Tesoro Red Mechanical Switch Blue LED Backlit Illuminated Mechanical Gaming Keyboard (TS-G7NL-V2 (RD))

Great Keyboard, oh but wait! Maybe not? The finer details it lacks...Mixed feelings on this keyboard...It's a great keyboard but there are a few things that might be a turning point for me. A MAJOR issue is my MOBO does not see it on boot so I can not get into my BIOS. Once window starts it works great but since it's not posting on my motherboard bios it's a big issue as I like to get in there and change settings often! Why would they do this? I emailed Tesoro and asked and they said this is the first time they heard of this. As suggested I downloaded and updated my keyboards BIOS and it still did not post. Be aware of the keyboard BIOS update because it's not very clear what it's doing but you have to run it twice, or I forget the details now but many people think it just bricks their keyboard but you actually have to run it twice but nowhere does it say this.This keyboard could be a defect but I doubt it. I think something is going on with how it handles power from the usb ports. Granted it could just be an issue with my ASUS board but I doubt that. Another big issue for me is the switches. They feel just clunky. I got my keyboard with the brown switches, Kailh brown switches. They are a bit more wobbly than Cherry MX switches and it shows most to me on the browns because the browns have this slight dull long bump with no audio feedback. It's a funky feeling tactile feel that I don't care for right now. Maybe I will get use to it but for now not so much. They don't feel like a sharp quick snap like the Cherry Browns and I barely feel them at all on keypress and only feel it sometimes on the key rebound. I have sensitive sissy finger tips I guess so this is noticeable to me. It's a weird feeling and like I said just dull sluggish bump I don't like. Maybe some prefer this? I own a Rapoo V500 with the older Kailh Yellow switches which I believe are their early imitation Cherry Red switches and they work great! I like the feel of those even though I like a slight tactile click sound and feel. The Cherry Blues are just too loud for me or I would have tried Kailh's Blue. Maybe Kailh's blues are not as tactile as Cherry's? Also a note the keys use wire stabilizers. Most keyboards other than the ones that use Cherry MX switches do this but I don't like them. This keyboard's spacebar has the wire but it's bent against the switch and does not look right at all. Why did they do this? It puts unwanted pressure on the outer hinges it looks like. I have no clue how long it will last before it needs to be lubed. But just that tad bit of friction eats up or pushed the lube away eventually. I have a link of this keyboard taken apart so you can look for yourself.http://www.tech-critter.com/2015/07/unboxing-review-tesoro-excalibur.htmlSo all this aside the keyboard seems great! Oh wait. One more thing, you can't fully edit the keys like I wanted. For example I can not assign the windows key to something else. Some keys are like this. I don't like this because I wanted to be able to switch my "FN" key and also my volume control keys but can't do it. A major bummer. So I will give this keyboard a try for a few weeks and see how it goes. Right now I want to reach for my Rapoo V500 which was only 60 bucks but it does not have the tenkeys (Side number-pad). Some like this and I am getting use to it but I miss my tenkeys. I have to keep it hooked up anyways because I can't get into my BIOS on boot anyways with Tesoro's Excalibur. Hopefully this can be fixed with another BIOS update but I've not heard back via email yet from Tesoro on it.So some things I like. It's a slick looking keyboard. The matte black feels nice but kinda weird too. It feels like there is a small coating of dust on it. But looks great! LEDs look great! I have mine turned way down because it's distracting. I am using some custom keycaps in some places. Granted the newer keycaps have a slight lower profile. I installed some rubber o-rings to dampen the bottom out sound but they change how the board feels now and I don't like it. I like the keyboard enough to keep it awhile and give it a try... I think they did a great job in some places but it still feels as if they are not quite there yet on making an outstanding keyboard. I may get annoyed soon and try a FILCO I have my eye on for the same price because the feel has already annoyed me enough just typing this review... Sorry to be a Killjoy here. Everything good about this keyboard has been said by others but don't buy too much into it. Yes it's good but if the details I mentioned are important to you then I think you might feel the same as I do.*** An update: I've found the rubber paint they used to paint the entire keyboard to be total garage in a way because it scratches very easy with fingernails. I barely have nails but while I had this apart I tried just lightly dragging my nail across the keycap and wow, it took the pain right off! terrible, just terrible! Why would they do that for a keyboard over $100 usd? I am very disappointed in this. Only time will tell until just normal typing will wear down the paint at which point we owners will have to buy new keycaps or most likely just purchase a better keyboard. I can't believe they did this on such an expensive keyboard. wow.Also you can set separate keys with it's own color. It took Tesoro over a week to reply to my email but they told me how to set individual keys a separate color. It's done using the included software but there was not any instructions in the booklet/manual on this. I could not fgure it out on my own just from playing with the software. Let me post Tesoro's reply email to me about doing this:"" As for the single key, Please go to "Lighting effects" => "Spectrum colour" => Select the key and then the colour. ""Also I like to add that Amazon is amazing. I was getting very disappointed in the % of items I ordered from them being defective. Nearly a 50% rate! I know this is not their fault but they should get tuff on companies that use them to sell some of their lesser quality or higher failure items. Despite that Amazon was quick to reply to my emails and try to remedy the problem and I admire them for that! They truly seemed to care. So I am impressed with their support and help.

