Razer Introduces the World's First Optical Laptop Keyboard

[btarunr]

Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, today announced the world's first optical keyboard designed for laptops. Razer was the first to introduce a low-profile mechanical laptop keyboard in 2016 and has now brought next-generation optical switches to the Razer Blade 15 gaming laptop. The low-profile keyboard has been designed for gaming enthusiasts who demand near instant actuation, satisfying tactile feedback, and rapid-fire inputs.

The new optical laptop switch harnesses the power of light to instantly capture key actuations. Under every key, an infrared light beam is used to detect when a key is pressed (actuation), allowing for much greater precision and speed versus conventional laptop keyboards. The result is a groundbreaking keyboard with an actuation point of only 1 mm at 55 g of actuation force with 50% more travel, allowing players to input more commands in less time in the heat of battle.



On top of lightning-fast actuation, the new keyboard features a satisfying mechanical tactile click - a must for any keyboard connoisseur. The tactile feedback helps users know when an input has been registered and provides a superior typing experience compared to traditional membrane keyboards.

The Razer Blade 15 optical keyboard also features N-Key Rollover (NKRO) with anti-ghosting. As the optical keyboard utilizes light to register inputs instead of a traditional physical contact, the optical keyboard features zero debounce to ensure that only one stroke is registered instantly without any delay.

Each keycap is individually backlit with Razer Chroma RGB lighting, offering 16.8 million colors to play with. Ranging from unique pre-programmed designs to custom patterns available only in the Razer Chroma Workshop, users have countless lighting options to choose from.

"Razer is a company of firsts, focusing on pushing the envelope to provide gamers with the best-in-class hardware," says Brad Wildes, Senior Vice President of Razer's Systems Division. "Our Razer Blade 15 laptop with the new optical laptop keyboard is the first of its kind, providing gamers with the most advanced switch technology on the market anywhere they go."

Award-winning ingredients
The Razer Blade 15 remains the most awarded laptop in the Razer Blade family as its sleek and compact design paired with best-in-class hardware has proven to be a winning combination. The optical keyboard model features ultra-fast gaming performance packed into a thin design that includes an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 GPU, an Intel Core i7-9750H 6-Core CPU, 16 GB DDR4 RAM, and a 512 GB SSD storage.

Nestled front and center is a beautiful 15.6" Full HD 240Hz display, flanked by ultra-slim bezels and custom calibrated for an immersive and rich experience straight from the box. Lining the sides is an abundance of I/O such as an HDMI port, a mini DisplayPort, one Thunderbolt 3 USB Type-C port, one USB Type-C port, and two USB Type-A 3.1 Gen 2 ports.

PRICING & AVAILABILITY
The new optical laptop keyboard from Razer is currently available only in the Razer Blade 15 Advanced for $2,649 USD with more models to follow in 2020. The Razer Blade 15 with optical keyboard will be available today from Razer.com and select retailers in United States, Canada, and China and will be coming soon to Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

For more information, visit this page.

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[Space Lynx]

yawn.

call me when she has analog keyboard, and for that price a 2080 max-q. lol.

beer me that enhanced gaming experience

 

[The Egg]

Under every key, an infrared light beam is used to detect when a key is pressed (actuation), allowing for much greater precision and speed versus conventional laptop keyboards.

Awesome! Looking forward to seeing the hard numbers on how many ms of latency this removed. I imagine they've gone to great lengths to remove latency from all other areas first, and needed these optical keys to put them over the top.

 

[Space Lynx]

Awesome! Looking forward to seeing the hard numbers on how many ms of latency this removed. I imagine they've gone to great lengths to remove latency from all other areas first, and needed these optical keys to put them over the top.

The new Lekker caps from Wooting are still better and have the least latency. Dishonored games are very fun to play on analog keyboards for example, the sneaking to instant running, etc. Quite fun. Analog is the future, these companies are just milking their old inventory before the analog invasion comes.

 

[InVasMani]

I literally said I'd like to see a optical scissor switch a few months back...well that escalated quickly...

Wooting Explores Hall Effect and Inductive Sensing for Analog Keyboards

Readers of our website may be familiar with the Wooting brand for their then, and now, excellent Wooting One analog keyboard that we examined in late 2017. It impressed us enough to be the top keyboard for the year as well, and still remains one of the few keyboards to offer analog control at...

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[TheLostSwede]

Why do they need two springs in each key though?

 

[InVasMani]

Why do they need two springs in each key though?

Perhaps just to help reduce bottoming out as well as quicker return. The smaller one might just be to cut down on bottoming out quickly while the larger one is stiffer and bigger for a quicker return.

 

[Nater]

Every time I hear about cool new laptop(s) and features, and think about buying one - I realize how much I hate the form factor. They need to make them click & snap apart. I don't care how cool that keyboard is, I'll never be able to position it to make it comfortable, being it's permanently attached to the screen and base.

I can't stand the "thin & light" trend that happened either. Any tablet/laptop I've ever had in the family, "thin and light" = weak & broken.

 

[MEC-777]

And then some dust particles get in there and start triggering false key presses... lol

 

[InVasMani]

I loath the flat key caps, but otherwise the sexiest keyboard switch award goes to Razer...I see the light...seriously though what's not to light low travel, low accusation point, and back lit lighting which because of the low travel will be brighter generally speaking because it's lower to the LED's themselves thus more light with shine thru them and scissor switches are stable keys to depress as well. I like everything about it aside from the key cap that should be a bit convex like a quality arcade button. Now the bigger problem still is that Razer hasn't made this into a standard desktop keyboard which bothers me immensely.

 

[Cranky5150]

Razer........yeah.....blood in my stool is better info than this.....