Since I got my laptop, I’ve made do with its built-in keyboard. But three years, hundreds of thousands of words, and a load of wrist pain later, I’m in the market for a proper keyboard. I’m not one for gamer RGB lights, and I can’t stand the overly noisy mechanical keyboards all my colleagues recommended to me, but the Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro has converted me into a true believer.

What instantly helped was the option to choose between Linear and Clicky switches under the keys. Typists swear by Clicky, but the only time I used a Clicky keyboard, I spent more time correcting typos than I did actually writing. The BlackWidow V4 Pro’s yellow Linear switches provide a smooth press and a satisfying-but-not-obnoxiously-loud click right at the end. It’s an absolute joy to type on and it hasn’t taken me nearly as long to get used to as I thought.

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The keys themselves are a little smaller than I’ve had in the past, but this is likely to save space on the already large keyboard. It has a full number pad on the right, with media buttons above, and macro keys on the left alongside a control dial. I didn’t realise how much I missed having a number pad until I was reacquainted, but the macro keys took some time adjusting to. It’s such a reflex to send my pinky all the way to the right to hit Shift or Control, but after a couple of days at work, I’ve adapted to the new spacing and am no longer accidentally setting off macros.

The five macro keys seem like they should be easy to set up, and while I don’t play enough PC games to utilise them to full effect, I was looking forward to using them to make copying and pasting simpler and adding CMS shortcuts with fewer inputs. Unfortunately, no matter how many times I followed the steps in the guide or made sure my Razer Synapse software was up to date, I couldn’t assign a single macro. I was only able to assign two keystrokes, which felt more like a standard rebinding than a proper macro.

This seems to be part of some larger software issues, as the keyboard’s functionality changes depending on whether or not Synapse has been opened. If it has, kiss goodbye to the on-the-fly adjustment of the RGB settings, as you have to go into Synapse for that. On the plus side, the three buttons on the side of the keyboard work properly, entering screenshot mode, bringing up the Xbox games bar, and a task view with a single click. With Synapse closed, these functions can still be achieved, but only by mashing the buttons, defeating their purpose entirely. This feels more like a bug than intentional design.

These issues betray what looks and feels like a premium product. The weight of the keyboard is satisfying, ensuring it stays firmly in place no matter how frantic my typing is, and the various settings for the RGB lights are far more enticing than I ever thought they would be. Turns out, I still enjoy shiny things just as much as I did when I was a child. If I want to calmly focus on a longer piece of work, I switch to the Breathe mode and watch the keys pulse serenely, but when I want to show off just how much of an Epic Gamer I am, I can have the full chromatic ripple effect going. The backlit colours shine straight through the letters, so it all glows beautifully.

It doesn’t just look pretty, though. The control dial and media buttons add a lot of functionality. Pressing the dial switches modes, so instead of changing brightness, it swaps between applications. The built-in volume wheel above the media controls makes lowering the volume of a loud video or turning up the decibels on a colleague who sits too far away from their mic during meetings a breeze. The wrist rest that magnetically snaps to the bottom of the keyboard perfectly supports my brittle joints during eight-hour typing stints, and is a welcome inclusion. Unfortunately, there's no wireless option, so you'll have to do some cable management if you want to use the V4.

As someone who likes bigger keyboards, the size and weight of the Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro are perfect. The Linear switches are smooth and satisfying without being obnoxious, and the mesmerising RGB lights are surprisingly soothing. Buggy software strangles the potential of the macros and supposedly-convenient side buttons, but that’s the only real let down here. The control dial and media control buttons have vastly improved my day-to-day work life, and the wrist support has made my joint pain a thing of the past. I never thought I’d be one of those gamers with a mechanical light-up keyboard, but now you’ll have to take this thing out of my cold, dead hands.

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