Razer Arctosa Gaming Keyboard

Reviews: Peripherals

Accessories | Gaming Devices | Keyboards / Mice | Printers

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Max Slowik
Max
Razer
Jul. 17, 2009

Specifications

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Introduction

If you’re reading a keyboard review, then it’s clear that you care about your fingers. In a way, that’s overly simplistic, really, you care about what your fingers are capable of. You care about how fast you can type or the stresses that typing can encompass, or you care about pure, unbiased killing. Video game killing, of course.

I, obviously, care about my fingers. They do the lifting, the hammering, the shoveling of my work, and when I’m finished with that, they’re what guide my (no doubt) hobnailed boots across the backs of my enemies. So what if that sounds trite, it’s true. I want to have a telepathic link with my cursor and my crosshairs.

Razer and I have always had a close relationship. I don’t mean with the marketing department, I mean me and their devices, we’re tight. As much as I’m fond of feature-rich devices, dense with macros and custom binds, and as much as I love a sexy peripheral, Razer keeps me loyal with one simple feat: their mice--as this is my first Razer keyboard--never get in my way. They are extensions of me.

Razer’s Arctosa keyboard promises that the same thing that’s true for my right hand can be true for my left. That I can puppet my avatars as though there was no input device at all.

The Keyboard and Keys

The keyboard is a slate. There are letters present on the keys, but almost only in spirit. They’re gloss on matte black. Because the layout is standard, touch-typing is no great difficulty for me, although I did have to think a little when hunting down the print screen key. The first, most obvious feature, if featurelessness counts, will be what drives people towards or away from this device.

The second deal-breaker is the slim-type style of the keys. This is a keyboard fashioned after laptop keyboards, with short keys and shallow keystrokes. I seek this out, others I know abhor it. So far, this keyboard is a straight win for me.

Because the layout is standard, so is the spacing: my first qualm. I like my keys bunched together a bit, but I’ll manage. The slim-type keys make up for lazy fingers. The keys depress very little, but with a resistance that makes them feel deep. It’s not a tension thing; just letting your fingers rest on the keys can sink them. It’s that the motion is fast. The keys pop down and fly up faster than your fingers move onto the next letter, which makes each key feel like it’s fitted.

Only one thing surprised me in a non-pleasant way. This is a light, plastic piece of hardware. It’s actually flexible. I could twist it with my hands in a way that doesn’t build confidence. Not that you’re really going to encounter that sort of thing in regular use. The feet on the underside compensate for that by being grippy. You’re not going to slide this keyboard around easily no matter how enthusiastically you frag. Typing notwithstanding.

The keyboard has a detachable wrist rest (held on with screws, no flimsy clips) that is also matte, but the body of the thing is glossy and supremely smudgy. On the other hand, if you’re not just touching the keys, you’re doing something wrong. The activity LEDs are pure white, and distracting at first, on account of being bright. I got used to that, too, and if you sharpie over them they’ll dim without disappearing.

Just below the status LEDs are a handful of multimedia controls. They’re flush with the surface and not at all lit. Suffice it to say, they are invisible. At first I thought they were touch-sensitive and not working, but they’re physical buttons that really resist clicking. I’d say that they were useless, but I never really use those anyway, and I don’t have a problem with them being marginalized. That said, if you’re into keyboard buttons that do non-keyboard work, the Arctosa will disappoint.

As a typing surface as well as a gaming device, there are no such doubts.

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Using the Arctosa
Page 3: Conclusion

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Add Comment

1 User Comment

1 - Posted by Longshot on November 29, 2009 - 8:24 am

I saw this keyboard when i was looking for a new keyboard from Razer.
But, i saw the Razer Lycosa MIRROR, too, and i got in love with it.

The Lycosa mirror (the glossy edition) its like the arctosa, but sturdier, with a USB port, headset plug, beautifull BLUE backlight for the keys, that only makes the key glow, no glow outside the key; and reading what you said from the multimedia keys, then this one has better multimedia keys, they react even when a gentle push, but they doesnt get pressed by error either (i think these ones are really touch buttons).

One thing that really catches your eye when unpacking it, is that it has a thick cable, and at the end there are 2 USB connectors and speaker / mic connectors. If you want you can only plug the Keyboard one, the other USB is only to make the USB work (at full speed btw), the same for the speakers / mic connectors.

Well, the Lycosa Mirror is my dream keyboard :), and i really recommend it :)

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