The Razer BlackWidow V3 Pro is the first wireless gaming keyboard. Is anyone surprised by this?

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The Razer BlackWidow V3 Pro is the first wireless gaming keyboard. Is anyone surprised by this?

Three new models of Razer's top-of-the-line peripherals were released today. That's right, Razer is offering an arsenal that will cut cables completely out of your gaming desktop setup. Well, most cables can be cut. Except when you need to charge. What about batteries?

The new BlackShark V2 Pro gaming headset, named the Razer wireless flagship, the DeathAdder V2 Pro gaming mouse, and the BlackWidow V3 Pro gaming keyboard, all with HyperSpeed wireless technology and launched today. And it must be said that the promise has been fully fulfilled.

But it is a bit surprising that the BlackWidow V3 Pro is the company's first wireless gaming keyboard. And that ugly wireless slab that Razer made for the Xbox One doesn't really count.

What I've been eagerly awaiting, though, is a wireless version of the powerful Razer BlackShark V2 headset. When I first checked out the wired version a few months ago, the only possible downside was the desire for a cable-free option.

Now Razer has done just that, and this Pro version is even better than the standard Blackshark V2.

It features the same TriForce Titanium drivers and retains the same wide frequency response of 12Hz-28,000Hz, but the design has been tweaked to add another discrete speaker chamber to the mix. similar split-chamber design to the HyperX Cloud Alpha, but the Pro version goes even further, improving tonal separation and allowing highs, mids, and lows to coexist without clouding each other.

Thanks to HyperSpeed 2.4GHz connectivity, which Razer is the first to include in a headset, you can hear fully lossless audio wirelessly. It's like magic. A full review of the headset will be posted soon, but I've only just started using the Blackshark V2 Pro.

Razer also touts a 24-hour battery life and a 12-meter range. So far I haven't had to recharge it, and moving from my desk to the kitchen to grab a drink hasn't wrecked my happy-worker tune. So, so far, so good.

But this is only part of the equation; Razer's DeathAdder has been improved in more ways than Intel's 14nm manufacturing process (a little joke about lithography), with some 20 different models released to date. However, the DeathAdder V2 Pro seems to be the pinnacle of the bunch.

It retains the same essential design, but offers fast wireless connectivity, second-generation optical switches under the main buttons, and about 70 hours of battery life, depending on how bright the Razer logo is. The switches are built to last, and so is the injection-molded chassis of the new mouse. It is also surprisingly light. I'm not saying it's gloriously light, but at 88 grams, it won't weigh down your desktop.

Then there is the classic BlackWidow V3 Pro keyboard, which, somewhat surprisingly, is Razer's first wireless gaming keyboard. Frankly, I was shocked, but understandable given that keyboards are the least likely to benefit from a cable-less system.

The new Razer board offers up to 200 hours of battery life before you need to connect a UBS Type-C cable to charge it. However, again, this depends on your RGB preferences; the BlackWidow V3 Pro features double-shot ABS keycaps that won't erase letters and new mechanical switches.

That said, how positive this experience is for you depends entirely on how much you like BlackWidow; BlackWidow is a classic, but the plastic shroud has a retro feel while the metal backplates are more common. I switched from the Logitech G513, which I really love, but despite the lack of clutter, the V3 Pro feels like a bit of a step backwards.

So why not offer the more advanced Huntsman board? It's funky optical switches feel like the flagship Razer keyboard experience at the moment. But that's exactly why the Huntsman is not suited for wireless, at least not yet, according to Razer's keyboard guru Marquis Tan.

Considering that each of the 104 optical switches constantly emits a tiny beam of light and can be activated as quickly as lightning, the batteries certainly drain quickly. Combined with the RGB lighting, this would be something like 4 hours.

Optical switches are fine for a mouse with only two main switches, but too many for a full-size keyboard.

Another concern might be the number of wireless dongles you need to keep track of if you choose all three of the new wireless Razer Trinity's. At the moment, you need two mini USB dongles for the mouse and keyboard and an even larger USB dongle for the BlackShark V2 Pro headset. Eventually, this will be reduced to only two, as an update will allow the keyboard and mouse to be controlled by a single dongle.

But not the headset. Remember when I said that lossless audio would be transferred wirelessly? No need to share data. [The BlackShark V2 Pro is $180 (£180), the DeathAdder V2 Pro is $130 (£130), and the BlackWidow V3 Pro is $230 (£230).

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