I had a Razer keyboard many years ago, which did not work well. It had a touch panel for the media keys Mobdro, which kept getting pushed out of the connector by the keyboard chassis, so it never worked properly.
How do people find them now? They look much better from the specs and pictures, so I was curious
I find them to be overpriced for the limited features that you're getting. In my opinion, they have the best mechanical switches hands down. And the keycaps are awesome. But most of Razers keyboards don't have USB type C connections, NONE of them have passthrough USB ports or 3.5mm headphone ports, or macro keys for customizing or changing key configurations. And Synapse still sucks a lot. Its slow, its buggy, and Razer doesn't allow you to save RGB color profiles to the device itself. So if your display turns off, or if your computer locks, or if you aren't running synapse actively, your RGB or lighting settings don't stay on. Its been complained about for years but Razer made a public statement essentially saying that they don't care.
CowboyBradley
I find them to be overpriced for the limited features that you're getting. In my opinion, they have the best mechanical switches hands down. And the keycaps are awesome. But most of Razers keyboards don't have USB type C connections, NONE of them have passthrough USB ports or 3.5mm headphone ports, or macro keys for customizing or changing key configurations. And Synapse still sucks a lot. Its slow, its buggy, and Razer doesn't allow you to save RGB color profiles to the device itself. So if your display turns off, or if your computer locks, or if you aren't running synapse actively, your RGB or lighting settings don't stay on. Its been complained about for years but Razer made a public statement essentially saying that they don't care.
The Blackwidow Elite actually has both the passthrough USB and a headphone out port! I have this keyboard but passed it on to my sone earlier this year when I fell down the custom keyboard rabbit hole. I had the one with the tactile switches and actually did like it very much. You can use Synapse to create macros and assign them to any key, and run them with the dedicated macro key. And you CAN save lighting and key assignments / macros and profiles to certain keyboards with on board storage - like the Elite series (Black Widow, Huntsman, etc). HOWEVER, I can't disagree with you on the bugginess of Synapse. It takes forever to load up and sometimes randomly decides I don't own my Viper Ultimate or my Kiyo camera as they just straight out refuse to show up on the console unless I restart it or restart the computer itself. It's really just such a buggy piece of software that is almost enough for me to stop using it completely.
But for the money? I'm not very familiar with the more modern keyboards (I had the Huntsman and the BW Elite) and while they are pricey boards, they're not bad quality ones. For the same money you can definitely build (or buy) much better-built and better sounding keyboards for sure. But for a gaming brand keeb you could do a lot worse.
ozarcilla
The Blackwidow Elite actually has both the passthrough USB and a headphone out port! I have this keyboard but passed it on to my sone earlier this year when I fell down the custom keyboard rabbit hole. I had the one with the tactile switches and actually did like it very much. You can use Synapse to create macros and assign them to any key, and run them with the dedicated macro key. And you CAN save lighting and key assignments / macros and profiles to certain keyboards with on board storage - like the Elite series (Black Widow, Huntsman, etc). HOWEVER, I can't disagree with you on the bugginess of Synapse. It takes forever to load up and sometimes randomly decides I don't own my Viper Ultimate or my Kiyo camera as they just straight out refuse to show up on the console unless I restart it or restart the computer itself. It's really just such a buggy piece of software that is almost enough for me to stop using it completely.
But for the money? I'm not very familiar with the more modern keyboards (I had the Huntsman and the BW Elite) and while they are pricey boards, they're not bad quality ones. For the same money you can definitely build (or buy) much better-built and better sounding keyboards for sure. But for a gaming brand keeb you could do a lot worse.
Is it only the "elite" line of keyboards then? Because I don't seem to possess the ability to do it with the huntsman mini that I have. I do like my HntsMini but I'm not married to it. I just want really STABLE high quality clicky switches. I'm totally willing to spend $150 to $200 building my own if you have some recommendations for brands or sites to look at?
I just checked Amazon since for some reason the Razer site doesn't list the feature on their keyboards. It looks like only the Blackwidow Elite and V3 series have the passthrough feature. The Huntsman doesn't look like it ever did, though, even on the Elite one.
If you want to stick to the 60% layout like your Huntsman mini has, I can recommend the Keychron Q4 (https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-q4-qmk-custom-mechanical-keyboard). You can also get the barebones kit in the US from Divinikey for under $150 (https://divinikey.com/collections/keychron-q4) and add your own switches and keycaps. There are other manufacturers like Glorious GMMK Pro, but I found that Keychron is the best bang for your buck and they come in at very good prices. I personally use a Q1 (75%) and a Q3 (TKL) on either of my computers. There is a huge variety of clicky switches out there, and if you're looking for stability look into "box" versions (i.e. Kailh box jade) or Drop's updated Holy Panda tactiles are supposed to be more stable now as well.
One more thing, if you're also looking for a keyboard with a built-in DAC/Amp (for good quality audio from your computer, if you like to listen to music) check out reviews of the Moondrop Dash. It's available for preorder now, but initial reviews say it feels and sounds really good out of the box (with minimal to no tinkering), and it has both a USB hub (2 USB-A ports for passthrough) and their highly-acclaimed Moondrop Moonriver 2 DAC so you can plug your earphones straight into the keyboard and get really good sound. Unfortunately, it's $300 even on preorder (it's $400 at regular price) so it's above your budget.
If you want to stick to the 60% layout like your Huntsman mini has, I can recommend the Keychron Q4 (https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-q4-qmk-custom-mechanical-keyboard). You can also get the barebones kit in the US from Divinikey for under $150 (https://divinikey.com/collections/keychron-q4) and add your own switches and keycaps. There are other manufacturers like Glorious GMMK Pro, but I found that Keychron is the best bang for your buck and they come in at very good prices. I personally use a Q1 (75%) and a Q3 (TKL) on either of my computers. There is a huge variety of clicky switches out there, and if you're looking for stability look into "box" versions (i.e. Kailh box jade) or Drop's updated Holy Panda tactiles are supposed to be more stable now as well.
One more thing, if you're also looking for a keyboard with a built-in DAC/Amp (for good quality audio from your computer, if you like to listen to music) check out reviews of the Moondrop Dash. It's available for preorder now, but initial reviews say it feels and sounds really good out of the box (with minimal to no tinkering), and it has both a USB hub (2 USB-A ports for passthrough) and their highly-acclaimed Moondrop Moonriver 2 DAC so you can plug your earphones straight into the keyboard and get really good sound. Unfortunately, it's $300 even on preorder (it's $400 at regular price) so it's above your budget.
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