First things first: This is an extremely good keyboard. The action feels great and Razer's green switches provide excellent feedback for typing. That's why I wanted this keyboard, for a great typing experience... not gaming. It definitely delivers, except on one flaw that is so major, it ruins everything else.
This keyboard requires Synapse 3 to work. That is, if you want to enjoy the RGB backlighting. Without Synapse 3, the only thing it can do is cycle between solid colors. When I read the horrible reviews of Synapse 3 before buying this keyboard, I thought the reviewers were just being dramatic. They weren't. Synapse 3 is awful because:
1) It's a 400 meg download. That's right. As opposed to Synapse 2 at 26 megs (which btw, will NOT work with this keyboard), Synapse 3 is hundreds of megs. Why? What is it doing?
2) That's not too worrisome once you've got it downloaded, but Synapse 3 runs at least 8 different processes and eats up about 300 megs of RAM. What??? 300 megs of RAM... to make a keyboard light up? What in the world else is it doing? Some say it is logging keystrokes. I don't know about that, but it's clearly doing SOMETHING. I don't have a gaming rig, so it slows down my computer noticeably. Even if you do have a powerful machine, why would you voluntarily give up so much RAM and processing to something so simple?
3) Without Synapse 3, the keyboard is just a basic keyboard. Yes, it can store macros without Synapse, but it can't store light patterns. All it can do is cycle between solid colors. And that's what it will be doing EVERY TIME you restart your computer, until Synapse 3 kicks in and tells it what to do. On my machine, that takes over a minute. Everything else comes to a grinding halt while Synapse tries to load on boot-up. I only have 6 gigs of RAM, but I have an SSD hard drive. Without Synapse, it boots in under 10 seconds. With it, more than 2 minutes.
4) According to Razer tech support, Synapse 3 requires Windows 10 and at least 8 gigs of RAM. That's not what this keyboard says on the box. It says Windows 7. According to Razer, that's what is required to use it as a keyboard, but I suspect nobody is buying this just as a standard dummy keyboard without any of the features Synapse gives it. Deceptive.
5) As previously mentioned, Synapse 2 is smooth and light. There are also a lot more downloadable profiles for it. None of these profiles are compatible with Synapse 3, and Synapse 2 will NOT recognize this keyboard. You're stuck with Synapse 3 (which, btw, has been in beta for more than 2 years) or nothing.
If you don't believe any of this, head on over to Razer's page and see for yourself. You don't need this keyboard to download Synapse 3. Just download it and see what I'm talking about. I could not send this keyboard back to Amazon fast enough. That's sad, because I wanted to love it. I did love it, but I couldn't deal with these headaches. So I got a Red Dragon keyboard with blue switches. It doesn't have customizable lighting effects, but it has tons of built-in options that exist on the keyboard itself and doesn't require ridiculous bloatware (possibly spyware, too) to operate.
Another quick thing I was willing to overlook, but is annoying as a typist: secondary functions are not backlit on this keyboard. So if you're working in the dark, I hope you remember where $, %, &, etc. are... because you certainly will not be able to see them.
What a shame this wonderfully engineered hardware is completely ruined by software that someone had to purposely try to make as wretched as it is. All Razer had to do was make this keyboard backwardly compatible with Synapse 2, and everything would have been fine. Or make Synapse 3 something that actually works.
| Brand | Razer |
|---|---|
| Series | RZ03-02860200-R3U1 |
| Item model number | RZ03-02860200-R3U1 |
| Hardware Platform | PC |
| Item Weight | 2.75 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 6.5 x 17.73 x 1.58 inches |
| Item Dimensions LxWxH | 6.5 x 17.73 x 1.58 inches |
| Color | Classic Black |
| Manufacturer | Razer Inc. |
| ASIN | B07NZX84HB |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Date First Available | March 14, 2019 |
