Razer Keyboard Switches - How to Pick the RIGHT One

[Music] well good people things are about to get real i got my glasses on ever since we published the razer basilisk mice explained video talking about all the options that are available we have received so many requests to do the same thing for razer keyboards and so this was a really good opportunity for us to team up with razer and talk about all the razer available switches and keyboards and which one might be better for you believe it or not switch type and feel is still a mystery to a lot of people and while some color definitions have helped unify some options like your red linears and blue clickies there's so much more beyond the color for you to understand what switch is right for you a big surprise to me is that most people still think that a mechanical keyboard must be loud and must be clicky and so we are here to help your fingertips get into the zone the switch zone so in this video we'll cover the following razor switches membrane which is soft touch mecha membrane which is a hybrid between mechanical and membrane mechanical featuring linear tactile and clicky and finally optical switches actuating with a speed of light so that covers razer green yellow orange mega membrane switches purple optical red optical linear gen 1 and gen 2 and finally the new analog options which are super exciting the new pure loop all-in-one coolers from be quiet have a doubly decoupled pump near the radiator for silent operation and flexibility for mounting an elegant cooling block with pure white illumination an accessible fill port on the radiator with liquid for future proofing and pure wings two fans on the ride check it out below alright so the first thing i want to cover are the most common terms used when talking about keyboard switches so the actuation point is how far a key needs to travel downwards before a press is registered actuation force is the amount of pressure you need to use to get to that actuation point if you combine high actuation point and low actuation force you get what's called a fast switch travel distance is a total travel of the switch until you bottom out and durability is measured in millions of clicks now if you were to press one switch five times a second for a year you'd get to about a hundred million clicks just for reference happy clicking now tactile is a term used commonly when talking about keyboard switches because it describes the feedback point at the actuation so it can be a clicky point it could be a soft pump but tactile as a term is used to describe the feedback we have three main switch types clicky that's when an actual clicky point happens at the actuation point it's both audible and physical tactile is when we have a soft bump at the actuation point and linear is when there's no feedback at all it's just smooth all the way down so let's start at the beginning with membrane switches everyone started with them eventually right it uses a thin rubberized material and conductive traces below to register a press they're simpler to manufacture and then generally quieter with a soft and cushioned feel and that's part of the razer syndosa family moving on to the mecha membrane switches and this is a really cool hybrid where razer tried to bridge the gap between mechanical and membrane with their mecha membrane switches it has a rubberized dome for all that cushionists as you bottom out but also a really satisfying crispy clicky point for additional feedback this switch also comes with half high keycaps for a low profile keyboard so the razer or not a family are all mecha membrane keyboards which brings us to mechanical keyboards and this one is the gamer's favorite right because we have such a good variety to choose from and a bit more consistent registration because it used a spring-loaded mechanism and a metal contact to register the actuation with mechanical switches you have a good variety for vertical movement and obviously different switch types for the different feedback you prefer clicky linear or tactile so the razer blackwidow family are all mechanical keyboards with two variations linear and clicky and these mechanical keyboards generally cost more too which brings us to the most premium tier with optical switches and they can feel the same as regular mechanical switches but the actuation mechanism is different so instead of a metallic contact inside the switch there's a beam of light that gets intersected to produce a signal and technically this is supposed to speed up response times and also eliminate the debounce delay so whenever a mechanical switch makes the first contact at the actuation point there's a bouncing effect that sends multiple smaller signals before a signal is actually sent and that time between the actuation and the signal is the d-bound delay and with optical switches you eliminate that completely so the razer huntsman falls into this optical category with two variations clicky or linear and this falls into razer's premium switch in premium performance category which is slightly more expensive but still the huntsman t for example the tkl model is incredibly well priced and especially the 60 model with gen 2 switches which are incredible and that leads us to the analog direction with the tartarus pro which is the only keypad on the market right now to feature analog controls and it would be kind of cool to see a full analog size from uh razer sometime down the line wink if we were to categorize all these razer switches in three camps in the linear one we would have the razer yellow the red optical gen 1 and gen 2 plus the analog switches in the tactile camp we would have the razer orange and then in the clicky category we would have the razer green razer purple optical and the mecha membrane which is that hybrid mechanical switch so let's start with linear switches and to me personally actuation force and the actuation point for linear switch are the most important so raise your yellows the actuate at 45 grams and have a really low actuation point of 1.2 millimeters with the total travel distance of 3.5 razer yellow can be associated with mx speed and if you love fast actuation this is a really good option especially if you want to do like strafing side to side and don't want to be resetting the switch all the way which is why i don't particularly game with clicky switches for fps when i need that really fast precise movement then we get into the red optical linear switches from razer and they are one of my favorite linear switches so the gen ones actuate at 40 grams uh at a really fast actuation point of one millimeter and total travel distance of 3.5 while gen 2 switches have gone up to the actuation force to 45 grams based on feedback from the community with a total travel distance of 3.5 with my experience on the huntsman t with the gen 1 switches you really had to train your fingers to not accidentally depress the key because at 40 grams that is incredibly light and the actuation point of only one millimeter like you could blow in the switches and they would actuate not really but that was like the comparison i used with the gen 2 they fixed that whole weight so you had to actually apply a little bit of force uh unlike before really appreciate the upgrades here alongside we had silicon dampeners that were applied to each switch and also everything was lubed giving you much smoother and pleasant travel distance across the entire range and also no longer did we hear that really nasty pinging that we heard on the gen 1 switches when a huntsman tee to be honest this whole optical direction for