Razer BlackWidow V4 Professional evaluate: Greater than sufficient buttons, an excessive amount of software program

For those who’ve ever wished your keyboard had extra buttons, Razer’s BlackWidow V4 Professional could also be for you. It expands the full-size keyboard structure to incorporate a column of macro keys and three non-mechanical buttons on the keyboard’s left edge. The keyboard additionally has a quantity curler and a so-called Command Dial, which helps you to twist your inputs to regulate zoom, scroll by way of a protracted spreadsheet, or tweak the scale of a Photoshop brush.

Regardless of Razer’s gaming focus, the BlackWidow V4 Professional suits nicely in work settings because of its excessive, multi-layer programmability, a robust however imperfect typing expertise, and a USB-A passthrough port. It is simple to dim the RGB lighting and get to work with advanced key bindings; you’ll be able to launch steadily used apps and websites with a keypress and navigate applications with the dial.

However most of the BlackWidow V4 Professional’s greatest options require you to maintain Razer’s Synapse app open, and whereas this is not a brand new grievance, the introduction of the multi-function dial places a harsh highlight on this limitation.

Sufficient keys for ya?

The BlackWidow V4 Professional is marketed as a gaming keyboard, however I spent hours doing work with it. The keyboard’s handiest productiveness characteristic is the additional programmable keys. The 5-key macro financial institution does not examine to the 18-key one on the 2014 Corsair K95, however it nonetheless has all of the keys I would like from a productiveness keyboard—together with the beloved numpad—after which some.

The structure holds nice potential for energy customers. I typically put macros on the operate row, however the BlackWidow V4 Professional’s further keys meant I did not have to. I used the bonus key financial institution for every little thing from launching generally used applications to rapidly coming into lengthy textual content strings or controlling Photoshop layers. Onboard reminiscence (with 5 profiles) and the flexibility to hyperlink keybindings with sure apps gave me loads of choices for customizing the board to the precise sort of labor I used to be doing.

The three facet macro keys did not get as a lot use, although. They don’t seem to be seen from a typical seated place, so it’s a must to take your fingers off the keyboard’s important rows and really feel up and down to determine which of the buttons you are about to press.

I used to be additionally liable to urgent the facet buttons unintentionally. I have a tendency to regulate my keyboard as I work, and after I would elevate the keyboard on its left facet (my go-to facet since my proper hand is normally on my mouse), I would press one of many facet buttons. I may get round this by programming the facet keys to do nothing, however that is a waste of keys. I would choose having an “M6” key within the macro column, like Corsair’s K100 and K95 and Logitech’s G613 have, moderately than these non-mechanical facet items.

A full set of programmable media keys completes the structure, however their legends are onerous to learn due to their shiny designs and dark-gray-on-black styling. I additionally dislike devoted mute buttons, particularly when there is a quantity curler in play. A quantity wheel that may alter and mute sound (equivalent to by urgent it in) feels extra intuitive and saves area.