hopefully, you enjoyed this review. If you did, leave a like. If you didn't like this video, leave a dislike, and of course, if you've been following my content for a while, please do subscribe. I will see you and your beautiful face on the next one. God bless and see you later.