This is my review of the Razer Arctosa Gaming Keyboard. This review will cover most if not all of the Arctosa's abilities and my experiences with them. It will reflect my honest opinions about this gaming keyboard, regardless of whatever you might think about the makers of this keyboard, Razer, or the keyboard itself. However, I will not neglect the reader when it comes to mentioning the various parts of this keyboard. I received the Razer Arctosa on Friday, January, 28, 2011, and I have been using it ever since (That isn't very long, I know).
The Razer franchise has been known as the leader in gaming peripherals, and for good reason. Their products, although not the cheapest in the world of gaming peripherals, provide a simpler, uncomplicated look that shines of beauty and build quality (I know matte black and a pitch black mirror finish may not be your interpretation of beauty, but bear with me) and their less fancy products, such as the one I am reviewing today, have the functionalities of a more high end keyboard, but without all the expensive bells and whistles that make high end gaming keyboards so popular (i.e. backlighting on keys and extensive macro programs [I know the Arctosa has macro capabilities, just not as good as other keyboards like the Anansi or Black Widow.].). Mechanical keys are neither bells nor whistles, but they are a high quality luxury that the Arctosa just can't have considering that it's marketing to those with smaller budgets, like me. On to the actual review.
The Razer Arctosa is a gaming keyboard that uses the traditional rubber dome switch of a generic keyboard instead of the pricier but higher quality mechanical key switches featured in Razer's other keyboards, like the Black Widow or Anansi, mentioned above. The keys on this keyboard are thin, almost like a laptop's, but not quite. They still retain some elevation over glossy black finish on the shell of the keyboard. I recommend purchasing the Silver version of the Arctosa, as the keys on the Black version are nearly impossible to see without either looking up close at the keys or shining a bright light over them. I found the keys to be very responsive, but they move around a bit if you try to pan the keys around as if they were analog sticks. The Caps Lock/Number Lock/Scroll Lock LEDs at the upper-right corner of the keyboard are excessively bright, and I would have preferred it if Razer had toned down the brightness on these lights. They are a huge contrast to the rest of the keyboard, and I left them off most of the time due to the eye strain produced from just having the one of the LEDs on (That would be the Number Lock, which I kept on all the time with my previous keyboard). Also in the upper-right portion of the board are the media control panels and Razer logo. Although seemingly identical to the Razer Lycosa's media pad, with was touch sensitive, Razer opted to go with plain buttons with a glossy sticker over the whole panel. Although some may see this as cheap, this cost-reducing change was, in my opinion, for the better. The buttons seem more reliable than the touch pad would ever be, as I have never owned a Lycosa, in keyboard or wolf spider form. The Razer logo in the center of the media panel has two different functions. One, it enables a "gaming mode" which means that it disables the Windows key. Pressing the Windows key can be a very frustrating experience during an intense first person firefight or in a real time strategy game. Pressing the Windows key will bring you out of your game and onto your desktop. Although this may be handy in some cases, it is frustrating to a gamer who just raised his chances of failure considerably and will spend the next minute or so trying to get back into the game. Two, the Razer logo can switch profiles, which will be discussed in the following paragraph. Also included (and attached) to the Razer Arctosa is a wrist pad, which is very comfortable, but adds a considerable chunk to the keyboard's overall size that you may want to take out.
Diving into the more technical aspects of the keyboard are its macro capabilities and its selective anti-ghosting around the WASD gaming cluster. "Ghosting" occurs when you press three to four keys on the keyboard at the same time, which causes signal failure and makes your computer ignore some of the actions included in your key presses. The Arctosa has none of these problems, and while playing Team Fortress 2 I noticed that I could run diagonally, crouch-jump, and give out voice commands all at once without a single action being ignored. I have to admit though, the anti-ghosting is not very noticeable when you play, but it does make a difference in the long run. Now to discuss the macro capabilities. Packaged along with the keyboard is a driver installation disk, which installs the drivers that the keyboard needs to program macros into keys and enable player profiles. These profiles can be outfitted with customizable macros, which are sequences of key presses compacted into a single key. Each and every one of the keys on the keyboard can be remapped to a macro. These profiles can be switched by pressing the Razer logo and one of F1-10 buttons at the top of the keyboard like you would type a capital letter using the Shift key. These profiles allow you to create up to ten different sets of macros, and I've only just begun to experiment with the different possibilities this feature has to offer.
Overall, this keyboard is a must buy for gamers looking for a low-budget, quality keyboard. The one millisecond response times of the keys really shows (especially if you're switching weapons with "Q" in TF2). I also forgot to mention that the keyboard can be lowered and raised with a flip-out stand for the keyboard, which I believe to be relatively sturdy and holds the keyboard up well. I won't be giving this keyboard a rating, but I will say that this keyboard is fantastic given its price, which is $50 at Razerzone.com. I have loved this keyboard ever since the day I got it (Three days and counting.).
