| Great Keyboard - With Caveats |
| I've used this keyboard for about 6 months now, and this review is based on my experience over this span of time. I am an avid gamer, and play mostly FPS (First-Person Shooter), RPG (Role-Playing Games) and RTS (Real-Time Strategy) games.
Build Quality: 9/10
The keyboard is very well constructed, with a solid feel, and plenty of space. This is not a keyboard for people with limited desktop real estate. The lighting on the keyboard is very pleasing, and the Razor logo on the palm rest fades in and out. The keys are all removable via the tool provided inside. Feet are properly rubberized, with the usual height stands to prop it up. The cables coming out of the keyboard are thick and well-constructed, and the connectors are gold-plated. Impressive! Overall, excellent. Makes you feel like you paid for proper quality.
Feel (9/10) & Function (5/10)
The keys are very responsive, and are on the firm side. There was no learning curve involved when I switched from my $10 cheap Logitech keyboard.
Ergonomics are acceptable, but aren't revolutionary in any way. This leads to my main comment about function. The customizable gaming keys run down both ends of the normal keyboard, and look great in theory. In practice however, I found using them a pain. Stretching my little fingers (probably the least dexterous of all fingers!) to hit one of the several gaming keys is a real hassle, especially when you're in the middle of an intense FPS battle. For example, trying to hit one of the left hotkeys is completely impractical if you're using the typical WSAD (forward, back, strafe left and right) and in the middle of combat, as it requires you to stretch your litle finger, which messes with the rest of your hand placement (unless you're a piano player, or especially dexterous, or possess large hands). Also, your right hand will be on the mouse, rendering the right keys nigh impossible to use as well.
On to the USB Ports. I haven't had problems with the ports, except that they're low power ports, and unable to support devices such as hard disks. Also, they're not USB 2.0, making them inefficient for large transfers of data to/from a media player. Otherwise, they've worked fine for me when I use them, which is almost never.
The ports for audio are unusable for me, because improper grounding of the LED lights on my keyboard means that there is a rising and fading buzz that corresponds with the Razor logo illumination. This is the biggest "Con" for me with regards to the keyboard. I tried to use them, but the buzz drove me crazy, and I haven't used the audio ports since. I'm not sure if it's a problem with my particular keyboard, but if not, it's an unacceptable flaw as it renders the audio ports unusable. Nobody wants to listen to electronic buzzing, especially not after paying this much for a keyboard.
Conclusions:
This keyboard is good value overall, and if appearance, build quality, and BASIC functions are your top priorities, then it's an excellent choice. If you're looking for a keyboard that will expand your gaming horizons, and change your gaming habits, this isn't it.
| | Innovative; beats the Eclipse |
| I was real excited when Saitek came out with the black Eclipse. It matches my blue copperhead pretty well, but the Tarantula is perfect. and it is built for gaming. it is like they looked at the standard keyboard and said, let's make it look cool - so they made it black, gave it a nice design, and added the backlight. OK, that is where Saitek ended. Razer goes on to make removable keys, 10 extra gaming keys to swap out (fps), macro functionality built in, hypersensitive buttons to give faster response time, and far better multimedia button set than Saitek. Additionally, having completely backlit keys like Saitek contributed to the glowable keys stripping their paint. The Razer is longer lasting in that regard. Tarantula Cons, the price. buy it if it's a must have to fit your beautiful computer. it's tough, innovative, and well designed. gj razer.
| | Big keyboard, with wide key spacings. Nice for gaming but not so good for typing, repeated letters are a real problem and it takes some time to adjust to spacing.
Big downsides are software and customer support. I have had repeted incompatability problems between Razer software and iTunes and Microsoft Outlook. I have only had the keyboard for a week but have had to reload software sevral times (seems to be the same problem I had with short lived Razer Death Adder Mouse).
Razer also has awful customer support, they don't seem to acecpt returns of failed products. So if you buy from Amazon, hope that yours fails before Amazon's 30 days are up.
| | Just got it, so no say on durability yet. May update later about it.
The good points are:
{
its shiny black.
can press more than 3 keys at once and have them register.
has easily pressed keys.
has reprogrammable keys.
media keys, and a port for expansions.
has a shuffle list key.
can bind programs to macro keys.
profile key can be used with other keys to cycle profiles.
friendly tech support, with some helpful tips. they haven't seemed to have gotten around to outsourcing their techs, so i can actually understand what they say to me.
a tool for popping out keys so i dont have to pull out a butter knife or something. (how i broke the space bar on my g15 while trying to clean it.)
}
the bad.
