[section_title title=”Closer Look – Keyboard”]Closer Look – Keyboard
The keyboard, once out of the box, looks very impressive. The keyboard takes on the appearance of brushed metal with the palm rest being a cross patterned metal effect, with 4 bolts around the exterior that give it an industrial, rugged quality.
The Back of the keyboard is quite plain, with a label in the middle that lists the keyboards details. One thing to mention is that feet of this keyboard have 2 available settings, which means you have an extra level of customisability available.
The switches on the keyboard give a good tactile response with a very audible click. They feel slightly stiffer than the cherry blue switch but still have the mechanical quality to them we find in Cherry MX switches. Each switch has an RGB LED upon it which provides the lighting for each key cap.
Alongside the LEDs for each key, there is a light bar on each side of the keyboard that produces light to the sides of the keyboard. These really give an impressive feel to the keyboard when using it in the dark or dimly lit areas. The light strips are the lighter areas,
There are the standard media type keys on the function row, including the profile keys that can be used to change profiles, but more on that later.
Below the space bar of the keyboard are the 3 thumb keys, these provide quick access to 3 macro buttons for use while gaming.
Above the keypad, on the right side of the keyboard is the status indicators and the Tesoro Logo, which has a little light bar underneath it to light it up when the keyboard is plugged in. A nice little touch that adds a bit of style. The left and right indicators are both buttons that place the keyboard into ‘gaming mode’ and the macro instant record button.
On the edge of the keyboard by the Tesoro logo is the USB hub and mic/audio jacks, alongside a 5V DC plug.
The DC jack is present as it provides 1000mA as opposed to 500mA which is the standard for most USB 2.0 plugs. This means that anything low powered like a mouse or a USB stick would be ok but if you wanted anything beefier in there like a passport style external hard drive then they would not be powerful enough. The jack therefore can be used to bump up the power available to the USB ports and give them enough juice to run any USB device.
The cable is a high-quality braid that has 2 USB connectors and 2 x 3.5mm jacks, for the mic and headphone pass through ports.
Upon plugging in the keyboard, you get no lights apart from the light on the Tesoro logo. Do not despair however, you just need to activate the lights. The lighting can be put through 6 modes by pressing: function+num8 to go up through the modes or function+num2 to go reverse through the modes again. The modes go through full zone lighting and various others such as just having the main gaming zones lit up (WSAD etc). I did notice however that when the keyboard was lit up, there are a few gaps, particularly between the thumb keys and next to the pause key, where there was a gap that let you see an illuminated circuit board underneath, which is red in colour. I feel that this is a bit of a shame as it detracts slightly from the sense of quality of the keyboard.
When you select a profile on the keyboard, it automatically puts the keyboard into gaming mode. This mode disables the Windows key, which is useful for gaming and appears to becoming a staple feature. The only way to get the keyboard out of gaming mode and back into PC mode is to press the gaming mode button which is situated just below the Tesoro logo.
Now we have gone over the keyboard, let’s talk about the software used to configure this gaming keyboard and what it is capable of.
