First impressions of the new Razer Huntsman Mini

On Prime Day, I bought the Razer Hunstman Mini keyboard. It was going for about $160, instead of the usual $189 at retail, so a small discount, enough to push me to the edge and click on the ‘buy’ button. Honestly I don’t really need a new keyboard, since my current one was working mostly fine. But this keyboard really caught my eye.

The Razer Hunstman Mini is a smaller version of the original Hunstman. It is a 60% keyboard with Razer Optical Switches. There are two types of switches that you can choose from. I chose the clicky optical switch and my god, they are extremely clicky (which I love) and loud (which can be annoying for some, but very nostalgic for me).

I love small keyboards. I was using a tenkeyless keyboard that I bought from Carousell called Ajazz AK33. I have no idea what brand that was, but it served its purpose well. It was only recently that one of the keys stopped working that I just had to get a new one. The previous keyboard was also a mechanical keyboard but it featured black switches, and overall, it felt more mushy and incredibly silent. While it felt OK while typing, some of the key placements like the right shift key was too small and I mostly ended up pressing the ‘up’ key instead of the shift key.

The Razer Hunstman Mini perfect. The shift keys are large and at its proper position, so no errors there while typing. The key travel is satisfying with a loud ‘clicky’ sound, which is absolutely love it. However, one thing that I realize after spending a couple of hours with the keyboard typing away was the lack of a dedicated directional keys, the ‘up’, ‘down’, ‘left’, ‘right’ keys to be precious. I had that at the very edge of my previous keyboard. The Razer Hunstman Mini does not. Rather, you need to press the ‘fn’ keys to activate the directional keys that is programmed on the ‘I’, ‘J’, ‘K’, and ‘L’ keys. I didn’t realise how much I miss using those keys until I actually had to use them from time to time. Now, in order for me to properly use the directional keys I had to use my pinky finger to press the ‘fn’ keys right on my rig before I can use them. Mostly, I use the directional keys to direct the cursor at a precious spot, or to skip ahead while watching YouTube videos or when I need to select certain neighbouring cells on an Excel. But I can’t do that without first pressing the ‘fn’ keys. A little bit annoying, one that I have to get used to it from now.

Other than the minor gripe about the lack of directional keys mentioned above, I love the overall look and feel of this keyboard. Typing on this keyboard now far more accurate than my previous keyboard. I now rarely make mistakes typing most words after the position of the right shift key is now at the correct placement on the keyboard.

The RGB effects are fun and interesting to use, although not as bright as I would like it to be. Can’t fault the keyboard for that as I got the black version, which really blocks most of the lights out coming from the RGB LEDs. You can select one of the presets by pressing a bunch of keys, or customise RGB effects to your hearts content, using the Razer Synapse software.

Overall, I really enjoy typing on this keyboard. In fact, this post was typed entirely on the new keyboard, which arrived today. I have yet to use it for gaming. No doubt it will feel just as great as I am typing on it.