switches is kind of the future because you have three main advantages here durability is one much higher durability than standard mechanical switches so like 100 million clicks minimum for each razer optical switch which is just insane this optical design also allows for lack of d-bounds delay which means registrations are instantaneous and it resets faster as well and also gives you confidence right like you don't have to worry about this switch crapping out on you over time because there are no mechanical parts touching each other to register the switch it's all based on light which leads us to razer analog optical switches on a tartarus pro and hopefully on other keyboard products in the future and this is a really unique switch for many reasons number one is that you don't have a set actuation point this is a really cool way to mimic joystick controls for driving games or where you want a little bit more precision so not just go and stop but have a bit of that like threshold of like speeding up and slowing down in the software you can actually set where uh the actuation happens along the entire distance of your travel this opens up so many opportunities for really cool customization for your play style so for example setting two actuation points depending on the distance and the travel distance of the switch so for example at 1.2 millimeters you take out a grenade but when you bottom out you can throw that grenade and if you decide not to throw it you just don't fully bottom out and that opens up a lot of possibilities to create certain macros and that does require finger readjustment and totally new finger memory because i feel like for keyboards we know zeros and ones right you either actuate or you don't and so you have to retrain your fingers to be able to detect those multiple actuation points it sounds really cool but it does require a lot of training as well i will admit that the whole dual step actuation is super interesting and unique i'm sure that many people will take advantage of it properly but for my play style i can't get my washed area retrained to utilize the dual step actuation i rather use a macro or just keep it simple moving on to the tactile category this one's pretty straightforward because razer only offers a single switch which is the razer orange switch and this one's supposed to be in the silent and tactile category it actuates at 45 grams the actuation point is at 1.9 millimeters and full travel distance of four millimeters now tactile switches are a really good hybrid if you don't want the full linear response and you don't particularly want the full crispy clicky point either so the tactile point with the orange switches is quite soft i prefer tactile switches for typing first then gaming just if you're a touch typist you can just depress that soft point without having to fully bottom out the sound profile with the orange switches is also slightly more dampened than what you hear with linears and the razer orange switch is found on the razer's prototype line of keyboards and finally for the clicky category this one's exciting because most people who choose that route are looking for certain things when it comes to the clicky point is it sharp is that light is it loud is it crispy as i mentioned before the razer green is one of my favorite clicky switches with 50 grams of actuation force of 1.9 millimeter actuation point and four millimeters of travel distance i like the switch because it's not too loud the clicky point is quite crispy and it's also not too heavy either so like the amount of force you need to pass the clicky point moving on to the razer purple optical switch this one's really exciting because it's a slightly lighter and faster clicky switch and appropriate for all types of gaming scenarios because of that fast and light actuation so 45 gram actuation force 1.5 millimeter actuation point and 3.5 millimeter travel distance this is one of the few clicky switches i can comfortably game on just because the actuation point is quite high and the switch is lighter too so you can do quick strafing without me needing to like reset on the clicky point which is sometimes is an issue with other clicky switches and finally we have that hybrid of the mecca membrane switch which is also clicky but it's super interesting because it has that mushy and relatively quiet bottoming out profile but also with an almost instant clicky registration because of a really high actuation point despite the clicky point being there just for the feel of it it's not actually when the switch actuates i'm quite impressed at how nice it feels and it almost mimics a true mechanical clicky switch while also surprisingly offering 80 million click durability just like on the other mechanical switches i hope you enjoyed that but when it comes to my favorite sound profile red linear gen 2 switches have that beautiful dampening at the bottom because of the silicone dampeners and also applied lubing and just using the huntsman mini just for typing absolutely wonderful and i love the upgrades i have carried over from the gen one in terms of making the switch slightly heavier but you let me know which switch sounded best to your ears to bring everything together it's kind of cool to have all these switch options from razer just to tailor to your gaming needs and the variety obviously razer as a brand right like they have nice umbrella of switches to choose from but they're not a standalone like brand and that whole category of gaming switches but they do cover a nice variety so that if you are going for the razer keyboard you're not stuck with like choosing only certain things you have a pretty you have a pretty wide variety so if i was to conclude with my personal recommendations i can't wait for the gen 2 red linear optical switches to be implemented across the entire range of like the huntsman so the huntsman te i love the tikia form factor but as soon as it has the gen 2 switches i'm picking one up that's going to be my my go-to gaming keyboard for sure especially when it comes to linear design i also think that the razer analog switches are going to be quite important because we have more variety of analog options on the market already and so far i feel like razer's software implementation of choosing multiple actuation points is good like it's fleshed out so you can work your way around the switches and create certain macros for your game style plus giving you the whole analog control for driving games and obviously you can use the keyboard as is as a standard like in and out so i hope this razor switches guide has been helpful if you're looking for a razer keyboard right now let me know which one is on your radar and what switches your gravity into words and uh yeah thanks so much for watching again thanks to razer for supporting us on this project check out this other relevant content and i'll talk to you in the next video and remember switch responsibly

Channel: Hardware Canucks

Views: 154,862

Rating: 4.9140658 out of 5

Keywords: best gaming keyboard 2021, best keyboard switches, best razer keyboard, hardware canucks, hardwarecanucks, keyboard, keyboard switch comparison, keyboard switch types, keyboard switches explained, keyboard switches guide, keyboard switches sound comparison, mechanical keyboard guide, razer, razer green switches, razer huntsman v2 analog, razer keyboard, razer keyboard review, razer keyboard switches, razer mechanical keyboard, razer optical switches, razer tactile switches

Id: 4ez26L_ZJF0

Length: 15min 21sec (921 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 31 2021