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Razer unveils the Ouroboros, new BlackWidows

Published on 27th July 2012 by Gareth Halfacree

Razer's Ouroboros adjustable gaming mouse is to be joined by three new BlackWidow mechanical keyboards later this year.

Peripherals maker Razer has officially unveiled its Ouroboros gaming mouse, alongside its latest BlackWidow keyboard line entries.

First, the Ouroboros. As its bizarrely angled lines suggest, the Ouroboros - named for a historical sigil depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail, Razer apparently having run out of real-world snakes for its product names - is designed to be adjustable for individual hand sizes and grip styles.

Accordingly, the Ouroboros features a palm rest which can be adjusted by up to 20mm to alter the length of the mouse, along with two interchangeable side panels which increase or decrease the mouse's width for different grip styles. Finally, the angle of the back panel's tilt can be adjusted to ensure comfortable palm support.

Internally, the mouse includes the usual glowing LEDs along with an 8,200dpi dual-sensor optical tracking system, a claimed 1ms latency wireless transceiver, a total of eleven programmable buttons, acceleration tracking up to 50G and a rechargeable battery good for a claimed 12 hours of continuous gaming.

The Ouroboros is joined by three redesigned gaming keyboards: the BlackWidow, BlackWidow Ultimate and BlackWidow Tournament Edition. Fans of mechanical keyboards should perk up at this point: as before, all three keyboards are fully mechanical, with 50g actuation switches on all but the 45g silent-yet-tactile Tournament Edition.

The standard BlackWidow boasts a claimed 1,000Hz 'Ultrapolling' engine with ten-key rollover anti-ghosting system, on-the-fly macro recording, and support for Razer's Synapse 2.0 cloud storage system for macros and preferences. As well as the usual keys - each one of which is individually backlit - the BlackWidow includes five dedicated macro keys, audio out and microphone in jacks, USB passthrough, and a braided fibre cable for connection to the host PC. The BlackWidow Ultimate adds overall back-lighting for easier use in the dark, but is otherwise identical.

The BlackWidow Tournament Edition drops the number pad from the BlackWidow and BlackWidow Ultimate for a more portable tenkeyless design, and swaps out the 50g switches for 45g tactile yet silent versions. A detachable braided USB cable with Velcro patches improves the keyboard's portability still further, as does the inclusion of a protective sleeve. The anti-ghosting system promises full support for six simultaneous key presses or 10 when 'gaming mode' is activated. Multimedia controls are also included, as is a glowing Razer logo - just what every hardcore gamer needs. Finally, the Tournament Edition drops significant weight over the 1.5Kg alternatives, weighing just 950g.

The Ouroboros is due for release in September and the BlackWidow keyboards in August, with UK pricing yet to be confirmed - but expect the new BlackWidows to cost roughly the same as their current-generation equivalents.

30 Comments

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Phalanx 27th July 2012, 11:27

I like them. Next k/b and mouse for me I reckon, pending reviews.

.//TuNdRa 27th July 2012, 11:37

Took Razer long enough. The Ouroboros is just their answer to the R.A.T series. Specifically; the R.A.T9.

Kovoet 27th July 2012, 11:47

Saw this and I really like the look of this. Will wait till yoyo gets to see how it feels in the hand

Shirty 27th July 2012, 12:03

I was really rather hoping for some revolution with the BlackWidow, this appears to be a fairly trivial evolution at best. I mean, it looks exactly the same as the current model :|

digitaldunc 27th July 2012, 12:48

I'd love a hands on with one of these -- this, and the RAT, look incredibly uncomfortable though, like gaming with a pineapple.

longweight 27th July 2012, 13:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by digitaldunc
I'd love a hands on with one of these -- this, and the RAT, look incredibly uncomfortable though, like gaming with a pineapple.

I found the RAT to be very uncomfortable, depends on your hand size!

Speed 27th July 2012, 13:18

Who else thought of Red Dwarf when they saw the name?! :D

Shirty 27th July 2012, 13:56

Me :p

[USRF]Obiwan 27th July 2012, 14:48

i swear by my Qpad mks80

The_Beast 27th July 2012, 15:03

God I hate razer. Low quality at a high price

IvanIvanovich 27th July 2012, 15:19

At least they are making an effort to improve by offering a gaming keyboard with more than 2KRO and a tenkeyless is much better for gaming for mouse position, took them long enough. Still, there are so many better options out there, some at lower cost.

XXAOSICXX 27th July 2012, 16:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Speed
Who else thought of Red Dwarf when they saw the name?! :D

Me too :)

Star*Dagger 27th July 2012, 17:13

@The_Beast. Razer makes excellent gear for a decent price, they are very good at understanding the gaming market and creating products that gamers want. That is such a rare combination, dont be a hater

suragh 27th July 2012, 18:05

disappointing razer....

very disappointed.

