Pros & Cons
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- Bluetooth and 2.4GHz wireless
- Controls up to four devices
- Extremely comfortable for fast typing
- As quiet as a mechanical keyboard gets
- Bright backlight
- Cushioned wrist rest
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- Pricey, as befits a wireless mechanical board
- Synapse 3 software requires registration, contains ads
- Windows only, not macOS
Razer Pro Type Ultra Specs
| Interface | Bluetooth |
| Interface | RF Wireless |
| Key Backlighting | Single-Color |
| Key Switch Type | Razer Yellow (Low Volume Linear) |
| Media Controls | Shared With Other Keys |
| N-Key Rollover Support | |
| Number of Keys | 104 |
| Palm Rest | Detachable (Separate) |
| Passthrough Ports | None |
Razer gaming keyboards need no introduction, but the company made a splash with its first office keyboard last year, copping a PCMag Editors' Choice award for the Razer Pro Type. What does Razer do for an encore? Introduce a keyboard with faster switches, two and a half times the battery life, and a padded wrist rest—the Pro Type Ultra. Its $159.99 price will daunt shoppers used to seeing desktop keyboards for $49 or $79, but it's a supremely responsive, comfortable, and customizable PC control center that replaces its predecessor as our Editors' Choice pick for wireless productivity keyboards.
From Orange to Yellow
At a glance, you'll mistake the Pro Type Ultra for the $20-cheaper Pro Type—a full-size, 104-key keyboard with white keycaps above a silver top plate, with all-white backlighting instead of the customizable-per-key RGB rainbow of Razer's gaming models. The Ultra is barely bigger at 1.6 by 17.3 by 5.2 inches (HWD), not counting the cushy 17-by-3.7-inch leatherette wrist rest you can place in front of it, if you like. (The wrist rest is a separate piece, not latched or magnetically attached to the keyboard, so you can put it wherever.)
The sculpted keycaps are made of soft-touch ABS plastic, and hinged feet on the bottom rear let you prop the keyboard at a choice of two slight angles if you prefer a typing tilt. There are no frills like a volume roller or USB pass-through (though the top-row F1 through F3 keys by default mute, decrease, and increase audio volume). The F11 and F12 keys dim and brighten the backlight, which is quite bright at its peak setting.
Under the keycaps, however, things have changed. Last year's Pro Type has Razer Orange mechanical switches, which lack the noisy click of the firm Green switches that Razer's gaming-keyboard customers get served up but have the same tactile bump and 4mm travel (1.9mm to their actuation point). The Ultra uses Razer Yellow switches, which have a linear rather than tactile feel and are shallower (3.5mm travel, 1.2mm actuation point).
Coupled with sound-dampening foam, this makes for a keyboard that's not silent, despite Razer's ad copy—just about any mechanical keyboard is louder than one with laptop-style scissor switches or cheaper desktop rubber-dome switches. But it produces only a quiet clickety-clack, while rewarding fast typists with a delightfully responsive feel. Plus, mechanical switches are more durable. (Razer rates the Pro Type Ultra's for 80 million presses, eight times the projected lifespan of the switches on generic keyboards.)
The new keyboard also lasts longer between recharges. (A full charge takes about two hours with the keyboard plugged into your PC via the supplied two-meter cable, which has a USB Type-C connector at the keyboard end and a Type-A connector at the other.) With the backlight turned off, last year's model was rated for 84 or 78 hours of use, depending on whether you favor a Bluetooth or 2.4GHz wireless connection. The Pro Type Ultra hikes those Razer-rated runtimes to 214 and 207 hours, respectively. Alas, turning the backlight all the way up drains the internal battery so fast you can hear the sucking sound—Razer estimates 13 hours in that bright state.
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Making Connections, Making Changes
As I mentioned, the Razer Pro Type Ultra follows its predecessor in offering a choice of Bluetooth or 2.4GHz RF wireless, the latter using a dinky USB-A dongle that stashes behind a little door on the keyboard's bottom. A sliding switch on the back edge indicates your preference. You can configure the keyboard to control up to four devices, one 2.4GHz and three Bluetooth (selected by pressing the Fn key and 1, 2, or 3). That feature could come in handy if you regularly switch among a desktop and a laptop, a tablet, and/or a phone. A single 2.4GHz dongle will work with both the keyboard and one of Razer's productivity mice, along the same lines of Logitech's Unifying technology.
When you connect the keyboard to your PC, it offers to download and install Razer's Synapse 3 control software, which lets you set the backlight intensity (and choose a steady light or "breathing" effect), along with battery-saving timeouts. It also lets you customize or reprogram the keys to a fare-thee-well, assigning everything from multimedia and mouse controls to launching apps, cycling through paired devices, and (with another downloaded module) managing macros.
One time during my testing, Synapse 3's battery gauge turned to a red 0% when the keyboard was still about 80% charged, but the glitch never recurred. One quibble that's consistent, though: Synapse obliges you to sign up for a Razer account and contains slightly tacky links to the Razer Store, Razer Gold in-game purchases, and the Razer Silver loyalty rewards program. It's a lot of Razer-flavored push, given that the Pro Type Ultra is a productivity tool. Looking beyond that, though, Synapse 3 is a capable, easy-to-navigate utility.
Built for Comfort, Built for Speed
The Razer Pro Type Ultra is undeniably a premium piece of gear—we've never seen a wireless mechanical keyboard that isn't. Also, dust and crumbs (not that you'd ever eat at your desk, right?) fall between the keys and top plate, so you'll want to keep handy the brush or can of compressed air that users of laptop-style keyboards need less often.
Otherwise, it's hard to find fault with this fast, luxurious keyboard. It's wasted on hunt-and-peck typists, but the Pro Type Ultra easily earns an Editors' Choice award as an elite input device.