The Lycosa's backlighting is its biggest problem. With the blue LED turned off, you're left with an almost illegible keyboard, that's similar to the purposefully blank Das keyboard of a few years ago.
If you're not secure in your touch-typing prowess, the reasonable thing to do would be to turn on the Lycosa's backlighting, which reveals the letters on the keys, along with the touch pad buttons.
The problem is that the lighting is so faint that in a lit room, it gives you only a suggestion of which key is which. In a darkened room, however, the lighting is sufficiently bright. The only other option is a third profile that lights up the W, A, S, and D keys with roughly twice the brightness of the standard lighting scheme , commonly used by PC gamers as direction controls, but keeps the rest of the board unlit.
Assuming you can find the proper keys, typing on the Lycosa is a pleasant experience. The nonstick rubber coating is soft to the touch, and combined with the response of the low profile keys, we actually like the Lycosa's typing action better than Razer's higher-end Tarantula keyboard. The Lycosa's glossy plastic housing is also attractive enough, but we're less enamored with the detachable wrist rest.
For one, it requires four screws, which seems overcomplicated when surely a plastic clip or two would suffice. The wrist rest is also made from a nonvented matte plastic that seems to induce sweating. This is gross, especially if, like your reviewer he swears , you're not normally prone to sweaty palms.
If you do go so far as to install the software and can figure out how to use it, you'll find that you can make any key perform the work of several via the macro software. Razer also promises the ability to press more than three keys at a time. We take three newly announced products from Akko and combine them for a fancy-looking custom keyboard that doesn't break the bank. Posted: Nov 19th, Kailh has been on a roll off late with switches targeting keyboard enthusiasts, and we now examine five more from the brand.
Posted: Nov 15th, Available as a DIY kit or pre-assembled keyboard, the AC does so by shortening some keys in favor of dedicated arrow keys. Add a thick aluminium case and there's enough here to merit a read! Posted: Nov 8th, It's autumn in the Northern hemisphere, so get cozy and start building a custom keyboard with me! Posted: Oct 29th, Jelly Key comes back strong with two more keycap series we look at today. The first is a cute retro TV series invoking a golden era of imagination and first visitors, and the second dips into mythology by paying homage to dragon legends.
Both are good examples of intricate, hand-finished designs that truly make them artisan. Posted: Oct 19th, Razer's new Huntsman V2 TKL is an enthusiast product in a mainstream gaming keyboard skin, with two optical switches to choose from and doubleshot PBT keycaps out of the box. There is even sound dampening foam in the case, and individual switch stablizers make for an impressive typing experience.
Posted: Oct 12th, MarvoDIY is a new brand aiming to break into the custom keyboard market, and Ajazz is introducing its own series of fruit-themed switches. Posted: Oct 8th, We examine both in detail, focusing on the former courtesy the provided Kailh BOX keyboard made by Hexgears and the latter with the Hexgears M mouse. Posted: Oct 5th, Drop has been the source for many a custom keycap set, especially those manufactured by GMK. Some of the features on hand to help you do so include macro-programmable, non-slip rubber keys, backlight illumination with a WASD cluster lighting option and the essential option of a gaming mode that deactivates the Windows key.
The keyboard is well protected in a soft plastic bag, and it needs to be — everything I review these days seems to sport a shiny piano-black mirror finish, and the Lycosa is no exception. Let me just say this much about Razer gear: most people will find it at least remotely attractive. The company has a healthy obsession with the colour black, usually complemented by funky blue LED lighting unlike the gaudy orange that some use — Logitech, you used to be true to blue.
At fist glance, the thing that might strike you most about the Lycosa is its beautiful simplicity. The Lycosa features smooth, sharp lines all around, which are only broken by central cut-outs at the top and bottom. The entire board is a stylish two-tone affair, and the key layout is one of the cleanest I have seen on any gaming keyboard in years. What about macro keys? Function buttons? Media controls? But then there are users out there who would claim the standard layout is all a hardcore gamer really needs albeit usually the crowd to whom World of Warcraft is an anathema.
Razer, however, gives this argument far more weight than it might otherwise warrant, by utilising some rather clever software. Basically, every key you see is a potential macro key. Hardware manufacturers are always harping on about how gaming hardware is all about customisation, and then curtail our options by not offering as much of it as they could, even at the software level.
And though the Lycosa would have been helped by the addition of even a single button to act as macro-shift, you can always find one you never use my victim being Print Screen and employ that. You get a visual representation of the Lycosa with its blue backlighting, where keys turn red when you hover over them with the mouse.
As far as media controls are concerned, the Lycosa is simply too smooth for keys. It sure looks stylish however, especially the Razer logo, which is itself a button. Here is where the problems start.
Quite apart from being too close together, the controls, much like the rest of the keyboard, are hard to make out because the lighting is simply too dim — far more so than on competing products. For touch-typists this will not be a problem, and many gamers will know the locations of their favourite keys by heart, but for everyone else this could well be a major annoyance during daytime use.
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