Razer Pro Type Ultra review: an excellent mechanical keyboard for office automation that doesn’t forget the game

The Razer Pro Type Ultra is a keyboard with an attractive design and very neat finishes. Made up of matte white plastic (ABS) keys and an anodized aluminum faceplate, the construction looks very solid in all aspects.

The keyboard comes with a rather soft and very comfortable leatherette palm rest. It unfortunately does not attach to the keyboard with clips or magnets, but is equipped with non-slip feet and therefore does not move away from the keyboard. On the other hand, this can be a bit annoying if you regularly move the keyboard on your desk.

The keyboard itself is of course also equipped with pads of the same kind, as well as retractable feet and adjustable on two levels in order to choose an inclination angle of 6 or 9 °. They therefore offer good freedom of adaptation and are, moreover, particularly solid. There is also a small storage hatch under the keyboard for the wireless receiver.

In full format, the Pro Type Ultra has a numeric keypad and displays overall dimensions of approximately 44 x 13.1 cm. Not as compact as the TKL models, it will however satisfy those who handle numbers regularly. The function keys are fairly standard, there are some shortcuts, especially multimedia or for the backlight.

Indeed, although the keyboard is wireless, it is indeed backlit, a feature still rare on the market and reserved for a few high-end models only. This is not to be outdone since it can be set to nearly 20 levels, enough to meet any conditions of use. Note that it also illuminates the aluminum plate, an effect that some may deplore, but which did not bother us at all, even in nighttime lighting conditions. Strangely, the secondary functions of the keys with several serigraphed characters are not illuminated. This shouldn’t be too much of a hassle on a daily basis, however, unless you really don’t know where the keys are on a keyboard.

Here Razer has remained sober, with a single configurable color, which fits well with office automation, even if we would have appreciated being able to choose other colors to brighten up a desk a little or to match the keyboard to other RGB peripherals.

In terms of connectivity, again the keyboard is very complete. It can first be connected with up to three devices via Bluetooth, but also via a 2.4 GHz USB receiver equipped with Razer house technology. Hyperspeed which ensures minimum latency with an interrogation rate of 1000 Hz. If the interest is more limited in office automation, this low latency makes perfect sense during gaming sessions. The presence of this receiver also allows the use of the keyboard in motherboard BIOS, which Bluetooth connectivity does not allow. Finally, a switch located on the back of the keyboard allows you to choose between the two types of connection or to turn off the keyboard to save battery.

If this were to weaken, a red led indicates that it is not time to charge the keyboard using the USB-C cable provided. You can of course continue to write wired and the cable measures almost 2 m, a comfortable length to reach the USB port of a computer or an external charger. Razer announces more than 200 hours of use in Bluetooth as with the receiver, even if the brightness of the backlight will impact more or less the autonomy. In any case, we were able to use the keyboard for more than a week without needing to recharge it. However, the battery is not accessible, so it is impossible to replace it easily if it deteriorates over time.

The Razer Synapse software allows you to manage the lighting and sleep settings of the keyboard in more depth, for example by choosing after which period of inactivity the brightness decreases or deactivates to save battery. You can also change the key assignments and customize shortcuts or macros as needed.

If office automation keyboards do not often benefit from mechanical switches, rather intended for models gaming, their velocity can however offer a certain comfort of writing. The rebound of the keys is indeed much sharper, but this comes with a major drawback: this type of switch is much noisier than the membrane or scissor versions found on most office keyboards.

Here, Razer emphasizes the “quiet” aspect of its in-house yellow linear switches, but one should not fall into the trap: while these are quieter than the brand’s green “clicky” models, they remain clearly audible at use. The sound produced finally approaches that of the red switches of the competition, the most widespread models which are not silent. On the other hand, no resonance is to be noted when writing, a good point. The keys are guaranteed for 80 million activations, an honorable longevity.

That doesn’t take away from the typing quality on the keyboard, which is still really nice and precise, but your office neighbors will hear you typing no matter what. In game, the keyboard is worthy of a good model gaming and can be used for this purpose without batting an eyelid. It also has an N-Key-Rollover and up to 10 keys can therefore be pressed simultaneously, more than enough for video games.

For this test, we were able to use the Pro Glide XXL quilted mat (940 x 410 x 3 mm, sold separately) that can be seen in the photos. Its microtextured coating and non-slip base offer quality materials and a perfectly smooth mouse glide. Obviously, the gray colors of the keyboard and the carpet blend very well.