A Closer Look
I believe that a lot of the older generation gamers will love the design of the Excalibur Spectrum. The keyboard has a very convenient layout that meets the demands of both casual and hardcore gamers. This keyboard is easy to use and to get used to. The Excalibur is the first Tesoro keyboard to have a classic solid look. It can be used with a gaming rig as well as on an office desk due to its straight and strong lines.
I have used this keyboard for both and can attest to those words. The Excalibur comes in three different key switches, brown, red, and blue. However, Tesoro has went with Kailh instead of the popular MX Cherry switches. Depending on your task and your skill you can choose the switch type that would fit you most. Different switches behave differently due to their unique designs. The keyboard to me has the Kailh brown switches. The brown switches are supposedly have lowered actuation force and no click or perceptible feedback. I actually loved to type and play using this keyboard and really didn’t notice much of a difference with my other board, which has Cherry red switches.
The Excalibur Spectrum has no dedicated multimedia, macro, or profiling keys, yet this keyboard does have all those features and capabilities. Instead of dedicated keys, Tesoro went with using the function key to control all those features. The function key is located on the bottom near the right Alt key. Pushing that while pushing another key activates those features. F1 through F5 has all the profiling keys, while the F6 key used to lock the keyboard. F7 through F12 has all the multimedia key functions. You are able to control the lighting using the arrow keys with the function key for things like brightness and lighting effects. Then we have the N-key/6-key rollover function with the Ins and Del keys. Home function key controls the instant macro recording, which in my opinion is a great feature. You should be able to change your macros on the fly! The last function key is used to switch between profiles or PC mode and is used with the pause key. The rest of the keyboard is fairly ordinary. The bottom has 4 rubber pads and two plastic riser with rubber feat that should keep your keyboard in place.
