Razer Quartz 2019
Given the name of this site and what I said in the first post, you can probably guess that I’m a fan of things which are unusually pink. That’s why last year when gaming peripheral maker Razer announced a line of pink products under their new Quartz branding, I was stoked. I immediately ordered both their keyboard and their mouse. The Quartz products generally aren’t brand new; they’re a pink take on existing products. The first keyboard was a Razer Blackwidow Tournament Edition with Razer Green switches (their equivalent of Cherry’s MX Blue line of clicky, tactile switches.) It’s great, and I still use it daily:
The mouse was a bit less exciting as it was a pink variant of the Razer Lancehead. The Lancehead isn’t a bad mouse, but it’s not what I’m really looking for as far as gaming goes. It’s a relatively flat mouse with small, squishy side buttons. I used it for a while but eventually switched to a different mouse.
I was happy with my purchaes, but just last week Razer announced updates across their Quartz lineup. I once again had zero self control and immediately purchased the new keyboard and mouse.
Razer Huntsman Quartz
This keyboard was exciting because, along with being pink, it’s based on the Huntsman. That’s Razer’s first keyboard with their new optomechanical switches. Rather than being completely mechanical, these switches use the same mechanical feel to allow a beam of light to pass through it and be detected by a sensor on the opposite of where it is generated. That light hitting the sensor triggers the actuation of the switch rather than a metal contact. I’m not pro gamer, so I can’t honestly say if I feel any difference in the speed or accuracy of actuation, but I do have to admit that the whole thing is cool as hell. On top of that, every single switch has a metal stabilizer to ensure each key gives a solid, consistent press. That’s normally something you only see on larger keys like the spacebar, Shift, Enter, etc.
The keys aren’t embedded into a base for the Huntsman; they sit flat on the board. I really like this style, and it looks great. The keys all have a beautiful, smooth, soft pink finish that looks great. The board itself has the same finish, which is a welcome improvement from the Quartz version of the Blackwidow Tournament Edition. That board had the same key finish but something that felt like a soft-touch powder coating on the board itself. While it had a decent texture, it also seemed like something that could scratch off in an accident. My board actually came with a tiny nick in that coating above the function keys.
I was a little leery about spending so much on a keyboard when I didn’t even know if I’d like the switches, but typing on them is a downright joy. Every key stroke just feels good. Their actuation force of 45 grams is a little lighter than Razer Greens that clock in at 50 grams. I was surprised, though, that after a weekend of gaming on the optomechanical switches, typing on Razer Greens actually felt heavy to me. 45 grams feels like the sweet spot where the switches are easy to press, but not so easy that you could do it on accident. The tactile feedback also removes any doubt of whether or not the switch actuated. On the whole, I adore these switches.
I do wish there was a TKL variant since I don’t really need the number pad on my gaming keyboard. I had to move the keyboard further left to keep the same amount of space on my mat for the mouse, but it’s still comfortable to keep my left hand on WASD.
Razer Basilisk Quartz
The mouse was also a very nice improvement for the Quartz line. This variant is based on the Razer Basilisk, which is an FPS-centric mouse. I appreciate the fact that it has a very large hump behind the buttons, meaning that even with my relatively large hands I can palm the mouse without my hand touching the mat. The rubber grips around the sides are super nice and have a good feel to them. The scroll wheel features adjustable tension, handled via a small wheel on the underside of the device. You can go all the way from extremely rough, tacticle clicks for each scroll to free scrolling. I found a very low amount of tension to be the best for me.
The side buttons have a good feel to them, though the true boon for this mouse is the DPI clutch just in front of them. The clutch can be configured to decrease your DPI if you need to be precise. For example, you might want to hold in the clutch while sniping in a game to avoid things feeling too twitchy. The button for it is a bit large for my taste, extending just a bit over the first side button. Luckily, this button is removable and comes with a smaller button you can swap in that I greatly prefer. If you have no interest in the clutch, you can also replace it with a pink rubber plug that simply fills the hole and matches the rest of the mouse’s exterior.
Given that Overwatch is my game of choice at the moment, the Basilisk feels like the perfect mouse. It pairs nicely with the Huntsman, and I’ve been really enjoying these preferals across a variety of games like Overwatch, Diablo 3, and Elder Scrolls Online. To be perfectly honest, I’d have kept them no matter what just because, well… they’re pink. I’m actually extremely happy with both of them, though, as they’re high quality products that deliver a high quality experience. Many pink computer accessories are pretty much hot garbage because the gimmick of being pink is the selling point, not the quality. With these two devices, though, you absolutely get both the performance and the color. If your battlestation needs a little more pink and you’ve got the spare money, you can’t go wrong with the current Quartz lineup.
Originally published at https://looped.network on April 9, 2019.
