Razer Not for Gaming: Pro Type Wireless Mechanical Keyboard, Pro Click Mouse, and Pro Glide Mousepad

The global lockdown has dramatically changed people’s lives. Suddenly, those who can work remotely are in a very advantageous position. And Razer always keeps its nose to the wind. Their incomes have already increased significantly because people have much more time for games. But then the brand turned its attention to those who do not play at the computer, but mostly work. Especially for them, the Razer Productivity concept was developed, the essence of which was to make the workplace more comfortable.

In other words, to adapt the developments of gaming ergonomics to the framework of office activities. An interesting fact: the main competitor in the face of Logitech, at one time, did the same evolution in the opposite direction – from premium office solutions to gaming peripherals. In general, so far in the Pro series (I wonder if this is short for Productivity or Professional?) There are only three products: the Razer Pro Click wireless ergonomic mouse, the Razer Pro Type wireless mechanical keyboard, and the Razer Pro Glide cloth mat. Taking this opportunity, let’s take a closer look at these curiosities.

Razer Pro Type Mechanical Wireless Keyboard

The first place we’ll start our introduction to the Razer Productivity product line is the Pro Type keyboard. Yes, “mechanical” and “wireless” is a strange combination of technologies, however, if you are interested in the tactile response of the switches, and not their reaction time, then why not. Moreover, this device is positioned as “office” and not as “gaming”. Accordingly, what kind of complaints can there be about its speed and polling frequency?

Specifications

Contents of delivery

The keyboard is contained in a white-green box, on which “all the cards” are revealed on the move, that is, the appearance of the device, its characteristics and capabilities.

Inside there are two soft dampeners on the sides, cardboard inserts in front and behind, and a transparent plastic lining to protect against dust. Instructions are contained in a pocket glued to the back of the lid.

The package includes a detachable USB Type-C charging cable, a wireless USB transmitter and instructions for use.

Appearance

The design of the Razer Pro Type is quite simple. And that’s not bad. In short, the keyboard is built on the principle of “skeleton”. The top panel is made of a solid 1.4mm silver colored aluminum plate. This gives the device excellent rigidity and appearance. The keycaps are white, which, combined with the white backlighting of the characters, looks stylish and concise. There are no extra buttons and design elements here anymore. The weight of the keyboard is 906 grams. It is a pity that there is no palm rest in the kit – it would greatly improve the ergonomics of the device as a whole.

The key layout is made according to the ANSI standard with long single-row Shift and Enter. The F1 button is located exactly above the number “2”. The caps are made of smooth-touch ABS plastic with a matte grippy finish. The Fn button takes the place of the right Win key. The Latin script is laser engraved on the top center of the caps. There was no Cyrillic in this copy of the keyboard, but it is possible that it will appear in retail copies. Keycaps have a characteristic cylindrical recess in the center.

The keys of the numeric and editorial blocks have a standard configuration and layout. The Razer logo is engraved above the arrows. Caps, Num and Scroll Lock indicators are in their rightful place at the top right. In Bluetooth mode, blinking these LEDs indicates one of the three available connections.

The keyboard uses proprietary Razer Orange Mechanical Switches. They can be easily distinguished by the orange color of the rod, although in this version the mechanisms have a gray rather than black body color. These are quiet switches with a tactile feedback when actuated. They require 1.9mm of travel to activate, 4mm of full travel, and 45 grams of actuation force. The declared MTBF resource is 80 million clicks. The LED is raised to better illuminate the surface of the cap. The stabilizers of all long keys are wire and external, connected to the caps through adapters and well lubricated in friction points. Backlash is present, but on a rather modest scale and does not cause negative sensations when printing.

The minimum profile height of the keyboard on the back row of keys with the legs folded is 40 mm. With the help of two-level folding feet, you can increase the height of the keyboard to 46 or 53 mm. Ergonomic inclination of rows of keys in profile is insignificant.

The keyboard does not have additional external ports. The switch and charging port are located on the back right.

The first dot indicator shows the current charge of the keyboard. It can be green (battery full), amber (low battery), or red (while charging or less than 3% charge). A three-position switch in the center position turns off power to the keyboard, but allows it to be charged. By sliding it to the left, the device is switched to communication mode via a 2.4 GHz receiver, and to the right – to Bluetooth mode. Charging from a cable is also possible in these modes. The USB Type-C port serves exclusively to power the battery, this keyboard cannot work via cable, and this is a serious omission, in my opinion. The pinhole to the right of the charging port serves to reset the keyboard controller to default settings.

The charging cable with a USB Type-C connector on one end is made to match the rest of the keyboard. It is white and nylon braided. Flexibility is average, the cord remembers the set position well. The cable length is 1.8 meters. Both connectors have caps to protect against dust and there is also a rubber tie for winding the wire.

The reverse side of the keyboard is flat, made of white rough plastic. There are four square rubber feet in the corners, and two more large rubber bands are glued in the center near the front and back faces. Between the legs is a sticker with the serial number of the product.

To the right of the central leg there is a small recess with a magnet, where the complete USB transmitter is hidden.