Well, this arrived fairly quickly, in a beat up package, but the product packing was perfect. Not much to complain about in the delivery.As to the product itself, I've only just purchased it and will update if there any problems. A quick overview:It's great, for me. But there are some things to consider. I have brown switches, and while I would have preferred Red, they were about 20$ more so I settled. They are very responsive, and a bit clacky(to be expected of browns). Each individual key has an RGB LED embedded in the switch. This is good for lighting and design, however, this may be a problem if a switch ever needs replacing down the road. On to the keycaps, I'm not a fan of the font, it's not the worst, but a more standard look would have been preferred. If you're not into the gameresque lettering, this may not be for you. As well, while this is standard from Mechanical keyboards, the keycaps are bit... sharp. Basically, they have stiff corners, so if you're coming off a chiclet, scissor switch, soft rubber keycap, or flush cap design, you may find your thumbs being bothered by the edge of the space bar. This is really just something to get used to though, not really an issue if you plan to use long term. The switches themselves are relatively uniform. You see a lot of complaints about Kailh switches, saying they all feel different. Maybe I got a lucky board, but the only difference I can feel is between normal keys and long keys(space, tab, shift, caps, etc.) Basically these have a bit of a different sound, feel about the same to me, but I am coming off a membrane board, that requires twice the force, so I'm still in the habit of bottoming keys out.The build quality is phenomenal, I got this board on sale for around 69$. It feels solid, is rather heavy(Around 5 lbs), and there is virtually no flex. There is a thick nylon cable, and even the foldout legs are rubberized to help prevent slipping. I'm not a fan of the slogan on the board, above the arrows, it says "break the rules," thankfully it's hardly visible. It's nothing really personal, however, I feel weird slogans are associated with those really low end boards, and while this one actually makes sense, it looks more high quality without anything of the sort. About the only issue I feel there is in quality are the keycaps, and it's no big deal. It's only my spacebar, and I think it's a standard for keyboards, but it kinda wiggles and makes a spring/metalic sound on keystroke. The switches are standard Cherry style, and seem to have the plus shaped stem, so finding replacement caps in the event they should wear out should be easy.The Software... is a little clunky, you have to apply and exit on every setting and, there's less customization than I hoped. I'm still trying to figure out how to assign keys their own color, if it's even possible. There isn't really much of a reason to mess around with profiles unless you wanna quick swap to one where every key is a macro, or you have some sort of synth program profile. Yes, you can reassign any key to any other, however, there are no dedicated macro keys, so it's a bit pointless, as assigning keys for a game sake is often done in game. Which brings us to game mode, it turns off windows key, as expected. You can edit the base color scheme, but the last two patterns are the only multi color ones I can find, rainbow wave and the gaming key highlights.So, things to consider before buying... The lights above the numpad are always blue, the software is a bit clunky, the software requires a .rar file opener to unzip the files, be very careful if you have to download one, as many do have viruses embedded to scam people in need. I suggest finding something from the Windows Store for free, if you can, there were some with decent ratings. Customization for per key coloring seems to be somewhat limited. Strange logo branded, but barely visible. Strange font. And switch type, remember I'm reviewing brown.Overview of Switch types:Blue = Click + Clack. Click during actuation, which is half the keystroke essentially, and clack on bottoming out.Brown = Clack. No click. Clack on bottoming out. There is a noise if you just barely press, not bottoming out, and listen carefully, but it's no like Blues.Red= No click, no clack. These are the most silent, and require the least amount of force. People sometimes complain they couldn't tell when they actuated the keystroke, these are perfect for gamers, particularly streamers or people who record while playing, so the keystrokes can't be heard.Blacks = From what I understand these are like Reds, in that they make very little sound, however they require more force to actuate. I have seen comparisons to membranes, essentially having to bottom out no matter what, and require more force.Membrane Keyboards = boards that are all one board... if that makes sense, no keyswitch can be replaced, once it's dead you can't really fix a singular key on it. Keycaps can be replaced, as can the rubber dome sheet between board and keys. These tend to require around twice the force as your average Mechanical keyboard. Chiclet style keyboards seem to be a bit of an exception to this, in my experience.

