There’s a new spider in town, and she’s not afraid to wear pink. Razer today announced a pair of new keyboards, the Razer BlackWidow V3 and BlackWidow V3 Tenkeyless. Available today for $139.99 and $99.99 respectively, the lineup includes a slick digital roller and the option to think pink
Available in black or “quartz pink,” the BlackWidow V3 is a wired version of the recently released Razer BlackWidow V3 Pro, one of the best wireless keyboards in the gaming market. This new keyboard, however, is wired and opts for what Razer describes as a multi-function digital roller rather than the circular volume knob on its wireless counterpart. In the zoomed n picture below, the roller’s spikes make it look like a weapon of torture, but if it’s anywhere near the quality of what’s on the BlackWidow V3 Pro, it should be pretty fun to use.
The roller is programmable via software, and along with the media key to the left can easily serve as volume control, skip through tracks or control RGB or in-game functions. In the zoomed in picture below, the gentle spikes make it look like a weapon of torture, but if it’s anywhere near the quality of what we’ve experienced on the BlackWidow V3 Pro, it should be fun to manipulate.
Although the wireless BlackWidow V3 Pro is much more expensive at $230, the cheaper BlackWidow V3 carries a lot of the same premium features, like an aluminum top plate, doubleshot ABS keycaps, leatherette and plush wrist rest and updated Razer mechanical switches.
The new BlackWidows, (including the BlackWidow V3 Pro), offer a choice of Razer’s Green tactile, clicky (and very loud) switches or its Razer Yellow switches, which are linear and have been updated with non-removal silicon dampeners for truer silence. Today’s announcement also claims these switches have been granted “extra sidewalls for better switch stability,” with Razer saying they’ll each last for up to 80 million keystrokes.They also now come with transparent housing to help make RGB pop.
Both the BlackWidow V3 and BlackWidow V3 Tenkeyless also have advanced gaming features, like n-key rollover, programmable keys with on-the-fly macro recording and up to 5 profiles of memory.
We’ll see if the new clackers have what it takes to compete with the best gaming keyboards in an arena with an increasing number of products, as well as proprietary switches, when they arrive in our lab.
