Tesoro Excalibur Keyboard Review
Overview
We have seen a few Tesoro keyboards come through pcGameware in the last few months and all have fared well, but how will their latest Tesoro Excalibur (G7NL)
The Tesoro Excalibur could be considered a budget mechanical Gaming keyboard as (price wise) it sits at the bottom of the Tesoro range. This also explains why there’s no USB hub or Audio ports aboard the Excalibur.
|
|
As is the norm for Tesoro the Excalibur came in a black and purple box (quite a striking colour scheme) and highlights the following:
|
|
The back of the box goes on to highlight further some of the features listed on the front (see image above right).
The sides of the box highlight other features of the Tesoro Excalibur as well as show the switch designation (in this case Kailh Blue). NOTE: This sample has a US key layout.
Opening the box reveals a rather more unorthodox style of packaging, that’s not up to Tesoro’s usual standard, with the keyboard being just simply wrapped in bubble wrap. This is probably down to the more budget nature of this particular keyboard.
Within the box, other than the keyboard itself, we find nothing more than a Tesoro brochure.
At the time of writing the Tesoro Excalibur keyboard is retailing at approximately £75 on Amazon
Specifications/Features
courtesy of Tesoro
|
|
* Additional details available here
First Impressions
First impressions of the Tesoro Excalibur are good, the Kailh switches seem pretty good and certainly no better or worse than their Cherry MX counterparts. The general layout of the keyboard is very good and the blue LED back-lighting (more on this later) is a welcome addition. Really what we have here is a basic (no frills) Kailh based mechanical illuminated keyboard. The key-caps themselves don’t seem to have been treated to any kind of special coating and are basically plastic, the keys are etched though and the blue illumination looks good through the caps.
As the Tesoro Excalibur is a basic mechanical keyboard there’s not that much to talk about, just above the cursor keys we see Tesoro’s logo ‘Break the Rules’. The only other give away that there’s more to this keyboard than your average keyboard is that Tesoro Fn key, found to the right of the right Alt key. This in conjunction with the Function keys, a couple of the Num-pad keys, Insert, Delete & Pause provide addition functionality. Like Media playback keys, Profile Keys, illumination control, N-Key Rollover control and Switching between Game and PC mode, where the former just Locks the Windows Key.
In the far top right corner of the Excalibur there’s the main Lock indicators (Scroll/Num/Caps) and also a rather smart Tesoro logo and name. All of these illuminate blue. Hold on a minute that first one’s not a Scroll indicator it’s a Tesoro logo with a G on it!? Ah, it shows either Gaming mode (Windows key locked) or PC mode, accessed via the Pause key. 😉
|
|
Looking at the back of the Tesoro Excalibur we can see where the USB pass-through and the audio ports would have been if we had a more advanced model. Just blanking plugs for us though, sniff, sniff… 🙁
Looking at the back of the Tesoro Excalibur there is very little to see, other than the model details. There are four rubber feet though, one in each corner.
In addition to these there are two adjustable feet at the back (also with rubber tips) that allow the back of the keyboard to be inclined a further 15mm.
|
|
Looking at the side of the Tesoro Excalibur we can see the nice gentle increase in height from front to back.
If you wish, the back of the keyboard can be lifted by around 15mm courtesy of two rubber tipped feet, this particular angle worked well for me even though there is no wrist rest provided.
|
|
From what I’ve seen so far from the Tesoro Excalibur I’m pretty impressed and there’s not much to dislike to be honest, it’s what’s missing that may put some people off…
Hardware Installation
|
The Tesoro Excalibur requires just a single USB socket for full operation of the keyboard. The single USB plug sits at the end of a 1.5m plastic cable (no braided cable here!), but at just 1.5 metres it’s a little short for my liking. |
Testing Methodology/Setup
The Tesoro Excalibur was tested on my Test Rig, a fresh installation of Windows Home Premium 64bit (service pack 1) was performed prior to testing. The latest version of the Excalibur software was also downloaded (here) and installed. Version 1.0 was used throughout testing.
