Razer fills a gap in its BlackWidow V4 lineup with a TKL keyboard featuring hotswap and Hyperspeed

Up until now, Razer’s BlackWidow V4 lineup lacked a TKL-sized model. Sure, there are 75% boards for those looking for something more compact, but if you preferred a traditional nav and home cluster layout and still wanted something space-saving, you had to look elsewhere.

This changes with the release of Razer’s BlackWidow V4 Tenkeyless Hyperspeed. The name is a bit of a mouthful, but it imports some of the best features found across the BlackWidow V4 line thus far.

One of those features is hotswap capability. The board comes included with Razer’s tactile Orange mechanical switches, but the PCB is compatible with both 3-pin and 5-pin switches, so feel free to choose any Cherry-style switch your heart desires. Lubed stabilisers, PCB tape and sound-dampening foam are already installed, though the PCB can also take in screw-in stabilisers.

It is, however, top-mounted with a steel plate, so expect a stiffer typing feel. As for the rest of the board’s construction, the top case is made of an aluminium alloy, while the bottom case is made of ABS plastic.

While the BlackWidow V4 TKL Hyperspeed doesn’t get the OLED screen of the V4 Pro 75%, you still have a dedicated media roller and three buttons for battery settings, media playback and audio controls, which can be remapped on Razer Synapse. Speaking of Synapse, Chroma RGB is here too, along with the usual 16.8 million colours, per-key RGB lighting, and integration with games applications.

You do lose out on one creature comfort, however, as the BlackWidow V4 TKL doesn’t come with a wrist rest.

As for connectivity, it’s only the second BlackWidow V4 board to have Razer’s proprietary Hyperspeed 2.4GHz connection (if you’re not counting the BlackWidow V4 Mini Hyperspeed, which was never officially released in Singapore).

Razer touts Hyperspeed as being 25% faster than other conventional wireless technology. Polling rate is also more stable, and you get the ability to connect multiple Hyperspeed devices to a single dongle. It should be mentioned, though, that the polling rate for this board maxes out at 1,000Hz.

If you do want to use other wireless connectivity options, the board supports Bluetooth 5.1 and pairs with up to three devices at once. There’s also a USB Type-C port for wired connection and charging, though Razer says that battery life can go up to 980 hours via Power Saving Mode, which reduces the polling rate, turns off RGB and pauses Synapse connectivity.

Pricing and Availability

Comparing the compact BlackWidow V4 boards, the BlackWidow V4 TKL Hyperspeed comes quite close to the non-pro V4 75%, with the exception being the broader connectivity options, as the latter only supports a wired Type-C connection.

For that, you can expect a slightly higher price than the V4 75%, though still a lot lower than the BlackWidow V4 Pro boards. The Razer BlackWidow V4 TKL Hyperspeed will go for S$229, and only comes in a black colourway. You can find it on Razer’s online store, as well as at physical RazerStores and selected retailers.