Razer unveiled the Huntsman V3 Pro 8KHz back in October last year, alongside its tenkeyless model. It’s a tad strange, but slightly over half a year later, the base model of the latter has made an appearance. That being said, the base model keeps most of what makes the keyboard great, and it’s up to you to decide if what is lost is worth the pretty massive price reduction.
But before we get to that, let’s take a look at what the base model Razer Huntsman V3 TKL 8KHz has retained. You’ll be glad to know that the line’s signature analogue optical input is here to stay, in the current second generation iteration. With these qualities are the Rapid Trigger feature as well as customisable actuation points.
If you’re not familiar with the former, this means allowing a new input of the same button to be registered without fully lifting your finger off of it. Another extension of the tech is Snap Tap, allowing you to set what happens when two keys representing opposing directions are pressed at the same time. Though it’s worth noting that this feature is banned in a fair number of competitive gaming tourneys.
As the name suggests, there’s also the 8,000 Hz polling rate, which is overkill in most non-competitive scenarios. But those who game for prize money, it’s always nice to have options. It’s also a very CPU-intensive feature, so you’ll have to make sure your rig has what it takes to make use of it without tanking performance.
A relatively new addition to the Razer family is Synapse Web, which the Huntsman V3 TKL 8KHz is compatible with. If you don’t like installing the Synapse software onto your PC, you can adjust the settings of compatible peripherals via your web browser instead.
So what do you actually lose when you drop the Pro label? Very little, actually. The immediately obvious is the multimedia button and wheel on the top right corner. Second is the magnetically attached wrist rest. And finally, some of the LED indicators above the arrows. To make up for that, the Razer Huntsman V3 TKL 8KHz costs RM799, RM210 less than the Pro equivalent. As of writing, the base model does not yet have a full-sized variant.
