The Origin PC BlackWidow Chroma Mechanical Keyboard Review

Final Words

As with every keyboard that we review, I used the ORIGIN PC BlackWidow Chroma gaming mechanical keyboard as my personal keyboard for around 10 days to subjectively evaluate its abilities and to better expose its strengths and weaknesses. My typical weekly usage includes a lot of typing (about 100-150 pages), a few hours of gaming and some casual usage, such as internet browsing and messaging. Because typing covers the majority of my typical schedule, the BlackWidow Chroma felt very comfortable and enjoyable to work with. That is largely because of the Razer Green switches, which are practically nearly exact copies of the MX Blue switch, a switch that most people consider ideal for typing. In my personal opinion, I do prefer the MX Brown switch because the clicking noise of the MX Blue switch slightly distracts me. Still, the BlackWidow Chroma feels excellent when typing, especially when typing long texts.

Teal (left) and purple (right) static backlighting

For gaming, the BlackWidow Chroma was fine and very responsive as a keyboard, but the software was entirely inadequate for my needs. Since my current game of choice is an action RPG, I have a few macros that all include mouse movements. The Razer Synapse software cannot include any mouse functions into its macros, so I had to resort to third party software, compile the macros as .exe files and then insert them into the gaming profile of the keyboard as program launches. I also use a lot of macros to insert common text responses for the game, but also code for my professional needs. Although the Razer Synapse software can do that, it was far less complicated and configurable to write these macros with the third party software that I am usually using. Therefore, the actual functionality of the entire Razer Synapse software was reduced to change the backlighting to my favorite color, program two individual profiles and repurpose some keys to execute external programs (that were the macros I compiled with another software). Honestly, Razer can do a lot better with their software if they decide to spend some resources on it.

Yellow(left) and pink (right) static backlighting

As a keyboard, the ORIGIN PC BlackWidow Chroma is fairly well made. Even though it is mostly plastic, the materials are of good quality and the metallic support plate does provide mechanical cohesion where it is required. The matte black cover does repel skin oil and keeps the top free of fingerprints and smear. Beneath the plastics, Kailh's switches and design are adequately good for a high performance keyboard. Certainly, they essentially are copies of Cherry's products, but that does not mean that they are of significantly lower quality. In our experience, Kailh's switches are not as consistent as Cherry's, yet their test results do stay well within the expected quality limits.

There are just two issues with the ORIGIN PC BlackWidow Chroma - the mediocre software and the retail price. We thoroughly explained the limitations of the Razer Synapse software above and we are disappointed to see that the company has done little to evolve their software over the last year, this despite the heavy competition from numerous other companies. These drawbacks could easily be remedied if Razer were to further develop the software, but otherwise the Razer Synapse currently feels inadequate for a top-tier gaming keyboard.

With the current retail price of the ORIGIN PC BlackWidow Chroma, which is at $170 including shipping, we feel that the company will have a very hard time competing. No matter how well made or performing the BlackWidow Chroma may be, it is still a keyboard with a plastic body and switches made by Kailh. The mediocre software does not help much either. Corsair's K70 RGB now retailing for $140 including shipping, Tesoro's similar Lobera Supreme had its price reduced to $110 including shipping, and even the huge K95 RGB sharing the same price tag as the BlackWidow Chroma. Ultimately the BlackWidow Chroma is not a bad product, but given this competition its poorly priced. To that end I suspect a price cut would go a long way towards addressing the market and putting the keyboard on much better competitive footing.