If you are looking for a gaming keyboard with a small footprint, you might want to consider the new Razer Huntsman Mini Analog.
This is a compact 60% gaming keyboard. And it is not just another 60% form factor keyboard. It is fitted with Razer’s proprietary Analog Optical Switches. These switches offer adjustable pressure sensitivity controls, such as racing throttle control or assigning two or more functions to the same key.
SPECS
PRICE: S$229.90, available in Razer Store
CONNECTIVITY: USB-C
SWITCHES: Razer Analog Optical
KEYCAPS: Razer Doubleshot PBT Keycaps
WEIGHT: 462g
For example, you can both walk and sprint using the same key in a first-person shooter depending the force you press the key.
DESIGN
In terms of design, it looks like any other 60% keyboard. But it comes in stealthy all-black from the base, top plate to the keycaps.
The base is made of plastic, but the top plate is made of aluminium for better durability. In addition, the Huntsman Mini Analog uses doubleshot PBT keycaps with a textured finish. This is said to retain their looks even after extended use.
Some of the keycaps come with side-printed secondary functions. These secondary functions can be activated by pressing it together with the Function key sited beside the right Alt key.
Out of the box, you will find a detachable braided USB-C cable offers portability for your trips to the office or LAN party. Braided cable also ensures better durability.
Being a Razer keyboard, you will not be surprised that it comes with Razer’s Chroma RGB backlight with up to 16.8 million colours and a suite of lighting effects to choose from.
PERFORMANCE
While its design might look normal, its switches are anything but normal. As explained earlier, each switch offers multiple different actuation points.
FOR
+ Great build
+ Small footprint
+ Pressure-sensitive analog switches work as advertised
+ Easy to bind extra keys to one key via Razer Synapse 3
AGAINST
– Not cheap
– Lack of arrow keys needs time to acclimatise
As such, while the Huntsman Mini Analog has 61 keys, it actually offer extra keys when you bind them to certain actuation points. For example, a light tap on a key will bring about one action, while a full press will elicit another action. In the end, you can have more than 120 “keys”.
Not to mention, binding these “extra keys” to each key is really easy with Razer’s Synapse 3 software. For instance, in a first-person shooter role-playing game like Cyberpunk 2077, you press W to walk, and press Shift + W to sprint.
With the Huntsman Mini Analog, I bind the W key to a light press and then bind Shift + W to a full press. In other words, I can use the W key for both walking and sprinting at the same time. No more doing finger gymastics!
However, if you are using this keyboard to type reports and other office work, the lack of dedicated arrow keys can proved to be a major inconvenience.
For someone who edits text a lot like myself, arrow keys are invaluable in moving among text. Thus, I really missed them when typing this review with this keyboard. While you can use IJKL keys with the Function key as arrow keys, it is a bit counter-intuitive.
But for gaming, you rarely touch the arrow keys. So this keyboard will definitely work better as a dedicated gaming keyboard.
It is a shame, as the switches do not sound very loud when pressed and offers nice tactile response. So, it actually would have been ideal for office use, if not of the lack of arrow keys.
Of course, you can always opt for the Huntsman V2 Analog if you want a full-size keyboard with arrow keys and numeric pad. But that means taking up plenty of table top space. It might be an issue if your home or work table top’s real estate is limited.
VERDICT
Perhaps, the only negative about the Razer Huntsman Mini Analog is rather hefty price tag of over S$200. You can probably get a custom keyboard for roughly around that price. However, these keyboards are not going to give your different actuation points in a single key for different actions.
So, if you want more keys for less, the Razer Huntsman Mini Analog keyboard is definitely the one to get.
RATINGS
FEATURES: 9/10
DESIGN: 9/10
PERFORMANCE: 9/10
VALUE FOR MONEY: 8/10
OVERALL: 8.5/10
