I’ve had quite the hardware journey in 2024, reviewing several gaming keyboards over the past few months—and I think I may have saved the best for last.
The Razer Huntsman V3 Pro feels like a victory lap among the long history of keyboards built for gaming, because I don’t think I’ve used one that’s as high-performance or comfortable to play and type with, or one that has as many useful “bells and whistles” that are commonplace in the industry.
Esports-ready
In the comprehensive presentation I received from a Razer representative, it was made clear this is a premium, top-quality gaming keyboard with esports competitors in mind. But it’s not exclusive to pros on Sentinels or OpTic.
Featuring a sturdy-feeling aluminum alloy case, the Huntsman V3 Pro is built for taking back and forth between esports events, school, or work—and it’s built to last. With several unique features built in to increase performance, it’s meant for the hardcore or the hardcore among us.
I received the tenkeyless (TKL) version of the Huntsman V3 Pro, but it’s just as strong as the default version, and it allows for more desk space than usual. Its compact size also makes it more useful for travel or esports competition.
But that’s not to say it’s not useful outside of pro gaming. It’s also very comfortable to type with, and as someone who types for a living, I can say this with some authority. You can even switch profiles to customize performance based on working vs. gaming, for example.
No matter how you use a keyboard, which type of game you play, or how you work, there’s a way to customize the Huntsman.
As fast as you can press it
The Huntsman V3 Pro boasts Rapid Trigger Mode, which removes a fixed reset point on a keystroke and instead will switch the instant the key begins to travel back upward, making it feel incredibly responsive, especially with the Huntsman’s analog optical switches and something Razer calls Snap Tap.
Snap Tap is Razer’s fancy name for the ability to prioritize the last input you pressed out of multiple keys without having to release it, meaning it works best for quick directional changes. It’s quickly toggled on or off, as is everything else, with the keyboard’s FN key.
The name is just marketing lingo for the performance it brings, which is the most important aspect. It just feels different compared to other keyboards I’ve been using, with a noticeable difference in responsiveness.
And as soft as you like
I think that the most exciting feature in the Huntsman V3 Pro is its adjustable actuation, though, which enables the features above. In short, this means you can tweak how hard or how soft you have to press down on a key, and it can be adjusted individually for each key.
For example, if you want to make it easier to strafe in an FPS or TPS game, you can lower the actuation down to as low as needing to only press it down 0.1 millimeters to trigger the function. In tandem with Rapid Trigger mode, this means you can strafe your character as quickly as your fingers will press, at a near-instant rate.
With actuation turned all the way down, you barely need to press the key to make the input go through. And, like advertised, if you blow on it hard enough, you can trigger the key, too. If that’s something you wanna do, for whatever reason.