{
the audio/headphone ports require that the keyboards headphone/microphone jacks to be plugged into the pc. while many would say duh, that makes sense. i'd reply why have them unless i just feel like having my headphones closer to the keyboard?
also it DOES need 2 usb ports to be used fully. basically that extra line gives two usb ports connected to the keyboard. so really only 1 extra usb port gained.
as another review posted, the keyboard's play/pause DOES NOT WORK with winamp. it does w/o the software drivers. but after its just screwed. had to resort to using windows media player *shivers*. the keyboard actually functions better with media players without the driver/software.
the media keys DO NOT WORK with anything other than the selected player. why they decided to go from the universal controls, i have no bloody clue. i used to be able to go to any player i wished, and have it work. no software needed.
the media keys are not movable, or reprogrammable. i dont like having to take my mouse hand off the action to swap songs. would be much better if the keys were movable/remapped.
can not bind any keys/macros to use home/delete/windows etc etc. can't insert them, cant move around anything. can't click the times in milliseconds to modity them if dont want the standard timing.
now for the anti ghosting. yes, you can press 10 keys at once. sadly only 6 of them ever work for me. that is with the software installed too. granted 6 is better than 3, which i hardly did more than anyhow. i unfortunately wield usb 1.0 ports on my pc, so that is probrably why. not likely to ever use more than 6 keys at once anyway. i use more than 3 for stuff like descent 3 or freespace. after burner, turning up left/right, while banking left/right, while dropping chaff is sometimes needed. or when i have to hold shift to walk, and move diagonally and jump at same time.
the battle dock is completely useless. can buy an overpriced web cam, or a gimpy ineffective light. i dont see why i should have to hang a light over my keyboard to see the keys. if they can't have glowing keys, maybe a trim with lights, like it is on some of their mice. or more translucent casing in some areas or glow in the dark paint for letter keys, with the ability to toggle the light. also a little fan or something might be nice, or expandable keyboard memory. and a nice case to carry all that extra baggage.
no lcd display. i liked it on my old g15. would have made a nifty battle dock accessory.
the wrist rest is not removable, or adjustable. all for the sake to have a glowing snake emblem.
no disable windows key button either. have to remap it. i actually use the windows key often, so remapping it is a pain. there is an option for keymap a, keymap b, but, thats only for profiles not stored on keyboard, in other words, not standard. thats because the first 5, which are stored on the keyboard (for the rare case i'd actually drag it's ultra expensive butt some where else), only can have one keymap. the key maps are basically where i can rebind all the keys on one setting, hit profile and get the b side, with the normal goods. so basically i'd have to carry a flash drive if i want accurate functionality.
my hot fix would be to turn the razor key (which is really the right windows key/menu key) into a windows key, but apparently i cant.
no macros are able to be bound on any other key except the designated special keys. of which have an abysmal macro rate. on my old g15, i could store like 32 characters, this is more like 8. so before i could save entire commands.
tech support, basically almost any question about the functionality of the keyboard = me s.o.l. (and i dont mean satellite of love). They knew how to repair it, but not how to actually make it an acceptable piece of hardware for its high price. nice people though. so its not their fault.
the macros are executed very slowly.
the software only allows executables to be bound to macro keys. in order to bind files, batch files, or whatever, have to get the link manually, and input it into the open window.
over all my old logitech g15 owns this keyboard so badly, that i feel slightly sad i bought it. people might ask, why did i buy a tarantula if i had such a great keyboard. because i rode my old one so hard it started to fall apart. that is after a few years of hard service. one of the few logitech products that actually didnt break within 6 months. only minor annoyances.
the tarantula is not worth buying unless you absolutely need the extra few keys when gaming. if not, get a g15. it has better macro system, lcd display for looking at time, and winamp song. better media buttons, disable windows key switch.
dont misunderstand. this keyboard is actually a good keyboard. i do like razer products. they are overpriced in general, but usually worth having (at discount price). but this is no where near worth 80$, nor is it better than logitechs g15. which is the saddest part? me spending money on it, or the fact that this keyboard could actually dominate the logitech with a few minor changes? instead the tarantula tragically fails.
}
| | A professional gamer's keyboard. |
| The first thing you should do when you buy this keyboard:
*Download and update the drivers (for Vista, especially).
*Download and update the firmware after updating the drivers.
If you don't do this you'll run into compatibility issues with Vista and the keyboard won't work until Windows loads (i.e. can't press keys for BIOS or Windows boot menu). The firmware fixes this issue and the drivers that come with the unit are not Vista compatible, so they fail to install properly. A serious gamer is going to download the latest updates anyway, but I wanted to make it clear that the keyboard was originally released for Windows XP and not Vista, so drivers had to be written for Vista.
The functionality of the keyboard consists of 10 customizable keys (5 left, 5 right) that you can set macros on. The keys are backlit and can be changed out for a set of included keys that have various pictures on them (for gaming). On the right are play options for Windows Media Player (and others), shuffle and volume. On the left there is a home key that brings up your default browser. Rotate, zoom and 100% keys can be set to work with the Windows picture viewer, Photoshop and a few others.
The Home, End, Delete, Page Up and Page Down keys take some getting used to as the Delete key is huge and the End key is higher than it normally is. Another thing I noticed is the offset at which I had to place the keyboard in order to type with the home keys. As with any keyboard, it takes time to get used to a key layout and this isn't an issue in my opinion.
The keyboard takes a minimalist approach to gaming, but caters to the professional gamer with nice programmable features. Some gamers like fancy key layouts and loads of oddball looking gadgets. The Tarantula bypasses the fluff and goes right to the source--giving you what you need as a gamer and not stuffing the keyboard with items that you won't use anyway.
I changed from a Zboard (which still functions just fine) to this keyboard for a change in pace. If you're a serious gamer looking for a sleek approach to a gaming keyboard then this is probably going to satisfy your needs.
Razer makes quality products. This is no exception.
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