The_Beast 27th July 2012, 18:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Star*Dagger
@The_Beast. Razer makes excellent gear for a decent price, they are very good at understanding the gaming market and creating products that gamers want. That is such a rare combination, dont be a hater

http://image.torrent-invites.com/images/925funny_dog_pictures_lol.jpg

.//TuNdRa 27th July 2012, 18:11

It's a modular mouse. With interchangable thumb and pinkie grips, as well as wireless, rechargeable batteries and-Wait a minute. This sounds a lot like the R.A.T9 I have.

Admittedly; The pinkie and thumb grips being held on with Magnets rather than Allen bolts is probably a nicer touch, but I know those grips are not going to move on my RAT, can Razer assure the same?

I love the way they just stuck an AA battery in there. Cyborg/Saiitek go to all the trouble of making a dedicated, roughly AA sized Li-Ion battery, and a housing to go into the mouse (Plus that awesome little receiver/charging stand). Razer just stick in a couple of contacts and say "Fork out for AA's, kids!"

For longevity, maybe, but will a Razer product really outlive the lifespan of the average Rechargeable Battery?

Ficky Pucker 27th July 2012, 19:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Star*Dagger
@The_Beast. Razer makes excellent gear for a decent price, they are very good at understanding the gaming market and creating products that gamers want. That is such a rare combination, dont be a hater

so you're telling me gamers want a 8200 dpi mouse (with more lights than a christmas tree...)

LOL

wardogz 27th July 2012, 19:34

Haha...Razer playing catchup with Saitek.....go figure :)

Sloth 27th July 2012, 19:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by .//TuNdRa
Took Razer long enough. The Ouroboros is just their answer to the R.A.T series. Specifically; the R.A.T9.

I saw that picture, then looked at my RAT 7. I then read the specs, then recalled the specs for my RAT7. I believe Razer have bought some RAT 9's for wholesale and stuck some green LEDs on them.

But in all seriousness: it's frighteningly similar. The same two side buttons, the same split left and right buttons with the flat scroll wheel in the center, a similar shaped palm rest that moves the same way (but with added tilt!) and swappable side pieces exactly like the RAT. All that's missing is the side scroll wheel and "sniper" button.

As for the keyboards... meh? Cool beans getting more mechs into the common market, but it's missing a few basic things. 1000MHz ultrapolling and 10 key roll over? Yeah, sure, it'll work just fine. Good luck pressing more than 10 keys at once, honestly. But why not just use PS/2 and have a hardware interrupt with no polling and unlimited rollover and not have to worry about it? Also, why just blue and brown switches? It's odd that they're making GAMERZ keyboards but don't offer the stereotypical gaming switches of red and black.

The_Beast 27th July 2012, 20:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sloth
I saw that picture, then looked at my RAT 7. I then read the specs, then recalled the specs for my RAT7. I believe Razer have bought some RAT 9's for wholesale and stuck some green LEDs on them.

But in all seriousness: it's frighteningly similar. The same two side buttons, the same split left and right buttons with the flat scroll wheel in the center, a similar shaped palm rest that moves the same way (but with added tilt!) and swappable side pieces exactly like the RAT. All that's missing is the side scroll wheel and "sniper" button.

As for the keyboards... meh? Cool beans getting more mechs into the common market, but it's missing a few basic things. 1000MHz ultrapolling and 10 key roll over? Yeah, sure, it'll work just fine. Good luck pressing more than 10 keys at once, honestly. But why not just use PS/2 and have a hardware interrupt with no polling and unlimited rollover and not have to worry about it? Also, why just blue and brown switches? It's odd that they're making GAMERZ keyboards but don't offer the stereotypical gaming switches of red and black.

I think the most common "gaming switches" are browns and reds. Blacks have to high of an actuation force and blues are just not suited for gaming. Good pick Razer, you really know the market

I'm not saying you can't game on blues, I have before, but it does take some time to get used to the double plunger of the blue switches especially when double tapping.

GravitySmacked 27th July 2012, 20:41

I know a lot of people hate on Razer but my old DeathAdder was the best mouse I ever owned before I got my Mamba, which is so damn comfortable to use.

I also have a BlackWidow Ultimate and whilst having a few quirks is built like a brick ****-house.

I like Razer gear, never had an issue with any of it. I used to pretty much always stick to Logitech, who make great peripherals and have fantastic support, so it took a lot for me to move over.

