 Today we have a product that it seems like everyone and their dog is excited about. This is a mechanical keyboard for Racer. This is the Black Widow Ultimate. And it is a self-described mechanical gaming keyboard for gamers by gamers. It has a mechanical key architecture for superior tactility and faster response. Okay, this has fully programmable keys with on-the-fly macro recording, five additional gaming keys with individually backlit keys. So you can see the whole keyboard is actually backlit. And let's move around to the side, see what it has to say for itself. 35 megs of free hard disk space, PC with USB ports. Okay, so these are pretty tame system requirements. We'll move along to... Oh, I want to show you guys this. So this is Racer's classification of this particular keyboard. This is in their Elite series. So it's one step up from Expert, two steps up from Essential. So it is definitely not essential to have a keyboard like this, but it is certainly Elite. Alright, so individually backlit keys. Ten customizable software profiles with on-the-fly switching, easy access media keys, which we'll show you in a minute, earphone out and microphone in jacks built into the keyboard, fully programmable keys, five plus additional gaming keys, mechanical key... Okay, so these are gaming optimized key matrix for minimized ghosting. Okay, you know what, if someone can leave a comment on the video and tell me exactly what they mean like that, by that, that would be fantastic. Okay, English, so 1000 Hz ultra-polling, so 1 millisecond response time, 50 grams of actuation force required for the keys. So if you're into mechanical keyboards, you probably have some context for that. More repeats of stuff we've seen already. And here we go, tactile tap feedback when actuated, optimized actuation force of 50 grams, rapid key snapback after keystroke execution, and a lifespan of up to 50 million keystrokes. So there is the benefits of a mechanical keyboard in a nutshell. So let's break the seal on this guy and have a look at what all of the fuss is about. All right. Razer is pretty much the packaging experts. I mean, look at this, they've even got green on the inside of the box. And I always enjoy opening up their boxes because they always throw something new at me. So the first thing we see here, this is quite obvious, is we should take this out. Okay? All right, okay, I guess that gives us access to something. Let's take the keyboard out. Well, it's not their best work. I've seen better. I think their finest was the Mamba. The Mamba had just a phenomenal package. But the presentation is still quite slick. You know, you've got your overall completely black interior on the packaging, which always makes everything look higher performance. Because everyone knows if you paint it black, it goes faster and all that good stuff. Okay, so go ahead and put that away. All right, here we go. So here's the package for gamers by gamers, razerzone.com. Here we go, Black Widow Ultimate, welcome to the cult of Razer. Here is a certificate of authenticity. Next, you have a quick start guide, which probably involves instructions like plug the USB cable into the computer. Okay, here's a master guide. Probably a number of languages in here. Yes, there are. Okay, we have a couple of Razer stickers, and I believe these are UV reactive, last time I checked, which is pretty cool, as well as a Razer product catalog. If you like this one, then you can check out some of their other stuff. All right, so that's it for included accessories. It does not come with one of these, fortunately. What a brat. Okay, now let's check out the keyboard itself, which I have been quite anxious to have a look at. So first, let's see the included cables. I'm going to pull this plastic sleeve off, if I can. I can do that. Do not cut tape like that at home. Quite hazardous. Okay, here we go. So the included cables are two USBs, so that's probably going to be one for the built-in hub. Ah, yes, there we go. So there's port, and then that one's labeled Razer. And then we have a microphone jack, as well as a headphone jack. So that's for the pass-throughs that are coming up through the keyboard, which I will have to find at some point. Okay, and it's not a hub, it's just a single port, but we'll get to that later. So here are your programmable keys, five of them over here. All right, here are all of your backlit keys. So you can clearly see the part that is backlit, because it's a slightly different color from anything that's drawn directly on the key. So, for example, this character is not backlit, whereas this one is. Up here, same thing. F7 is backlit, but this media key thing is not. Here's all of your media controls built into the F keys up here. Now, this is an interesting choice. You know what? Here, conveniently, I have a SteelSeries 7G, which we can use as a side-to-side comparison with the Black Widow, since that was kind of the reigning mechanical gaming keyboard. Okay, so the Razer keyboard adds a few things over the 7G. So you've got the backlit keys, which is huge. I personally think that's enormous. You've got the programmable gaming keys, which I also think is a huge advantage. And then let's have a look at what is different between these two. So, first of all, I like the layout of the Razer keyboard better because of one simple thing, and that's this. Full-size backspace key. They haven't done anything goofy with the layout of the keyboard. You've got a full-size shift, you've got a full-size shift, you've got a full-size backspace key, and a wide enter. So that I like right off the bat. Here's one that I think is kind of a funny decision, though, because you look, both SteelSeries and Razer have included one function key instead of a Windows key. So SteelSeries puts theirs here, and the function key is for accessing the media controls and whatnot, whereas Razer has decided to leave the Windows key here, right next to all of your gaming keys, strange decision, and put their function key here. So that's the one thing that I would probably question about the layout, although when I'm typing, and really, mechanical keyboards are made for typing. I mean, most keyboards are made for typing, but they really are. So when you're typing, I'd take that longer backspace over the misplacement of the Windows key any day. Now, you can hear that the keystrokes are quite different between the 7G and the Black Widow, so I want the camera to get really close and just listen. So you can really hear a distinct click to the key on the Black Widow Ultimate, and then I want you guys to listen to the 7G. So you don't really have that click. So just because there's one mechanical key switch and another mechanical key switch doesn't mean they're identical. It's worthwhile doing a little bit of research, and as I always tell anyone buying a keyboard, you should always find some way to test drive it before you actually purchase it. I like the finish of the Black Widow, although I don't know how fingerprint-proof it's going to be, but that's just pretty much something that if you're used to running razor peripherals, you're probably already used to. You've got a couple of little legs back here for tilting the keyboard up, should you so desire, and then if you don't have those up, you've also got one, two, three, four, five rubber pads on the bottom to keep it from slipping. On this side, you find nothing of note. Same goes for the back, and then on the other side, that's where you find the USB port, so that is a single pass-through port, so I'm going to go ahead and assume, hopefully I'm not wrong, that it is USB 2.0, which is... Personally, I'd take that over a USB 1.1 hub, which we find in most keyboards any day, and then we've also got our pass-through for the microphone as well as the headphone jack. So thank you for checking out my unboxing of the Black Widow Ultimate. Don't forget to subscribe to Linus Tech Tips for more unboxings, reviews, and other videos about computer and gaming stuff.