We’ve noticed the existence of Tesoro back in 2012 while navigating through some mechanical keyboard forums, the Durandal‘s unique design tickled our interest, and we’re lucky enough to be given the opportunity to tryout one of Tesoro’s latest mechanical keyboard, the Excalibur Spectrum, courtesy of Tesoro Malaysia.
Taking our first look at the packaging, we have a preview of the product printed at the front along with its prominent features.
Next, a brief but detailed description of the keyboard and its features can be found at the back of the box.
The content of the box is pretty straight forward, a catalogue of Tesoro’s product, User’s Guide and the keyboard itself.
As always, we would like to highlight that gold plated USB connector plays no role in improving the polling rate or signal strength. What it does here is that it keeps the connector more durable against oxidation so that you won’t end up with a flashy looking keyboard but with an ugly dull looking oxidized USB connector.
Braided cables enhances the durability of the cable and prevent unwanted damages like fraying end or breaking due to excessive pulling.
And now, the keyboard! The Excalibur line up is probably Tesoro’ first and ever attempt in making a normal looking keyboard and it turns out pretty well.
As RGB mechanical keyboards are struggling to become the mainstream and affordable gaming keyboard for everyone, the use of imitation mechanical switches is inevitable. While some might find imitation switches aren’t as good as the ones from Cherry MX, we’ve noticed some improvement in the quality over years. Kailh, amongst the earliest imitation from China, is now one of the best alternative for Cherry MX and has been supplied to renowned brands for more affordable mechanical keyboards.
Are all metal wire stabiliser made by Costar? Not quite. We’ve seen similar designs on a number of gaming mechanical keyboards, but this is definitely not one from Costar. The metal wire design here is questionable as it seems to bent a little resting against the switch. The impact on performance is pretty much negligible, but we feel pretty uneasy with though nobody seems to complain about it even though it has been implemented on pretty much majority of the mechanical gaming keyboard that uses this type of stabiliser.
The function key trigger is used to activate extra function keys on the keyboard as follows:
- F1~F5, toggle the keyboard profile which can be configured with the software.
- F6, disable Windows key to avoid accidental trigger that ruins your game.
- F7~F12, media controls for volume and media playback.
- Arrow Up / Down, toggle brightness level (4 level).
- Arrow Left / Right, toggle lighting profiles.
- Ins, toggle 6 Key Rollover mode.
- Del, toggle N-key Rollover mode.
- Home, activate macro recording.
- Pause, toggle Gaming mode (disable Windows key) or PC mode (Windows key enabled)
Numlock and Capslock indicators are retained, but the scroll lock indicator has been replaced with the Gaming mode / PC mode indicator.
The back of the keyboard looks clean and no hidden screws is spotted.
These rubber pads helps to keep your keyboard from unwanted slippage that could potentially ruin your gaming experience.
The keyboard feet comes with a rubber pad of its own to prevent slippage as well in case if you’ve decided to have your keyboard tilted.
Teardown
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Trying out the Tesoro | 鉄修羅 Excalibur Spectrum… And yes, it’s music game friendly :)Million thanks to Tesoro Malaysia for making this review possible!
Posted by Tech Critter on Monday, 29 June 2015
Here’s our attempt in checking out the build quality, solders and more. Taking the Excalibur Spectrum apart isn’t hard at all but you will need to be extra careful to not to break anything and in the process, voiding your warranty.
Everything looks clean from the top, although there’s quite a lot of unused slots. No bad solder joints spotted so far. Judging from the shape of the PCB, this is probably the same PCB used by other Tesoro keyboards with asymmetric keyboard chassis.
Clean solder joints at the back of the PCB as well, double thumbs up for Tesoro on the QC. Also, the PCB has the function of each switch labelled on to make switch replacement easier – in case if you’ve decided to keep the keyboard to the extend where the warranty expires, this is what helps to make your maintenance easier.
A tiny little capacitor, the key to all those fancy pulsing effect and more.
A continuation to the SYNC Program function, it is a unique function that lets you assign a profile to a specific program in which the profile is activated automatically when the assigned program is launched.
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Trying out the Tesoro | 鉄修羅 Excalibur Spectrum… And yes, it’s music game friendly :)Million thanks to Tesoro Malaysia for making this review possible!
Posted by Tech Critter on Monday, 29 June 2015
- Good looking and solid build quality
- Braided USB cable for enhanced durability
- Clean solder work
- Full key rollover, or better known as NKRO that allows you to register any amount of keys at the same time
- Surprisingly affordable (to be confirmed, we’ve received news that it’ll fall under RM400)
- The metal wire stabiliser is slightly bended and touching against the switch
- Macro action cannot be triggered as parallel action
- Limited option in customising lighting profile