Review: Razer Huntsman V3 Pro 8KHz

A keyboard is more than the sum of its parts. To have a truly great typing experience, a lot has to come together—each aspect of a keyboard needs to be designed (or selected) with the rest of it in mind. But not every keyboard needs to strive for a great typing experience. Sometimes, they just need to get the job done. Take, for example, the Razer Huntsman V3 Pro.

Nearly every decision on this keyboard is made with performance in mind, with both the sonic and tactile experience taking a backseat. Instead of the plush luxurious typing feel of a gasket-mounted keyboard with hand-lubed tactile switches and premium case materials, we have a plastic-and-metal lump fitted with ultrafast optical switches, capable of sending inputs 8,000 times every second to your PC, without a single extraneous feature to fatten it up (aside from the expected RGB lighting).

I didn’t love typing on this keyboard, and I didn’t find myself itching to get it back on my desk when I took a break. But I have to admit, I quite like the tunnel-vision, gaming-only approach Razer takes. It's not for everyone, and it certainly isn’t for me.

Speed Is Key

Photograph: Henri Robbins

The Razer Analog Optical Switches Gen-2 work fantastically. They’re responsive, easy to type on, and snap back quickly after being pressed. They have a bit of wobble, but don’t have any scratchiness or resistance—each key press feels smooth and controlled, even when pressed from the edge of the key.

Unlike gasket-mount keyboards, the Huntsman doesn’t exactly feel comfortable to type on. It’s stiff and simple, using a tray mount with a metal plate integrated into the top half of the case. The switches have a hard bottom out, without any bounce or flex when typing. Technically, the lack of flexibility is a performance benefit with ultraprecise switches in a gaming context. I’ve used some gasket-mount keyboards where a full key press would cause the internal assembly to move a not-insignificant distance, which could theoretically throw off a particularly precise input.

At 8,000 hertz with hardly any input lag, key presses are almost instantaneous. A key’s actuation point can be raised high enough that even grazing the key with your finger will register an input. This can cause some issues, especially on the space bar when playing games that require precise double jumping (like Destiny 2), but once the settings are dialed in correctly, the keyboard feels incredibly intuitive and natural.

Quite a few of the switches had issues with sound. Pinging is widespread across the keys and is exacerbated by the design of the tray-mount case, which sometimes picks up resonance when typing. The stabilizers are only lightly lubed from the factory, with longer keys feeling scratchier than others, with more resistance. While the stabilizer wires don’t rattle when typing, they do have a dry, plasticky sound when typing that’s different from standard keys.

Strange Software

Photograph: Henri Robbins

While I normally quite like Razer's Synapse software, I ran into quite a few hiccups with this keyboard. Nearly every key can be adjusted and customized, but two of them are stuck with their default settings no matter what. Both the Function key and the Windows key cannot be remapped with custom layouts, nor can their actuation distance be adjusted, meaning they’re both stuck with the default 1.2-mm actuation distance, even when other keys’ actuation distances can be adjusted freely. The only available option is disabling this key using “Gaming Mode” (Fn + Win).

The screen on the right side is convenient and practical. I appreciate the gimmick of the actuation visualizer, which is a small line of dots that illuminates from left to right as you push down a key. It can help with determining and setting an ideal actuation distance, but beyond that, it’s almost entirely aesthetic. The rest of the indicators on the keyboard are nice, but they are underwhelming compared to the full OLED screens that many gaming keyboards have today.

The rarely used cluster of keys above the arrow keys now has a secondary purpose, where each of them can be used with the Function layer to select one of five preset profiles. Four of them are customizable, but the first, called “Factory Default,” seemingly functions as a fail-safe in case you royally mess up another profile map (such as remapping your space bar to your controller’s “A” button—something the software actually warns you against if you attempt it).

Across these profiles, you can make all of the standard Hall effect adjustments. Each key’s individual actuation distance can be adjusted, Rapid Trigger allows you to customize the key’s reset point (so you can immediately press the key down again instead of waiting for it to return past the initial actuation point), and Razer’s SOCD (Simultaneous Opposing Cardinal Direction) setting, called Snap Tap, works like any other, letting one key override another for rapid strafing.

