[section_title title=”Closer Look – Keyboard”]
Closer Look – Keyboard
Taking an overall look at the Tesoro Tizona mechanical keyboard (The Burning Blade), the first thing that strikes me is the purple plate around the direction keys; this is quite standard with a lot of Tesoro products and I’m not entirely convinced everyone would want a purple accented keyboard. Aside from that, we of course have the Tizona which features a US layout; if you are unsure of how to tell, the enter button is smaller and the shift button is longer on the US layout, not to mention the lack of a £ (pound) sign.
The spacebar features the Tesoro logo (letter form) across it and has 3 x small buttons just south. These keys are shortcut keys and from left to right, they open your default web browser, your default media player and your default email client. In my case this opened Google Chrome, Windows Media Player and Mozilla Thunderbird. These are quite handy as I am used to using shortcut keys on my current keyboard; the Ducky Shine 3 Year of the Snake.
Purple seems to be the accent of choice for Tesoro and it is no different here with the Tizona. The main section of purple can be found just around the top of the arrow keys. I do admire the striking colour and design of this but I’m not convinced this would appeal to the mass-market due to purple not exactly being a “popular” colour. Tesoro however seem to disagree but this is of course my personal opinion. The 3 LED lights from left to right signify the scroll lock, caps lock and gaming mode; these light up when each/or of the modes are activated.
At both sides of the 80% sized Tizona, there are 2 x magnetised blocks which allow the Tizona numpad to be secured into place. This includes a USB styled connection to not only provide power to the numpad, but allow connectivity through the main USB cable featured on the keyboard.
Here we have the Escape key (Esc) which instead of the 3 letters, it has the Tesoro mask logo on; a really nice touch. In view is of course the other side which includes magnetic blocks and a USB slot for the Tizona numpad. Touching more on the keycaps, they have a nice finish but they do feel a little “cheap” in my opinion so I hope my opinion can change after using it for a prolonged period of time!
As previously mentioned, the Tizona doesn’t use standard Cherry MX switches but another brand by the name of Kailh which are effectively the same, just using cheaper components and to the same design as Cherry use; their patent ran out so other brands can effectively copy. That being said, both switch types are identical with the only difference being the word Kailh being under the switch instead of Cherry. It is also worth noting the Tesoro Tizona doesn’t come supplied with a key cap puller so I used one I already had instead.
At the rear, we have 2 x ports; 1 for powering the keyboard via USB and the other for connecting up to a system. I’m not entirely sure why an 80% sized TKL keyboard would need a separate power lead especially as there are no LEDs behind the keys; I’m sure Tesoro know what they are doing of course but bare in mind you will need 2 x USB ports to properly use this keyboard.
The Tesoro Tizona wouldn’t be complete in design without having adjustable feet to make it more ergonomically comfortable to type on; these clips are plastic and they feel pretty robust considering. Personally I like my keyboard flat as that is just how I prefer it; each to their own!
Sticker you say? Yes the Tizona has a sticker on the rear like 99% of keyboards which contains information such as the brand, model number, rating and of course serial number; very important information in the event of an RMA!
