Razer Ornata Chroma Review

Light it up.

The last keyboard I owned and reviewed was Razer's former flagship, the DeathStalker Ultimate which was a fine keyboard but it was horribly expensive considering it's key feature was a bit pointless and it wasn't even mechanical to begin with. I decided to look for a more conventional and preferably mechanical replacement for that keyboard but then I found Razer had just announced this thing. This is the Ornata Chroma, one of the few hybrid keyboards on the market.

The Ornata uses mechanical and membrane hybrid switches which I will go into more detail on later but they are essentially a combination of standard mechanical and membrane switches. This was intriguing to me because I always liked the more cushy feel that membrane keyboards provide since I do a lot of word processing(obviously). Since I do a lot of gaming on on top of that, the more rapid and precise feel of a mechanical keyboard appealed to me also but I didn't totally like how hard contacting they are. That and I just really liked the Ornata's clean and simple looks, plus it has a wrist rest which I became quite accustomed to on the DeathStalker. 

Most of the Ornata's features are pretty standard on most of Razer's keyboards. It has a dedicated "Gaming Mode" which disables keys that might potentially screw up your whole game if you hit them on accident. It supports macros which is nice if you need them but it lacks dedicated macro keys unlike the DeathStalker Ultimate and some models of the Blackwidow which might be problematic. I've never had to use them personally so it's not a huge issue to me. The overall shape of the board is pretty beefy yet somewhat low profile. It sits at a slight angle when set flat and it can be increased using the feet in the back. The large wrist guard is made out of a padded faux leather material and is quite soft to the touch. The rest is held to the keyboard with magnets and they feel a little weak, but once attached it doesn't seem to move around much at all.

The real party trick the Ornata has up it's sleeve though is the Chroma lighting. This is basically regular spectrum lighting on roids with each individual key having a programmable LED. All of them working in conjunction make for some crazy lighting effects; hell you can even use the keyboard as an audio visualizer or even play Snake on it. There is a less expensive option without the Chroma lighting if you wish. The keys themselves have mid height keycaps so they sit slightly lower than standard height keycaps and they are slightly exposed from the base of the keyboard. Razer also seems to have ditched the somewhat goofy font they used to use on all their keyboards and replaced it with a more conservative font style that I think looks better. 

As I mentioned earlier, the keys use hybrid switches which are bit of a rare commodity when it comes to keyboards. As you can see they look pretty much like a membrane key but they feature a mechanical switch(the small silver piece) that's been integrated into the channel for the keycap. I will note that this "switch" is simply a tactile noisemaker and doesn't actually send the signal; the membrane does which may put some diehard mechanical fans off. As the result the Ornata does not audibly bottom out like regular mechanical keyboards yet still does still audibly click. You can feel it too, and it's a nice, satisfying amount of feedback. Overall it's not as loud as standard mechanical keyboards but it makes notably more noise than a regular membrane keyboard.

So bottom line; the Ornata is by far one of the best keyboards I've used and it's my new personal favorite. The hybrid keys just feel extremely nice to use, especially when paired with the rather good ergonomics of the design, plus the Chroma lighting is the icing on the cake. Hardline mechanical users may not like the membrane based switch however as the metal "switch" portion is really only there for the senses. On the whole it's a very comfortable middle ground keyboard and I think a good amount of users can appreciate the Ornata's design. Considering the price is pretty reasonable for something of this sort, I definitely recommend it.

The Ornata Chroma currently costs $99.99 or $79.99 for the non-Chroma model.