Photograph: Henri Robbins

Synapse also allows for more minute customizations, with adjustments to switch dead zones, rapid trigger sensitivity, and “Continuous Rapid Trigger,” which keeps Rapid Trigger active above the default actuation point until a key is fully released.

During my time with this keyboard, I struggled quite a bit with the RGB lighting. It would regularly stop functioning at all during use, requiring me to unplug the keyboard to reset something internally. At one point, the main RGB layer stopped illuminating entirely, with only the OLED display and the illuminated Function layer (displaying which keys have functionality when Fn is pressed) maintaining their lighting. The strangest part was that the RGB lighting would return to the default setting when my computer was locked, indicating some kind of issue with the Synapse software. Ultimately, after troubleshooting quite a bit, I had to completely uninstall and reinstall both Synapse and Chroma for it to work again.

Keys on the keyboard can be remapped to game pad controls, using the analog input to replicate the variable inputs of triggers and joysticks. This works exceptionally well, even allowing for customizable input curves to fine-tune movements. I tested this primarily with racing games and didn’t run into any issues with input accuracy or response speed (however, controlling a car with a keyboard is still jarring when compared to a standard controller). The only issue with this system is that, for some reason, each button on the controller can only be mapped to one key at a time. This isn’t a huge issue, but it does seem like an unnecessary limitation.

Not Pointlessly Premium

Photograph: Henri Robbins

The case is nothing fancy. Metal on top and plastic on the underside. Just enough metal to prevent any flex when typing and not a bit more. If you try to twist the keyboard chassis, it gives without much struggle, and for some reason, a couple of the switches even register a single millimeter of key press (which is clearly indicated on the side display).

Taking apart the keyboard, there’s not too much inside. The two halves of the keyboard are held together by a handful of screws under the keycaps, and they snap together using plastic clips around the edges of the case. Once open, you’ll see two Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) attached to the top case: One housing the switches, and another containing the knob and buttons in the top right of the keyboard. On the bottom case, a ribbon cable connects the main PCB to a separate daughterboard containing the USB-C port. Between these are two sheets of foam: One thick piece that sits between each switch, and a thin one that isolates the two halves from one another.

This internal assembly is simple and creates a typing experience that is consistent and rigid. Plastic supports prop up the top half of the case to prevent any flex when typing, and the foam limits extraneous noise. There are longevity issues, since the plastic clips risk snapping every time you disassemble the keyboard, and the screws are all being driven directly into plastic that can break down over time, but there is nothing that I think will cause issues if you leave this keyboard in one piece.

As great as the optical switches are, they are entirely proprietary. This means you can’t swap them out with standard Cherry MX-style switches. The switch mechanism itself can easily be replaced with another Razer optical switch, since they snap in place with two tabs on the underside of the plate. The sensor is two small components soldered onto the PCB that would be pretty difficult to replace, but as it's rated for over 100 million actuations, failure isn’t a serious concern.

Photograph: Henri Robbins

Unlike quite a few other keyboards from both Razer and other companies, which use memory foam, the wrist rest included with the Huntsman V3 Pro is entirely made of rigid plastic (with a faux leather wrap on the top surface). This makes it much more solid, without any cushioning for your wrists. This could be an upgrade or a downgrade compared to a more plush wrist rest. The material on top is comfortable, and the wrist rest is magnetized, allowing it to attach to the keyboard and not move during regular use. It’s good despite the lack of cushioning.

Initially, I didn’t like this keyboard very much. Coming from my own world of custom-built keyboards with subpar specs and superb typing experiences, it was jarring. It didn’t feel great to type on, and the performance benefits of it weren’t obvious in regular day-to-day use. When editing documents or replaying Halo 3 for the 20th time, you won’t feel the benefits of 8,000 hertz or Snap Tap strafing. But once I took it into multiplayer lobbies, I was able to look past the features I initially thought were missing and experience this keyboard properly.

The price feels high for something with this build quality and typing experience, but for its level of performance and accuracy, it feels a bit more reasonable. I can’t say this keyboard is perfect—there are countless things I would change to make it feel better to use—but there really aren’t any performance improvements I would make. If that’s what you really care about, if you want something with no extra frills that you can fine-tune to your preferences, this might be the right keyboard for you.