Razer Ornata V3 TKL Hello Kitty And Friends Edition Review – How Much Do You Like Hello Kitty?

Sanrio, the Japanese company behind the well-known Hello Kitty brand wants something a little special for the character’s 50th anniversary, and Razer is known for many collaborations before – they’ve teamed up once two years ago, so naturally the two are teaming up once again.

The result? The new Hello Kitty-themed Ornata V3 TKL keyboard that fulfils your childhood dreams. That said, we’re not here to review how cute it is (in fact, we’ll leave this to you); our job is to look at it like any other keyboard, and that means we’re going to look at the good, the bad, and perhaps the not-so-cute stuffs.

Unboxing & Walkaround

The unboxing is no different than other Razer products – presentation is key. You get immediately greeted with the keyboard full of keycaps in hot pink, with light pink on the base that also features a bit of artwork in whatever free space available in this keyboard layout.

Besides the keyboard itself, you also get an included magnetic wrist rest full of Sanrio characters drawn all over the surface. There’s also a standard user manual for the Ornata V3 TKL as the keyboard itself is identical to the standard black-colored variant, though you do get a pink sticker pack that should be similar, if not the same as Razer’s Quartz collection products.

Given that the Ornata V3 is a relatively budget model among Razer’s keyboard portfolio, you don’t get a whole lot of creature comforts in general. No dial knobs, for example, though you do get a media control key and volume controls in button form.

Meanwhile, the keyboard offers two levels of angle adjustments – 6 and 9 degrees – and we found that 6 degrees perfectly aligns with the wrist rest’s angle. That said, since the keyboard sits lower than the usual full-height keyboards, it’s easier to use if you’re already familiar with laptop keyboards, for example.

The connectivity is simply just an integrated cable to a USB-A connector, which still has that last bit of green that Razer is known for. On the keyboard’s side, there are three cable routing channels integrated directly under the keyboard, and you can place it in any of them depending on how you manage your cables on the table.

The switches used in the Ornata V3 TKL is what Razer calls “Mecha-Membrane switches”, which is essentially a fancier version of membrane switch with a bit of mechanical elements added on top of it. Razer also didn’t provide any technical details on this particular switch type, so it’s hard to say how long it may last compared to fully mechanical counterparts.

But here’s what we know – the stem is a boxed design that offers reasonable stability, though some keys can still rock side-to-side quite a fair bit. Long keys such as Shift and Space do feature stabilizers, so you can still register the key even when you’re pressing on the very edge. The total key travel seems to be somewhere in between 2.5-3.0mm, similar to the likes of Logitech G813/G913.

Specifications

Razer Ornata V3 TKL Hello Kitty And Friends Edition

Full specifications available on support webpage.

Body Material	Plastic
Form Factor	Low-profile Tenkeyless (TKL)
Wrist Rest	Hard surface, magnetically attached
Keycap Material	UV-coated ABS
Switch Type	Razer Mecha-Membrane hybrid switch *No detailed switch specifications provided.
Polling Rate	1000Hz
Anti-ghosting / NKRO	Yes, rollover unspecified
Onboard Lighting	8 RGB zones
Onboard Memory	None
OS Support	Windows 10, Windows 11
Connectivity	Integrated wired braided cable, USB Type-A No USB passthrough ports
Battery	None
Colors	Pink with special artwork
Dimensions	363 x 144 x 31 mm
Weight	644g

User Experience

As far as software features go, the Ornata V3 TKL is fairly basic – you do get some level of customization, though the inclusion of HyperShift is a pretty big deal if you run plenty of macros. RGB customization is limited to 8 zones from left to right, so the lighting customization is fairly limited as far as Razer products go. Note that any custom RGB and HyperShift presets will require Razer Synapse running on the PC, as the keyboard has no onboard memory function.

The Good

The Razer Ornata V3 TKL Hello Kitty and Friends Edition is, of course, made for Hello Kitty friends first and foremost. For what it’s worth, the keyboard itself is decent to type on if you aren’t picky on the typing feel. If you’re already long familiar with low profile keyboards (say, laptop keyboards) and have difficulty picking up the speed on full height ones, this should be a decent middle ground as far as desktop keyboard goes.

Continuing on that, the included wrist rest does help with postures just a little bit and helps improve the typing experience as well. It’s not cushioned, but for the price of an Ornata V3 they’re working just fine (ignoring the branding tax, that is). The better part of the keyboard mostly comes down to its programmable keys thanks to HyperShift, which essentially gives you an extra 80 or so keys to map any specific actions.

The Bad

That being said, it can definitely do with some improvements, starting with the cables. For the sake of longevity, a detachable cable would be a good start – you really don’t want to ditch this special edition keyboard just because the cable is broken for whatever reason and have no ways of replacing it.

Another downside of the keyboard is the build quality. While the switches contains some mechanical elements that clicks on actuation, it’s fairly inconsistent depending on which key you press. Here’s a short audio clip below for reference:

It’s not quite the mechanical experience that you’d get from higher-end keyboards which often comes with more consistent auditory feedback, so you’ll have to manage your expectations here. Keep in mind that it’s mostly the membrane that’s dealing with the actuation, whereas the mechanical parts gives you the clicking noise.

While Razer’s spec sheet says this keyboard comes with anti-ghosting, what we found is the claim is not exactly correct. Based on our testing, the rollover is seemingly random, with some keys already getting blocked by holding just two keys (for example, holding S+D blocks O key, ‘ (apostrophe), / (slash), Page Down key and Right key). Also, holding a rare combination of W+A+S+D+Up will cause the Right arrow key to register as ‘7’ on the top number row. Odd.

In terms of RGB customization, it’s also fairly limited with only 8 zones available instead of per-key. Even then, turning on the RGB can be a bit visually awkward as the legend on keycaps are often hard to see due to the bright pink colors of the keycap. As far as my preferences go, I have to set the RGB as white only if I want the legends to be legible (though I tried this at a brighter environment, so your mileage may vary here). Adding to that, you’ll have to keep Synapse running in background if you wish to apply any presets.

Verdict

Finally, let’s address the price. This edition of the Razer Ornata V3 TKL will cost you RM699 MSRP – which is exactly double the price of the standard variant (that comes with black). That said, we do see Razer’s official Shopee store selling the keyboard at RM539, though it’s still a significant markup over the regular model. Still, You’re probably not paying for this one unless you’re the Hello Kitty superfan, and in that case, this review is probably not going to stop you, would it?

So I’ll just close this review out with a simple question: how much do you like Hello Kitty?

Special thanks to Razer Malaysia for providing the Razer Ornata V3 TKL Hello Kitty and Friends Edition for this review.