What Keyboard Does Martoz Use?

Martoz's keyboard history

Martoz has gone back and forth between Razer and SteelSeries boards. The history runs through five periods across three different models, and he has gone back to an old board twice: the Razer Huntsman TE once and the SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL once. In total he has spent 12.5 months (1.0 years) on the Huntsman TE and 13.3 months (1.1 years) on the Apex Pro TKL.

The Razer Huntsman V3 Pro TKL Black has ended that pattern. It is his longest period at 23.5 months (2.0 years), and it is still running. It follows the Apex Pro TKL and stays in the Huntsman line he had used earlier, while all of his boards have been TKL.

Switches and actuation

The Huntsman V3 Pro TKL is sold with Razer Analog Optical switches. These are analog switches, which register how far a key is pressed instead of working as a plain on/off contact. For a game like Fortnite, that is the main reason to look at this kind of board.

The PCB is non-hotswappable, so the switch the board ships with is the one you keep unless you are ready to solder. If you want to change switches later, look at the Wooting 80HE. It is hotswappable and offers a long list of Lekker, Geon and TTC options.

Key binds

Movement sits on the left side of the board. Sprint is on D, crouch on L-Shift and jump on L-Ctrl. Weapon slots 3, 4 and 5 are on A, V and B, with Use on X.

Building is spread across the keyboard. Floor is on Z, stairs on S, trap on C, rotate on Q and building edit on Space Bar. Wall, roof, the first two weapon slots and the harvesting tool are not on the keyboard at all. They sit on other inputs, with the harvesting tool on a joystick button.

Turbo Building, Confirm Edit on Release and Disable Pre-Edit Option are all switched on.

Should you buy Martoz's keyboard?

The Huntsman V3 Pro TKL suits anyone who wants a TKL with analog optical switches and does not plan to swap them. It is a fairly substantial board, so it fits a desk with room to spare. It also has RGB.

If you want something close in size, the alternatives trade off in different ways:

• Wooting 80HE Black is 70 g heavier, 1.8 cm narrower and 1.06 cm lower, and 0.2 cm longer. It is hotswappable and sold with a wide choice of switches. 8 pros use it now.
• Wooting 80HE+ Frost has the same dimensions and weight differences as the 80HE and the same switch options. 6 pros use it now.
• SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL (2023) is 0.4 cm shorter and 0.9 cm narrower, with the same height. It uses OmniPoint 2.0 switches and a non-hotswappable PCB. It is also a board Martoz used before his current one. 4 pros use it now.

The Wooting boards are the pick if you want to try different switches. The Apex Pro TKL (2023) is the closest in footprint.