Razer BlackWidow V4 Mini HyperSpeed Wireless Hot Swappable 65% Gaming Keyboard: HyperSpeed Wireless & Bluetooth 5.0 – Orange Switches Tactile & Quiet – Phantom Pudding Keycap – 200 Hr Battery

GOOD BUY
20 year old gamer likes it.

FULL REVIEW, TL;DR best mini keyboard
Bought this past weekend to replace a MUCH cheaper off-brand 60% keyboard that lasted 3 years. This keyboard has a 2 year warranty out of the box so I’m expecting it to last at least that long if not twice that. Love the “ghost”/phantom keycaps, as I prefer to call the pudding style keycaps. Very classy, well made keyboard. Do wish it was a bit heavier/made sturdier/more rigid — it has lightweight aluminum top plate and a plastic bottom. I would’ve gone with steel bottom for extra weight.The keyboard could be a bit shorter, but it has about a 1/2” lower “lip”/bezel that is basically just for more RGB effect and to show off the logo. Would’ve preferred not to have this as I’m used to using this with my laptop and my last keyboard would fit very comfortably over the lower part of my laptop keyboard where trackpad/palm rest is — this keyboard is just a tad too tall for my use case, I have to let it “hang”/overlap over the bottom edge of my laptop. I also transport it to work and use it at a regular desk which works as intended.I love that you can reprogram almost any key and even add a 2nd “hypershift” function to most keys, however you will need to use the Synapse 4 software which actually comes loaded into the keyboard ROM and will try to install itself when you first plug this in. The downside to the software is that some functions only work if you’ve got the software installed on the computer AND running in the background — can’t install 3rd party software on most corporate/school machines, so you’ll need to “program”/map out your keys on a personal machine and thankfully those keys bindings save to the keyboard ROM, AND you can save and cycle through about 3 or 4 whole profiles on the keyboard once you’ve made them in the software, they save and work on the keyboard even when switched to a machine with no software.This HOWEVER does NOT work for ANY of the lighting or macro recording features, so you’ll be stuck with the stock color cycling mode when not using the keyboard on a machine with no software installed AND running — my cheap keyboard let you cycle through colors and lighting patterns/modes with keyboard shortcuts, this keyboard only lets you adjust the brightness, that’s a #FAIL for Razer here for forcing us to install and use their software for simple and basic functions that SHOULD be built-in accessible.Other than those two gripes; (the taller than necessary dimension and required software for basic color control and macro usage,) I’m quite satisfied with the keyboard, it has softer/quieter “orange” key switches than the V3 TKL model with “green” key switches that I had to return a few days prior due to being too loud for my tastes and needing to use in an office setting. For reference my cheap no name keyboard used their own version of what are known as “brown” switches, well the orange are Razer’s version of the browns, they’re tactile with a very slight click sound, green switches are from my understanding Razer’s version of a blue switch, which is very tactile and audibly clicky; they also make a switch available on some models that is yellow, that’s like a red switch, which is a quiet and linear feel with no tactile sensation, just “thocky” from my understanding.Clicky feel/clacky sound=super tactile=blue/green.Slight clicky feel/much less clacky sound=average tactile feel=brown/orange.Mushy feel/thocky sound to silent=non-tactile/linear feel=red/yellow.

An instant favorite so far
I fall under the camp that loves the 65% profile of keyboards. The benefit of a tenkeyless with a compact layout is such a desk saver that it’s important to me. More so if I can keep those keys that are important to me without turning them into function+keys. This fits the bill for me. The F1-12 keys are function keys, which is fine as I infrequently use them. As a side note, the function keys are printed on the side of the keycap, not above. There’s no worry about wearing them out, while still being visible.I didn’t understand what phantom pudding keycaps are until I saw these. Basically, the legends of the keys aren’t visible unless the backlight shine threw them. They’re quite aesthetically pleasing but makes it so that it’s best if an owner of this keyboard is a touch typist.RGB synced with Chroma is adds to the aesthetics if your PC build swings to Razer products. I sync mine with my Asrock motherboard LED+fans.Orange switches are basically your cherry mx brown equivalent switch. They have the expected tactile bump without the noise. The actuation point is satisfying with almost the feeling of a click.The size of the keycaps look deceptively small, but they’re not. In comparing them with the width of another keyboard, they are the same.The bluetooth and wireless 2.4ghz dongle are a welcome to my desk setup where I can choose the best wireless connectivity for my needs. With the synapse software, one can customize a power saving profile for the keyboard. As an example, I set mine to dim the lighting after 5 minutes of inactivity on battery, turn off lighting after 10 minutes being idle or when display turns off, and turn off the keyboard entirely after 15 minutes of inactivity while on battery.As for the build, it’s quite on the hefty side. The top layer is presumably aluminum while the bottom housing is plastic. Typing doesn’t introduce rattling through the body.This is a fantastic keyboard and an instant favorite of mine.