Seeing this reminds us of the world’s first keyboard with a linear optical axis – the BENQ Zowie CELERITAS II, using a switch from Flaretech™, a switch we covered in our previous Huntsman review, which allows the full range of 0° to 90°, depending on how deep you press the switch. It’s the same as the trigger button on a gamepad.

And this new ‘analog optical’ technology from Razer features a light intensity design with adjustable trigger depth: 1.5mm to 3.6mm any way you like.

This switch also allows you to employ WASD to simulate the joystick on the handle, truly ‘press as deep as you can and go as far as you can’

The ‘DUAL-STEP ACTUATION’ allows you to instantly multi-task each button, e.g. tap and press to the bottom for different actions, allowing for more consistent moves in FPS or MOBA games and eliminating the need for complex operations with multiple buttons, which can be very effective in improving a player’s EAPM (Effective Actions Per Minute).

The Synapse software allows you to customise the trigger feel to best suit your needs. Different profiles can be activated to enable different trigger depths to be used in different games.

So, let’s dig into the detail!

Package Appearance

Package Front

Package Back

Package Side

Upon opening the package, we find the manuals, stickers and keyboard main body

Product Analysis

Keyboard Main body looking. Topcase is made of aluminium

The Razer magnetic plush leatherette wrist rest – RGB included

6 non-slip foot pads under the hand rest

The new hand rest is more flexible and made of smoother material than the Razer Blackwidow Elite hand rest

The dual USB connectors are coloured green

The type-c header comes with a Type C-A adapter

Take off a keycap, we can find the actual Razer Analog optical switch

This keyboard has three different height adjustment levels:

Level 1 – Normal height

Level 2 – Higher height

Level 3 – Highest height

There is a USB Type-A port on the left side of the keyboard, making it easy for players to access their devices and use a USB stick or joystick is still relatively convenient. Unfortunately, this generation is not equipped with a cable management slot, the cable outlet is fixed on the upper left side because there are two cables so there is no way to manage the cable freely, both cables are made of braided material, resistant to pulling and soft enough, the length is around two meters, which is perfectly sufficient for players to use for cabling.

Keyboard status indicators

The media control keys and the volume knob

This time Razer has used double-shot PBT keycaps to prevent oiling, adding a thicker surface and a frosted feel to the keys to give them more texture and reduce wear and tear, but also increases the thickness of the keycaps, which slightly affects light transmission

The satellite keycap uses the contact clip type inside the top case

Backlight effects

Software Usability

We can find the Huntsman v2 analog keyboard under Razer Synapse 3

The main keyboard controller interface
We can switch the mode between ‘Standard’ and ‘Hypershift’
‘Gaming mode’ can be turned on and off to enable the no-disturb mode

The ‘Quick remapping’ function is to simulate the controller joystick by using ‘WASD’ keys

We can change the Chroma effect for this keyboard and setup the per-key RGB

The customised profile can be saved as a different name and transferred to the keyboard

Macro setting

Usage Experience

The switch feels strange on this keyboard, the pressure count doesn’t give us the impression that it’s only 40g. although we can change the trigger distance in the software, the first part of the trigger stroke is still heavy, very much in the style of a Cherry white shaft, but after the trigger and all the way to the bottom of the press, the feel is even heavier. The good thing is that this very flexible linear switch allows for very good control of the downward pressure, which is good for controlling the paddle press in SIM type games. In <Forza: Horizon 4>, the throttle control was very smooth and could be controlled more precisely by lowering the trigger and increasing the length of the linear control; in <Lock On: Flaming Cliffs 2>, the mapping of the Throttle Lever and rudder paddle was done well and tested to be very useful. It doesn’t have the feel and force feedback of a physical controller, but it still controls the force perfectly. It has to be said that this keyboard is instead amazing in drop-based music games. In <DJMAX: Respect V>, where you couldn’t Full combo some ‘Maximum’ or ‘Super Core’ difficulty songs with the Razer yellow switch before, after switching to this keyboard, BOOM! ALL FULL COMBO! The accuracy has also improved.

4Key mode: THE ONE(SC)

6Key mode: ANIMA(Maximum)

6Key mode: BLACK MIND(Maximum)

6Key mode: AXION(SC)

6Key mode: AXION(Maximum)

Of course, the feel is a matter of opinion, because there is no such thing as “perfect compatibility” in the world. When it comes to the typing aspect, this keyboard is one of the two extremes. Some people who write very long texts daily prefer an extremely short trigger stroke and enjoy the feeling of their fingers “floating” across the keyboard, while some programmers who code 24 hours a day prefer a more flexible keyboard with a slightly longer stroke. The Razer Huntsman V2 Analog is closer to the latter, and the adjustable trigger length accommodates those who prefer shorter triggers, so it satisfies a lot of people’s pain points!