The legs unfold separately, in two levels. There are rubber stickers on the edges of both the larger and smaller legs. The keyboard is very stable and doesn’t slip, both with the rests extended and folded down.

The backlighting of the keyboard is the correct white color and is very bright. Fortunately, the brightness can be adjusted over a wide range, in most cases a 50% level will suffice. Of the lighting effects, there is only a constant glow and a pulsation mode. In addition, the backlight drains the battery greatly and it is not reasonable to keep it at the maximum. The three information LEDs are also extremely bright and dazzle the eyes if you look at them directly.

Functionality

The Razer Pro Type does not have a lot of additional functions, they are all configured through combinations with the Fn key. Below is a list of all the commands that we managed to reproduce.

To connect a device via Bluetooth, you need to put the keyboard into this mode with the power slider, then hold Fn + 1, Fn + 2 or Fn + 3 for 5 seconds so that it goes into connection mode and becomes visible in the device search menu. In this case, the corresponding Lock indicator will blink first quickly, then slowly.

Software

As software, the Razer Pro Type keyboard uses the Razer Synapse 3 application. We have repeatedly talked about it in previous reviews, so we will focus only on those points that relate directly to the functions of the keyboard.

In the keyboard settings tab, you can reassign keys in the main and alternate layouts (Hypershift). The range of available commands is extensive. In the basic layout, everything changes, except for the Win and Fn buttons. The Keyboard Properties tab opens the corresponding standard Windows application. In the upper right corner there is an icon that allows you to roughly estimate the battery level.

In the backlight settings, the brightness of the glow is adjusted in the range from 0 to 100% with the ability to completely turn off, the static or pulsating backlight effect is switched. Separately, you can configure the power-saving settings of the backlight, for example, turning it off by time when the screen turns off or a certain time of inactivity.

In the power section, there is a function to reduce the brightness of the backlight to a minimum after a certain period of inactivity. In addition, as part of the savings, you can configure the keyboard to go to sleep with a delay of 1 to 15 minutes of inactivity.

In the macro editor, keyboard and mouse commands are available for recording, recording the trajectory of the cursor movement and setting all options for time delays and methods for reproducing commands. I remind you that the keyboard will be able to play macros only with active software, since it has no internal memory.

Ergonomics and testing

The Razer Pro Type keyboard is built quite solidly and reliably. Thanks to the aluminum plate of the top panel, it is virtually inflexible. Massive rubber feet securely hold the device on the table in any position. For complete happiness, only a soft palm rest is missing here, without which the ergonomics of the device sags heavily during prolonged use. The feel of the signature orange mechanical switches and grippy keycaps are exceptionally good. They are crisp and responsive, just what you need when printing large amounts of text. This is except for the occasional double space in my copy. Good and bright white backlight, although I doubt the appropriateness of its presence here. However, the most important thing about a wireless keyboard is not that, but how it performs in terms of call quality, overall responsiveness, and ease of use. There are certain nuances to this.

Let’s start with the fact that the keyboard does not have a wired mode of operation at all. The cable is used exclusively for charging, and communication is always carried out via radio. A very dubious decision, even if it is not required to interrupt work during the charging process. For a full battery level, the keyboard needs to “hang on the wire” for about two hours. And by the way, the mouse and keyboard from the same series have charging ports and cables of different formats, and separate receivers. It is also not clear why, because in certain cases it will take four USB ports at once, and at least two will be occupied on an ongoing basis.

In terms of connection speed, there are no questions to the device. It is quickly determined through the native receiver without unnecessary gestures. It is no less easy to set up three Bluetooth connections.

From sleep mode, the keyboard is displayed by pressing any key, but it takes a long time to exit and the press is not registered. Therefore, in order not to enter random characters, it is more logical to first press Shift, Ctrl or Fn, and only then proceed to typing the main text. Annoys.

The autonomy of the device is not impressive. After fully charging the keyboard, I set the static brightness to 50% of nominal, setting the brightness to automatically dim after 1 minute of inactivity and go to sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity. In this mode, the keyboard charge when working through 2.4 GHz, the receiver was enough for two not very intensive working days. This generally corresponds to the declared level of 12 hours with the backlight on. Obviously, it is she who eats the lion’s share of energy. If you work without backlight, with energy saving turned to the maximum, then autonomy does not just increase seven times. In fact, the keyboard is enough for a period of up to two weeks of intensive work. Since these 80 hours of charge are not consumed sequentially, but only when the keyboard is used (provided that the information LEDs are turned off).

Still very annoying is how the keyboard behaves at the time of discharge. It starts blinking backlight and turns off as soon as the indicator on the rear panel turns red, showing a critical remaining charge of 3%. Moreover, when the cord was connected, it took the device a couple of minutes to recover, create a charge reserve and begin to maintain stable communication with the transmitter. Is it really impossible to warn the user in advance about the need to turn on the power cable?

Razer Pro Type according to the manufacturer reads up to 10 simultaneous keystrokes. We managed to achieve a maximum of 14 simultaneously read clicks from him, but this is not possible in all combinations. Not bad for a “non-gaming” keyboard.