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Razer is making some pretty bold claims

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about their black widow ultimate 2014 when you consider that on the surface it

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appears to be entirely unchanged from

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their last generation Flagship is there really Innovation left in mechanical

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keyboards I guess we'll find

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out with its Factory tuning and data center DNA an Intel 7 30 series SSD is

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an amazing choice for gamers and performance enthusiasts first up is the

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packaging which razer's reviewers guide informs me is the way to tell the New

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Black Widow ultimate from the old one and that it's great because of the

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cleaner lines and new artwork but none of that really matters to me because

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Razer missed one small nearly insignificant detail it doesn't say 2014

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edition anywhere on it I sure wish whatever product naming School Razer and

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Apple's iPad team went went to would go away Razer I've told you guys this

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already but come on I don't care if you ran out of snake spiders and mythical

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creatures different products need to have different names or at least numbers

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that clearly indicate the revision or generation of the product to your

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customers anyway with that out of the way let's get into the important

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differences Razer has done an under the hood update that turns the Black Widow

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ultimate into a completely different Beast gone are the Cherry MX Blue and

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brown switches were used to finding on their clicky and stealth versions and

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they've been replaced by what Razer is calling razor mechanical switches in

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green and orange variants respectively

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so your first reaction to this is probably what the devil is a razor

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mechanical switch and honestly I said the same thing the answer is both simple

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and complicated the simple version from Razer is that they recognized that the

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key switch designs on the market were optimized for a great typing experience

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and while they happened to be superior for gaming to membrane key switches

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especially if you pre-sorted them or bin them from the factory like razer's been

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doing gaming isn't what they were designed for that is why they set out to

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create the first key switches made from the groundup for gaming the complicated

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version is that in addition to what I just said Cherry MX switches are

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expensive and constantly in short supply

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and cherri's patent on their MX key switches very recently expired so now

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elements of that design can be used by other companies without any legal

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ramifications and Razer can move from having their key switches made that

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cherry corporations factories in Germany to less expensive manufacturers in China

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such as kale or even build their own facility if they wanted to now to be

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clear I'm not saying that razer's new key switches are a Chinese Cherry clone

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because while the design Bears many similarities to Cherry MX it is

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different and the changes are positive ones first up the actuation point the

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exact position where the downward keystroke is registered by the computer

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is Spec 3 mm higher this has the obvious

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effect of making your key presses register sooner when you press down and

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it also moves the actuation point itself 3 mm closer to the reset point or the

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position when you let go where the key is ready to be activated again both of

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these things are designed to improve the keyboard's responsiveness which is defin

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Ely good another effect of this is

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applicable to razer's clicky green key switch not to be confused with cherrymx

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greens totally different and that is that it moves the actuation point closer

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to where the tactile bump is felt by the user meaning it's

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easier to feel when you've successfully pressed the key without needing to

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bottom it out or press the key all the way down to be sure this has perhaps

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less relevance for typists but for gamers it makes double tapping or any

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other quick repetitive actions easier to do by feel next up their design calls

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for more gold on the contacts which razor determined allows an increase in

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the rated durability on each key from 50 million keystrokes to 60 million

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keystrokes and finally they are improving quality by employing their own

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QA staff on the factory floor to achieve

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A4 mm variance in pre-travel distance

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versus cherry 6 mm variance this should improve the

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consistency and feeling from One keyboard to another and even across all

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the keys on a single keyboard not being Elite hack or gamer like the Esports

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players who Razer has had testing the keyboard since last year I didn't notice

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the raised actuation Point much but I

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also really didn't find anything to complain about the green Razer key

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switch keyboard here definitely felt different from my ducky shine 3 with

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Cherry MX Blues but but it didn't feel much different and in fact if I didn't

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know I was using different switches I would have guessed it was just batto

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batch variance between Blues rather than a completely different manufacturer but

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I really like cherrymx Blues so if they feel like Blues to us regular folks but

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they have added benefits for more demanding users then that's great now

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Cherry's pitch for their switches is unparalleled quality due to German

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manufacturing but if razer's solution to combat that notoriously inconsistent

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Chinese build quality is to submit their own specifications and put their own

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staff on the floor for quality control then I think ultimately the question

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Gamers need to ask themselves is this

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are you buying a keyboard or a key switch do you really need to know where

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the bread came from you know at Subway

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if the sandwich Artisan delivers a delicious and nutritious sandwich to you

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do you need to know where Razer is sourcing each individual component of

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their keyboard or do you trust Razer to deliver you an exceptional product as

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long as they're overseeing the manufacturing leave your comments under

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the video and let me know your thoughts

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speaking of exceptional products I've spent so much time talking about the key

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switches that I haven't actually given you much information about the keyboard

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itself it's got fully programmable keys and five additional gaming keys with

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support for on the Fly macro recording individual per key back lighting with 13

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levels of brightness all the way from off to a phenomenally vibrant beautiful

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green it's got media keys with the function key to control them on the

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right so it takes up less Prime gaming real estate on the left side of the

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keyboard 10 key rollover so you're not going to have to worry about ghosting

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and both USB and audio pass through

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ports over here on the right hand side the build quality of the keyboard is

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solid as we've come to expect and the matte black finish is fantastic a huge

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improvement over some of their previous designs that used glossy plastic if I

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had to point out something I don't like about the design um all I really came up

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with is that uh there's no wrist rest included but that is becoming um a more

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common thing in general and I guess I don't like this at symbol very much

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seriously Razer like what is that but anyway all things considered those are

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really minor complaints and if this product is an indication of the kind of

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more affordable mechanical keyboards that will be available for gamers with

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these switches which are not exclusive to R are in any way they're saying well

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yeah sure whoever can use them then I think the future is very exciting

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speaking of exciting audiobooks at audible.com head on over to audible.com

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Linus to browse their massive selection of over 150,000 titles if you're looking

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for excitement I saw a familiar author pop up on the bestseller list in the

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last couple of weeks dick Francis from whom I've read two the hilt and long

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shot specializes in fast-paced and exciting crime novels that always Rel

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Rel somehow to the world of horse racing if that sounds intriguing then you can

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if horse racing crime doesn't sound intriguing to you then you can go back

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to Nancy Drew Mr intriguing the word that gets overused in Nancy Drew to you

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know much to my dismay as a child because I sincerely thought that it was

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pronounced intrigued not intrigued and it's in like every single Nancy Drew

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book um anyway which incidentally you can also find Nancy Drew books on

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audible.com whatever you end up listening to just make sure you use my URL

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audible.com Linus guys like and share

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this video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it and leave a comment on

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the Linus Tech tips Forum Linked In the video description if you want to discuss

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this product which is actually a very interesting one where you have any

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constructive criticism for me and my team also linked in the video

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description is our support link with options like buying t-shirts giving us a

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monthly contribution to keep making videos or giving us a kickback whenever

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our videos it helps us a whole bunch and as always guys thanks for watching and

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don't forget to

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