SUMMARY

In 2018, we did a review of Razer’s first Huntsman keyboard with an Optical switch, where we said ‘The Razer Opto-Mechanical™ switch did not meet our expectations’, and also did a comparison of several Optical switches, including of course the big name ‘Flaretech’. But today, we can say that Razer’s Analog switch has done a better job than the Flaretech switch, with a pleasing design of two-stage triggering and analogue joystick functionality that is refreshing to gamers, and many difficult gameplay techniques can be easily achieved with this keyboard. Overall, this sincere keyboard not only brings a lot of novelty to the user but also a hefty price tag? AU$380 is officially priced at a significant premium to even Corsair’s flagship keyboard, the K95 Platinum, but instead of dwelling on the price, the new features bring an experience that no other brand can bring anytime soon. At a time when money is hard to come by for a graphics card, how about a peripheral upgrade?

EPIC PC RATE SCORE : 95.5/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED, DESIGN AWARD, EPIC EXTREME POWER

RAZER HUNTSMAN OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

According to Razer’s official website, the ‘Huntsman’ and ‘Huntsman Elite’ gaming keyboards are part of a series of keyboards featuring their new ‘Opto-Mechanical™’ Switches. These switches aim to bring instant actuation to gamers to provide speeds they have never experienced before.

Package Appearance

Package Front

Package Back

Package Side

The arrow tester keys

Razer Opto-Mechanical™ switch Logo – ‘Light and Clicky’

Upon opening the package, we find the manuals, stickers and keyboard main body

‘WELCOME TO THE CULT OF RAZER’

Inspecting all the things inside the package

Razer classic sticker

Product Analysis

Keyboard Main body looking. Topcase is made by aluminum

USB connector is coloured green

Take off a keycap, we can find the actual Razer Opto-Mechanical™ switch

Rear view of this switch

Pressing down on the switch

This keyboard has three different height adjustment levels:

Level 1 – Normal height

Level 2 – Higher height

Level 3 – Highest height

Keyboard status indicators

Razer logo located at the top right corner
This area is used for media control keys and the volume knob on ‘Elite’ version keyboard

Switch height with the keycap

The satellite keycap uses the contact clip type inside the top case

The look of all the switches without keycaps

Backlight level at a side angle

Backlight level at the front

The back panel of this keyboard – made with ABS plastic

Disassembling Analysis

Taking out the screws at the back, we noticed that there are 2 screws hidden under the rubber pads

There is only 1 USB cable connected to the motherboard
It uses a similar ABS back panel as the Corsair MK2 SE

Interestingly we found an Easter egg, written inside is ‘PROJECT JAMIE T2’ which contains a staff list

The producing date of this back panel

The Top panel

Razer Opto-Mechanical™ switch both side and press-down view

The Top panel circus side

The keyboard main controller uses the STM32L151, which is an ARM Cortex-M3 32bit LOW-TDP MCU

The Razer Chroma RGB controller chipset

Razer Huntsman Keyboard main board version number

The keys are pre-printed

Razer Huntsman indicator LEDs

These empty sockets are for Razer Huntsman Elite buttons, this means they share the same mainboard

We changed the customised keycap – chromed red

The backlight for EPIC PC

Per-key RGB profile setup

Software Usability
As we mentioned several times, Razer Synapse forces the user to register for an account before being able to adjust the keyboard. After we log-in to our Razer account, we could find the Huntsman keyboard is listed

The backlight brightness level also can be changed here

We can change the Chroma effect for this keyboard and setup the per-key RGB

The game-react RGB profile setup can be found under ‘Advanced Mode’

The customised profile can be saved as a different name and transferred to keyboard

Macro setting

TKL test – Passed. We test these keys using software and music game ‘DJMAX Trilogy’

APM test – Not as fast as using a Cherry Black switch G80-1800. Using the Cherry keyboard, our record is 562CPM, when moving to this Razer huntsman, the CPM dropped to 352. This may have been caused by an overly clicky feeling

SUMMARY
The Razer Opto-Mechanical™ switch did not meet our expectation. As a new experienced Light Strike Optical Switch(LSOS), it only transmits the 0/1 signal as the Light Block Optical Switch(LBOS) and all normal mechanical switches.

Compared with the Hi-end Analog Optical Switch(AOS) from Flaretech™ , the Razer switch cannot achieve the ‘staged press’ feature.

Despite this, as an optical switch, the response time has been greatly reduced from an average of 100ms to 50ms. We tested this using different keyboards and used ‘KeyResponse PK’ from ‘Bloody Keyboard’. The Razer Opto-Mechanical™ switch results are good and beat other mechanical-switches including the famous CHERRY™ MX SPEED. Unfortunately, the feel of Razer huntsman is below average because the switch has a clicky feel similar to the CHERRY™ MX BLUE and much harder press feel than CHERRY™ MX RED, which makes users spend more time getting familiar with the keyboard.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE : 69/100

RAZER HUNTSMAN OFFICIAL WEBSITE: https://www2.razer.com/au-en/gaming-keyboards-keypads/razer-huntsman