Image source: https://raspberry.com.ua/data/uploads/2014/09/1738-01.jpg
It's a keyboard that comes up in my videos once in a while and I thought I should probably do a video on this and then I realized I can't do this thing without story time and then talking about some other keyboards. So, story time. I get access to keyboards more than the average person. Companies sometimes send me keyboards and I like keyboards, I purchase them, so I will go through a little bit of like...
Whatever. This is the keyboard that I used to use a lot, the Razer... I'm very prepared... The Razer BlackWidow Chroma X.
I had the original one, like the one that didn't light up in different colors, called the Razer BlackWidow, I used that a lot and then when the Chroma X came out, because it had colors, I picked it up. Then, I decided that I want to build a custom keyboard. So, this is the thing that comes up a lot in my videos... Wow, that is very overexposed, we'll see what we can do.
So, this was originally a black keyboard, a CM Storm Quickfire, so that's like a ten keyless keyboard. It is fully customized, so what I did was: I popped it open, I desoldered all the switches on it and I put on new switches, because I'm an idiot and then I purchased... These are called GMK Cyan key caps, because I thought the key caps would kind of go with the theme of my channel and these are like my favorite colors and then I spray-painted the casing white and then it still had a wire coming out of it and I thought... This isn't going to do because I didn't like the wire so I actually put an Arduino and...
Like a... Basically this thing is wireless now. It's got a Bluetooth thing and a battery inside here that makes it wireless. Now, I enjoy the idea of it, but I don't think it's actually as good of a keyboard as I thought it would be when I was building it and spending like 15/20 hours constructing this thing.
It was also horribly expensive to get all the parts and it's just not something I would recommend, but that's what it is, if you wanted to know. And then I also use this once in a while. This is a Razer, I believe it's called Ornata, it's like one of their newer keyboards, I don't think it's a real mechanical keyboard, like a ... Like tactile membrane, that sounds mechanical-like, but if I don't think it classifies as a true mechanical keyboard.
But the reason why I wanted to make this video at all, was because of this new keyboard, this thing, this is the Microsoft Surface, I think it's called a Microsoft Surface keyboard and I didn't think it would be that cool. I actually purchased it. It's like a hundred bucks, it wasn't cheap, a hundred bucks American and it doesn't look like a particularly special keyboard, but the more I use it, the more loved it and the fact that has like proper wireless and the way that integrates with Windows is awesome. Now, as for whether or not it's good for games, truthfully I've never even tried it for games, but...
You know what? We have time. I'm actually gonna play it off an XPS 15, because I'm just used to it, this is what I... This is what I play Overwatch on most of the time. So, that's how we're going to roll.
Actually, before I get into the game, I should actually talk about the good things about the mouse and the keyboard. Alright, it's fully metal, it's very well made, the bottom has some rubber feet for grip and it's battery operated. So, some wireless keyboards especially the Apple ones, you can charge them up, this one is battery-operated, still, and it uses Bluetooth for connectivity, there's no dongle or adapter that you need to connect up. Key travel is great, it feels really nice to type on, it's not backlit, which might be a deal-breaker for some people, but it's for your desktop, so I'm normally in properly lit areas.
The volume and brightness keys work in Windows, which is pretty cool, there's really nothing that I dislike about the keyboard. I was used to the layout and everything about this keyboard from the moment I opened it, so, yeah, I really recommend this thing, if you're looking for like a productivity oriented device. It has this complimentary mouse, complementary as in it goes with it, it doesn't come free with it. It's like a matching mouse and I think that they look really good together, it's a super simple mouse.
It works really nicely with Windows, obviously. The buttons have a nice click, can't complain about them, the scroll wheel is a little stiff, you can't spin it like you would on the BMX master or something like that, but it's a - i don't know - it's a good scroll wheel. Supposedly the battery lasts a really long time. They say twelve months on the packaging, I'm not sure it would actually hit twelve months, but I'm...
What? Two months now... Two and a half months and still going strong. Okay, let's play some Overwatch. Oh, this is a bad idea, I can already feel like this is not going to be good, but I should probably get a mousepad, right? Actually, you know what? Forget the mousepad.
This thing is supposed to be able to be usable on any kind of surface or like the majority of surfaces, so we'll give that a... We'll give it a real test, okay? Okay, so I recently got into Masters in Overwatch, which is like... For the people that are unaware of it, it's like a relatively high ranking, it's not like the highest ranking, but it's like... I don't know...
Like a B+. Let's just do it. All my teammates are probably not going to be happy if I'm playing on a crappy keyboard and a crappy mouse... Whatever...
We're doing this for YouTube, they should understand. Yeah the aim is... I'm not going to be able to aim properly on this, that's okay... Oh, that's a lot of stuff.
I'm gonna drop beat, get to the floor, right now! Dropping beat! Oh, my God! Look at that! Ho-ho-ho, it's brutal! This mouse is horrible! Not that it's horrible, it's just horrible for first-person shooters. I don't know if you saw that. I was trying to turn over to that, like fat pig looking creature and I couldn't connect with them. So, at this point, I would probably switch to a regular mouse, because I feel like that's not being fair to my teammates by playing on, like not ideal hardware, but then I won't be giving this a proper...
A proper test, right? This mouse is awesome! Let's never mention this again, okay? Back to the mouse and keyboard, they're great for work, they're great for video editing and not so great for first-person shooters..