For additional information about the Razer Arctosa, visit http://www.razerzone.com/ for more details about the Razer Arctosa and their other products.
P.S. Sorry about not having pictures. Although, searching up pictures on Google shouldn't take too long.
The Razer franchise has been known as the leader in gaming peripherals, and for good reason. Their products, although not the cheapest in the world of gaming peripherals, provide a simpler, uncomplicated look that shines of beauty and build quality (I know matte black and a pitch black mirror finish may not be your interpretation of beauty, but bear with me) and their less fancy products, such as the one I am reviewing today, have the functionalities of a more high end keyboard, but without all the expensive bells and whistles that make high end gaming keyboards so popular (i.e. backlighting on keys and extensive macro programs [I know the Arctosa has macro capabilities, just not as good as other keyboards like the Anansi or Black Widow.].). Mechanical keys are neither bells nor whistles, but they are a high quality luxury that the Arctosa just can't have considering that it's marketing to those with smaller budgets, like me. On to the actual review.
The Razer Arctosa is a gaming keyboard that uses the traditional rubber dome switch of a generic keyboard instead of the pricier but higher quality mechanical key switches featured in Razer's other keyboards, like the Black Widow or Anansi, mentioned above. The keys on this keyboard are thin, almost like a laptop's, but not quite. They still retain some elevation over glossy black finish on the shell of the keyboard. I recommend purchasing the Silver version of the Arctosa, as the keys on the Black version are nearly impossible to see without either looking up close at the keys or shining a bright light over them. I found the keys to be very responsive, but they move around a bit if you try to pan the keys around as if they were analog sticks. The Caps Lock/Number Lock/Scroll Lock LEDs at the upper-right corner of the keyboard are excessively bright, and I would have preferred it if Razer had toned down the brightness on these lights. They are a huge contrast to the rest of the keyboard, and I left them off most of the time due to the eye strain produced from just having the one of the LEDs on (That would be the Number Lock, which I kept on all the time with my previous keyboard). Also in the upper-right portion of the board are the media control panels and Razer logo. Although seemingly identical to the Razer Lycosa's media pad, with was touch sensitive, Razer opted to go with plain buttons with a glossy sticker over the whole panel. Although some may see this as cheap, this cost-reducing change was, in my opinion, for the better. The buttons seem more reliable than the touch pad would ever be, as I have never owned a Lycosa, in keyboard or wolf spider form. The Razer logo in the center of the media panel has two different functions. One, it enables a "gaming mode" which means that it disables the Windows key. Pressing the Windows key can be a very frustrating experience during an intense first person firefight or in a real time strategy game. Pressing the Windows key will bring you out of your game and onto your desktop. Although this may be handy in some cases, it is frustrating to a gamer who just raised his chances of failure considerably and will spend the next minute or so trying to get back into the game. Two, the Razer logo can switch profiles, which will be discussed in the following paragraph. Also included (and attached) to the Razer Arctosa is a wrist pad, which is very comfortable, but adds a considerable chunk to the keyboard's overall size that you may want to take out.
Diving into the more technical aspects of the keyboard are its macro capabilities and its selective anti-ghosting around the WASD gaming cluster. "Ghosting" occurs when you press three to four keys on the keyboard at the same time, which causes signal failure and makes your computer ignore some of the actions included in your key presses. The Arctosa has none of these problems, and while playing Team Fortress 2 I noticed that I could run diagonally, crouch-jump, and give out voice commands all at once without a single action being ignored. I have to admit though, the anti-ghosting is not very noticeable when you play, but it does make a difference in the long run. Now to discuss the macro capabilities. Packaged along with the keyboard is a driver installation disk, which installs the drivers that the keyboard needs to program macros into keys and enable player profiles. These profiles can be outfitted with customizable macros, which are sequences of key presses compacted into a single key. Each and every one of the keys on the keyboard can be remapped to a macro. These profiles can be switched by pressing the Razer logo and one of F1-10 buttons at the top of the keyboard like you would type a capital letter using the Shift key. These profiles allow you to create up to ten different sets of macros, and I've only just begun to experiment with the different possibilities this feature has to offer.
Overall, this keyboard is a must buy for gamers looking for a low-budget, quality keyboard. The one millisecond response times of the keys really shows (especially if you're switching weapons with "Q" in TF2). I also forgot to mention that the keyboard can be lowered and raised with a flip-out stand for the keyboard, which I believe to be relatively sturdy and holds the keyboard up well. I won't be giving this keyboard a rating, but I will say that this keyboard is fantastic given its price, which is $50 at Razerzone.com. I have loved this keyboard ever since the day I got it (Three days and counting.).
For additional information about the Razer Arctosa, visit http://www.razerzone.com/ for more details about the Razer Arctosa and their other products.
P.S. Sorry about not having pictures. Although, searching up pictures on Google shouldn't take too long.