Truly impressed by the keyboard. I wanted blue accents and while the listing didn't specify the picture showed blue colour. When it arrived (slightly later than suggested) the keyboard box was marked as red led. I almost returned unopened but couldn't resist looking at it. I plugged in and to my delight was blue. Now about the keyboard, the keys feel amazing compared to a normal keyboard super smooth with a decent long travel. At first I thought the long travel may reduce my poor speed and ability further, but this is simply not the case. My typing speed has increased probably double what it was in certain situations, and generally 1/3faster. My mistakes are much less frequent. I was bowled over by the difference compared to all the keyboards that I've used in the past, so much so I want to buy another for work and tell everyone I know to buy one similar. The lighting effects are nice with different effects, personally I'd like a really dim option(barley lit) but that's just me. I would have given 6stars for the keyboard itself, I dropped to 4 for slightly long delivery time from the supplier I picked (was substantially cheaper than the others). I have not used the macros yet so can't comment on those.Update: having used it irregularly for some time now I do find when I am fast typing I occasionally get extra letters, I suspect it happens when I do not fully depress the key or maybe start pressing a second key while still depressing the first one. It's possible that perhaps that sensitivity could be adjusted somehow but I don't use my pc often anymore, or maybe it's just because I haven't used the keyboard for months and the letter e was just a little sticky as it wasn't happening at all while writing this update..

Clunky and sits high. I didn't see what the fuss is about these being better to type on. It's noisy too. But the lighting is really nice, so it looks pretty...hmm.But the main trouble was it makes my PC freeze at boot up. I had it for a couple of months and put up with it for a while, but then it kept happening on every boot. So I had to unplug it, let Windows boot and then plug it in each time. I tried their support channels but they did not respond at all, nor on Facebook, which I saw hasn't had a post since new years day. So I had enough and sent it back to Amazon who were great.When you spend this much on a keyboard you expect better in all respects. Disappointing.

Feels tactile and the RGB lights are fantastic. The reason it's not 5 stars is the software used to manipulate lighting functions will not install for me and crashes during. I've contacted Tesoro numerous times and not had a reply once. So purely for customer relations and product support, it receives a two star.**EDIT**As of 10/03/16 I got in contact with Tesoro's head of sales and finally he told me that the method of contact through their website was pretty much defunct. I suggested it be fixed, as well as that he sorted out my issue for me no problem so I have increased my review from 2 to 4 stars.

This time I decided I wanted to get a mechanical keyboard with a back-light. It was between this and the Razer one which is roughly £40 more and looks much worse, because I didn't want to spend over £100 on a keyboard. It looks better than the images when you see it and you can feel the quality and weight as soon as you take it out the box which was the first thing I noticed.Pros:+++ price. considering other mechanical keyboards with the same features are far more expensive with little/nothing to justify this price gap++ back-light is really good, with multiple settings e.g. only lighting WASD and 1,2,3,4 etc. for gaming+ feels really good quality when using it, does not seem cheap at all. things like the cable are thick and good length unlike similar priced keyboards such as my previous one made by cherry, and it has a good weightcons:- I personally do not like the font used compared to a standard one, but that is personal preference. the logo also looks quite bad, but again that isn't a problem with how the product itself functionsoverall: after 2-3 weeks using it I much prefer it to my older keyboard and would recommend it to people who want to spend >£100 but also want a solid keyboard for stuff like gaming and prefer to have the option of using a back-light. I would recommend it over other similar priced keyboards as I believe this is good value without sacrificing quality

I purchased this keyboard in May 2015 and I have been pleased with it apart from an annoying fault that has developed; certain keys either don't register at all or register too many keypresses. At the moment, the keys '1', 'a' and 'f' all give me between 0 and 5 characters randomly. Other than this the keyboard itself is great but I wouldn't buy one again unless I had no other option.