Razer’s Huntsman V2 Analog keyboard has it all (even analog switches)

Razer has a new premium mechanical gaming keyboard that comes with all the extras. The Razer Huntsman V2 Analog is the followup to the popular and excellent Huntsman. Like the original, the V2 Analog uses optical switches and has Chroma lighting that extends to the wrist rest. But as the new name suggests, the V2 Analog modifies its optical switches with support for analog input. Now, the keyboard can tell how hard you are pressing the keys, which enables you give minute and precise inputs for games. This is on top of a suite of other upgrades and improvements that are welcome but also necessary to justify the price.

The Razer Huntsman V2 Analog is launching today for $250. And yes, that is a lot of money, but this is also Razer’s most feature-packed gaming keyboard so far. I’ve spent some time with the device, and I have no complaints so far. In fact, I think it’s a superb device that makes a lot of smart adjustments. And if you are someone who is willing to spend $250 on a keyboard, then this is probably the one to get.

Analog switches is the big feature, and that is at least interesting. But it helps that Razer updated its wrist rest to something more comfortable. It’s also great that the keyboard supports USB 3.0, which means you can get USB 3.0 passthrough. I can charge my phone from the Huntsman V2 Analog, but I can also quickly access the data on it as well. Razer also upgraded to more premium doubleshot PBT keycaps, which is actually a huge difference. Typing feels so much better on this than its predecessor from that change alone.

But the truth is that you don’t buy the Huntsman V2 Analog for any one of these features. The analog switches work with any game that supports a controller, but you’ll have to go into Razer’s software to set those keys up manually. If that’s going to change, developers are going to have to make games with more native analog keyboard support — and I’m not holding my breath for that.

And how many games do you really need analog support for? Sure, you can tiptoe forward in some shooters, but those are all built for keyboard and mouse. Developers expect players to use digital WASD, so they design their games around that. Now, I can see this working better with driving games, but the analog keys are probably not a good replacement for the analog triggers on a gamepad.

Still, it’s a neat trick, and one that I like. I think the idea of analog key switches is cool. More useful is setting up dual actions on a key where a light press does one thing and then pressing down fully activates a secondary command.

All that, combined with everything else the Huntsman V2 Analog does, makes it feel like a keyboard worth $250.