The following games were used during testing:
Hardware Performance
With the Tesoro Excalibur powered up we can take a look at its lighting, you cannot change the colour (blue), but there are six predefined Profiles for you to choose from, these are detailed below:
These Profiles can be accessed by holding down the FN (Tesoro) key and using 2 & 8 on the number-pad.
|
|
- MODE 1: Off
- MODE 2: Fully backlit (low brightness)
- MODE 3: Fully backlit (high brightness)
- MODE 4: Breathing
- MODE 5: Gaming (Mode 1) – WASD, Space, F8-F12, Enter, Cursor Keys, Num-Pad 2,4, 6, 8 & Enter
- MODE 6: Gaming (Mode 2) – 0 – 9, Tab, Caps, Left Shift, Left Ctrl, Left Alt, WASD, Space, Right Alt, Right Ctrl, Right Shift, F8-F12, Enter, Cursor Keys, Num-Pad 2,4, 6, 8 & Enter
The keys look good with their illumination although there’s only two brightness settings, at full brightness the keys light up well. The breathing mode is really rather good as it’s very slow with no real sign of flicking from one brightness to the next. The nice thing about this mode is that fact that the keyboard swaps to full brightness (effectively turning the Breathing Mode off) when you use it, which is pretty cool.
The switches used in the Tesoro Excalibur are not your normal Cherry MX but are in fact Kailh switches, in this case Blue switches. The Excalibur is also available in Brown, Black & Red. The Kailh Blue switches appear to be very similar to the Cherry MX equivalents with a noticeable actuation point that accompanied by a small click. While this may be fine for typist, I’m not keen on its noisy (clattery) nature for Gaming. And I’m pretty sure that while Gaming with a headset (and I know a lot of us do) I’m not really going to be listening for those clicks! 😉
Despite the fact that the Tesoro Excalibur doesn’t come with a wrist rest, I was surprised how comfortable it remained, even during the longer 3+ hour Gaming sessions. Normally I like to have something to rest my wrist upon, but somehow the Excalibur doesn’t seem to need it…
I also came across a bit of a problem (not while Gaming) but while shifting the keyboard around my desk. If you have a reason to do this (i.e. have more than one keyboard) then you’ll likely find that the feet at the back of the keyboard (if deployed) have a tendency to collapse, which is well, just a little frustrating. Cougar solved this problem rather simply with their 700K keyboard by turning the feet 90 degrees so the feet cannot collapse when you push the keyboard back. Simple!
The software that’s supplied with the Tesoro Excalibur is pretty basic, and is very similar (well a cut down version) of what was found with the Tesoro Lobera Supreme.
|
|
The main screen (shown above left) allows you to setup and manage up to five Profiles, these Profiles can be accessed by FN + F8 – F12. Macros can be assigned to any key (by selecting the key you wish on the image), the macro can then be recorded; only keyboard inputs are recorded and the real-time delays (between key-presses) are recorded, these can be altered after to any fixed number you wish or by 25ms. Just select the key-press you wish alter in the recording window. You can also program keys to launch executables and keys can also be disabled, and that’s always useful.
Overall the software may be basic but it works well enough although the interface is a little confusing, a little bit of form over function me thinks…
Final Thoughts
There’s no doubt that the Tesoro Excalibur is a good mechanical keyboard and the Kailh based switch (Blue in this case) works well, although I have to admit I’ve never been a fan of the clicky feedback…
The Tesoro Excalibur came smartly boxed but not as well packaged as other offerings we’ve seen from Tesoro in the past, with the keyboard wrapped in nothing more than bubble-wrap.
The keyboard itself is pretty smart though with a nice illuminating Tesoro logo and name in the top right corner. The keyboard seems well made although the key-caps may be a little plasticky. The Blue illumination is good and there are a few nice Profiles available, the Gaming Modes 1 and 2 being firm favourites of mine. Although it is a shame that further customisation is not possible.
The Blue Kailh switches performed well in game and as good as any other mechanical switch that I have used, but I have to admit that I’m not a fan of these Blue clicky switches for Gaming as I’m not sure what they really add to the party other than noise! 😉
As I have already mentioned what’s here is all very good even the software, while looking a little odd, it performs its task well enough. It’s what’s not here that has me a little concerned; as a back-lit mechanical keyboard, with basic software, very little illumination customisation, no wrist rest, no USB hub and no on-board audio seems pretty expensive at £75, especially as there are other Keyboards out there that offer more for your money…
Verdict
Please Share, Like & Comment below, we really value your thoughts and opinions…
|
Where possible we always use Amazon’s price for Value… |
Design/Quality |  |
 |
|
| Performance |  |
|||
| Value |  |
|||
| Overall | |
Many thanks to Tesoro for providing this sample for review
