Ergonomics
The chassis of the Huntsman V2 is made almost entirely of plastic. An aluminum plate has been affixed to the upper part of the keyboard, in order to reinforce the whole. The construction is therefore robust and quite sober for a model gaming, the keyboard being black from the feet to the keys. With dimensions of 44.5 x 14 cm, this model is quite imposing on a desk, even more so with its 9 cm wide leatherette palm rest.
An essential accessory to enhance the hands, since the Huntsman V2 is quite high (3.9 cm). It is also very comfortable and magnetic to remain attached to the keyboard. A flawless for this accessory which is here provided in the box.
The keys are rough and grip the fingers well. They are made of double injection PBT, a molding technique that gives them excellent longevity. The F1 to F8 keys have no basic shortcut, in order to leave the field free to the user to configure those of his choice in the Razer Synapse software. The “M” of the F9 key is used to assign macros on the fly – but it seems easier to us to go through the software – and the F10 allows you to activate the game mode to block the Windows key in particular.
The F keys are configurable.
Above the numeric keypad are the dedicated multimedia keys which are frankly very convenient, but whose click is not really damped and not very pleasant to the touch, which remains a detail that said. The slightly notched volume control wheel is also very practical on a daily basis; however, it will be criticized for not being very well anchored in its location, which somewhat taints the premium aspect of the keyboard.
The dedicated multimedia keys are very practical.
The backlighting of the keys is successful, as often with Razer. It is adjustable key by key and many light effects allow you to personalize it. Again, you will have to turn to Razer Synapse in the Chroma Studio tab to control the whole thing.
The USB-A connection cable is made of paracord, a guarantee of quality and durability, but it is not detachable. Too bad, especially since it is on the TKL version. Under the keyboard, there are of course non-slip pads, and the Razer motto “For gamers. By gamers” copied extensively throughout the chassis and adjustable feet to tilt the Huntsman V2 to 6° or 9°, depending on user preference.
Struck
Unlike its keyboards Blackwidow, Razer chose opto-mechanical switches for its Huntsman series. Activation is therefore not done physically as on a classic mechanical keyboard, but optically when the key passes in front of a light beam. This type of switch is therefore a little more responsive and suffers less from the vagaries of time: they are guaranteed for 100 million clicks, or about twice as much as the classic mechanical versions. Not welded to the chassis, this type of switch is usually hotswappables (interchangeable), but this is not the case with Razer, which does not sell its switches separately.
Razer’s purple opto-mechanical switches.
As mentioned above, our model has brand-specific clicky purple switches, so the keyboard makes a lot of noise. Some appreciate the tactile side of these models which offer physical and audible feedback when activating the key, but if you want to play or work in a quieter environment, we can only direct you to the linear reds – which will be still quite noisy as well. The purples have an activation stroke of 1.5mm and require a force of 45cN, while the reds are slightly more sensitive with a stroke of 1.2mm and a force of 40cN.
The polling rate (polling rate) of the keyboard is enormous: it reaches 8000 Hz, which should ensure the lowest latency, even if in practice 1000 Hz is already more than enough. The responsiveness of the keys is in any case excellent and the rebound very fast. We found the keystroke pleasant, but we regret that the resonance of the chassis is so audible. In addition to the clicking of the keys, it will indeed be necessary to deal with a pronounced and disturbing metallic echo with each keystroke. Razer is however supposed to have inserted a layer of foam in the chassis to reduce this noise…