Tesoro Excalibur V2 Mechanical Keyboard Review

[section_title title=”Conclusion”]

Conclusion

So we get to the end of my time with the Tesoro Excalibur V2 mechanical keyboard, and it’s been a lot of fun without much heartache. I did miss the macro buttons of my Logitech G510 but I soon got used to swapping between profiles to run macros and even batter not having to swap to a profile when launching a game was great unless I had to enter a password and I’d disabled the key… But then I just set a key to enter my password and all was right in the world, in fact, all was better – since I didn’t have to remember my password I could change it for a stronger one, completely random lettering and numbers, so all my goodies are safer from thieving fingers.

I’m really disappointed that I didn’t get to play with the RGB version of this keyboard. The lighting displayed in the V2 was innovative in the different patterns available as well as brilliantly bright and perfectly clear lettering. The only negative is that while the main character set is well lit, characters that are triggered by the FN key sit right on the switch shaft and a lot of the light is obscured. This is the case with the U, I and O keys but the same applies to all characters triggered by the FN key. With the lighting disabled everything becomes readable again, but the LEDs are so bright and specifically placed so that the main letters are perfectly illuminated, but as for the rest, not so much.

The Switches… Well, I’ve spoken about these in depth, from the insanely loud click when they bottom out, to the bruised feeling even now as I type this review. I have to say I’m not impressed with them. There is also a lot more wiggle on the caps than I expected and those caps, although great for visibility, are just horrid to touch. This is an entry level, budget board and those caps show where the budget has been the highest priority in my opinion.

The accompanying software is fantastic, and there are so many combos that you can use, like triggering a program from a key press then automatically switching to that profile to macro-enter your password and then get in the game… absolutely fantastic. And everything is saved on the keyboard itself, so that if you switch locations to a new PC everything will still work – so long as the macro program locations are still viable of course.

Ultimately there’s a lot of great points here mixed with a handful of bad that drag the Excalibur V2 down on the points chart, but there are options out there to make it better. Get yourself some O-rings and the bottoming out noise and feeling is instantly resolved. Find yourself a nice set of keycaps or 3D print your own, and again problem solved. With a few tweaks you have a great keyboard with strong LED lighting, wonderful lighting patterns if you are into those and a very strong software accompaniment to make this an awesome gaming companion.

Starting at around £60 though it’s up to you if you would pay the extra to make this board truly your own or pay more to go up in specification. This is, after all, a beginner’s mechanical keyboard, so you might speculate that a beginner would also want to try out modifications eventually. If you can do that and it comes in at around the price of a performance board then it’s a brilliant deal, but I’m rating the board on its own here so all that possibility goes out of the window. It’s good for a starter but beware of its pitfalls.