Sloth 27th July 2012, 20:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Beast
I think the most common "gaming switches" are browns and reds. Blacks have to high of an actuation force and blues are just not suited for gaming. Good pick Razer, you really know the market

I'm not saying you can't game on blues, I have before, but it does take some time to get used to the double plunger of the blue switches especially when double tapping.

Compared to a typical rubber dome blacks are fairly normal in actuation force, it's worked pretty well for Steelseries, Thermaltake, Mionix, et al. Considering that Razer is losing every customer who wants a linear switch to these other companies I figured they'd have added a model with blacks just to compete, possibly with a red subset product similar to how they set up their blue and brown boards.

If memory serves they went with blues in the first place because some pro RTS gamers were using them. But that's Razer for you, appealing to the GAMER crowd first and making a decent product second. They do turn out some decent products, it's just a matter of getting through the lime-green sea of overhyped advertising to find out what.

Unicorn 27th July 2012, 21:00

I fall squarely into the bracket of people who does not like Razer products. It's not that I don't like all of them and it's not even that I don't like the company, because I do believe that they try hard to please gamers, but their quality control and build quality in general in recent years has steered me away from them. My brother and I gamed on various bits and pieces of Razer hardware for several years - he had a Barracuda headset and an early version of the Tarantula keyboard, neither of which he actually liked. The headset broke at the remote after about 6 months of general use on his gaming rig, and I was able to open the in-line remote up and repair it, but the keyboard just wasn't for him, so he switched to a Logitech G11. He'd had a G15 before the Razer which had a nasty run-in with a tin of Jolt Cola at a LAN .

I've had a silly amount of Razer stuff over the years as well, both brought here to be sold with customer machines or my own personal peripherals which I've bought to use. I've tried their headsets, keyboards, mice and mouse pads and the only one that I still use today is the eXactMat hard gaming pad. As a high sensitivity gamer in FPS games, I just can't get used to a cloth mouse mat, so I've stuck with this one the whole time. All the other peripherals of theirs that I tried were fine to use, but I found the build quality to be lower than what I expected and I just sold most of them on. Included in that bunch was my own set of Barracudas, a Deathadder, Tarantula and Goliathus. I went back to Logitech mice, back to a Speedlink headset and back to a Saitek/Cyborg keyboard after trying all of those. The main problem with them all except the Goliathus (which just didn't suit my gaming setup) was plastic... Too much plastic, Razer, and not enough build quality. I think one popular hardware reviewer referred to one of their latest gaming headsets using the word "tack". That about sums it up.

ssj12 29th July 2012, 02:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ficky Pucker
Quote:
Originally Posted by Star*Dagger
@The_Beast. Razer makes excellent gear for a decent price, they are very good at understanding the gaming market and creating products that gamers want. That is such a rare combination, dont be a hater

so you're telling me gamers want a 8200 dpi mouse (with more lights than a christmas tree...)

LOL

Yes, I do.

.//TuNdRa 29th July 2012, 09:39

I honestly doubt that you'll be able to get any noticeable performance, skill or speed boost just from upping to 8200DPI. I went from 3200 to 5600DPI, and i've even used 6400DPI mice before; it's just too much. You've got to use such finite wrist movements that the slightest bit of dirt or dust slowing the mouse can throw you off. 8200 would be even more prone to those errors. It would only work if you use the mouse at 8200 DPI and threw the mouse sensitivity into the negative in some games just to make the motions somewhat possible to bear.

Eiffie 30th July 2012, 17:58

Everything I've ever bought from Razer in the past has broken within 12 months - NEVER AGAIN!

GravitySmacked 30th July 2012, 18:52

Yeah they do seem to have a reputation of hit or miss reliability.

I'm on the other end of the spectrum, my daughter still uses my DeathAdder which has been going for god knows how many years; must be 6 or so. My Mamba and BlackWidow Ultimate are still fine 18 months on.

Bokeh 30th July 2012, 21:57

I just used a friends Blackwidow today, very nice bit of kit. I Wouldn't hazard a guess as to the switch longevity of it (you guys know a lot more than I do about the switches) but to me it felt pretty heavy and solid so the body could at least take a physical beating, useful if you were taking it to LANs all the time.

ssj12 31st July 2012, 04:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eiffie
Everything I've ever bought from Razer in the past has broken within 12 months - NEVER AGAIN!

slamming your mouse and keyboard around like a thug does that. My gear always lasts. I upgrade, but my diamondback, and two other razer keyboards work perfectly. Take care of your crap, it lasts.

undertaken316 13th January 2013, 21:43

Guys I've found this awesome video review ofr the Ouroboros and it's like a Razer advertisment! Amazing check it!
http://youtu.be/8Q56524Q1LE