Introduction
Tesoro may not be the biggest gaming brand on the market, but they’ve proven time and time again that they can deliver competitive products, that are uniquely designed and for a competitive price; more than enough to get me interested! A few months back, I reviewed the gorgeous Tesoro Lobera Supreme mechanical keyboard, and it was fantastic, so I’m happy to see another Lobera keyboard sitting on my test bench this week.
The new version of the Lobera comes with one key feature, RGB lighting. Colour customisation is all the rage this year, with many manufacturers offering revisions and new models featuring RGB LED keys; the Lobera Spectrum RGB I have in the office today uses Kailh RGB Black Mechanical Switches. As you can see from the image below, it comes with a choice of red, black, blue and brown switches.
“Lobera Spectrum is a top-notch programmable gaming keyboard with advanced backlighting features. It has a number of stunning illumination modes including audiomode which makes the LEDs flash to the beat. Its highly customizable illumination processor even lets set individual key colors and turn the backlighting on and off for each key. Mechanical key design creates solid tactile feel and rapid response for extreme gamers. High speed USB 2.0 hub with audio jacks offers easy connection for user’s favourite portable peripherals. 5 profiles, up to 300 macro keys can be defined by the user. Tesoro Lobera Spectrum is the ultimate choice for gamers.”
In the box, you’ll find a small collection of documents in a cardboard wallet, as well as a USB power cable; this cable provides the rear-USB ports with additional power.
The keyboard is hard wired with a thick braided cable.
The cable is a little cumbersome, but that’s because it provides USB and audio pass-through to the back of the keyboard; handy for quickly connecting your headsets and peripherals without having to go behind your computer.
The chassis of the keyboard is a little oversized, giving you a built-in wrist rest and also giving the keyboard a funky industrial-type design.
The chassis is plastic, but it has been nicely textured to give it some added flair.
The key caps are of a good quality and feature bold laser-etched letting; perfect for letting all that RGB light through!
Under the keycaps, you can see we’ve got the Kailh Black switches, with the RGB LEDs. The chassis of the keyboard is white, which will help better reflect the lighting for a cool under-glow effect. Also, there was no key-cap pulling tool included in the box, fortunately I had my own, but all mechanical keyboard should come with on as standard in my opinion.
The 6-key and N-key rollover can be switched over directly from the keyboard using FN-Shift and either the Ins or Del keys.
A full-size number pad, fairly standard stuff, but you’ll be glad to hear that every key on the keyboard is mechanical.
The arrow keys feature LED lighting controls.
Built-in profiles allow you to toggle through lighting modes and more.
Windows lock, always a welcome feature on a gaming keyboard.
As well as basic multimedia controls, which are great for listening to music while gaming.
Down the left and right sides, there’s an LED light strip, allowing you to further customise the look of your keyboard.
Around the back, you can see the cable is mounted off to the right. This is better than central mountings, as that often causes the cable to conflict with your monitor stand.
A small warning label is pre-installed.
Behind which you’ll find the USB and audio pass-through ports.
