About a year and a half ago I received the Razer Lycosa; Razer’s first attempt at a slim-style keyboard, similar to the Fatal1ty keyboard, but with some interesting twists. Since then, I have been in love with the peripheral and I don’t play with anything else. Despite some wear on the keys, the Lycosa has stood up to some hard years of heavy gaming, lots of hours of studying and papers during my senior year of college, and been a generally great device. A short time ago, I thought I would try out the Arctosa, a similar keyboard with some minor variations. Featuring a lower price point and some of the same great features, I was hoping for a similar experience. Though I may have had some pretty high expectations for the black-on-black little brother to my all-time favorite keyboard, I felt the Arctosa fell slightly short in a couple categories. Let’s take a look.

Category: Keyboard
Manufacturer: Razer
Product: Arctosa
Price: $49.49USD

Features And Specifications

- Fully-programmable keys with macro capabilities
- Selective anti-ghosting for WASD gaming cluster
- Slim-key structure with Hyperesponse™ technology
- Easy access media keys
- Gaming mode option for deactivation of the Windows key
- 10 customizable software profiles with on-the-fly switching
- 1000Hz Ultrapolling™ / 1ms response time
- Detachable wrist rest

At first glance, the general construction is very similar to that of the Lycosa, only differing in the surface of the keys and the type-face on them. I love the Lycosa’s rubberized keys and how they give just the right amount of grip and resistance so that you fingers don’t simply slide right off the side. To my distaste, the Arctosa’s keys are simply left naked as slick, hard plastic, prone to slipping. While not a huge deal, the feel of the soft, velvety Lycosa keys really is a thing of beauty and really do pay off in the 6th or 7th hour of a class paper or in the later hours of marathon gaming. But my biggest and final gripe about the keys is the color of lettering on them; black (on black keys). Ok, so I know rappers and such are all about the black chrome wheels on a black car, but do I look like Jay-Z to you? Now I know all of you are laughing at me right now and screaming “NOOOOOOOOB, who looks at their keys?!?!”, but let’s be honest right now, we all look down to see where we are on the keyboard every now and then. In the right light, I can somewhat make out the letters; in moderate to low light, they are impossible to read. I can see the “pimp my keyboard” appeal of it all, but when you take into account you’re going to be using this thing for ALL your computer needs, it’s not the most practical feature on the keyboard.

While I’d like to sit here all day and compare the Arctosa to the Lycosa, it’s just not possible. They are two separate boards with a separate features and completely different prices. Let’s move on.

First and foremost, I love the slim key construction Razer has developed and perfected. The keys are extremely responsive and have very little give to them, resulting in precise keystrokes. The keys are properly spaced and not crammed together like others of this slim key form factor. I also like that, while the board is very slim, it still has some weight to it. I’ve been used too many flimsy, light-weight keyboards that do nothing but slide all over the desk and won’t stay put. The Arctosa has a solid construction and feels very sturdy, good for taking from desk to LAN and traveling. The USB cable connecting the device is moderately long (about 6′), which is great for people like me where my tower is on the other end of my desk.

I do like that Razer kept the multimedia functions on the Arctosa as I’ve really become accustomed to just hitting “Play” on it to open up Winamp, making my actually desktop icon obsolete. Like if I’m in the the middle of a game my team is obviously not going to win, I like settle my rage with a little bit of music without ever having to close or minimize the game. Another modification I looked forward to was the removal of the USB 1.1 ports and audio ports that I had tons of problems with in the Lycosa. I never did figure out what was causing it, but the audio ports were plagued with static issues, to the point of almost unbearable use. These also contributed to an octopus-like 4-wire cable that get pretty messy sometime. I never even bothered to plug in the “Port” USB wire, so I just had 3 wires dangling off the back of my tower; kind of an ugly mess. I’m glad Razer cut this down to only the single cable.

In-Game

Since this is obviously a keyboard aimed at hardcore gamers, let’s go over some of the experiences that I’ve had with it in 2 of my favorite games; Quake 3 and Counter Strike: Source. First off, I can’t rave enough how fast this friggin’ thing is. In addition to the physical key presses being extremely fast, the Razer Hyperesponse™ Technology really shines in a game like Quake 3 where you commonly have 3 or more keys pressed. All the time, the Arctosa never missed a beat. Like I mentioned before though, there is little stopping fingers from sliding off the keys and then additionally losing your place on the keyboard. A Ferrari’s speed is nothing without the breaks to help control and stop it.

In CS:S, a slower and more controlled shooter, this board really shined, with precise keystrokes to the smallest measurement and a smooth surface, useful for quick hand movements. I love how the keys were either pressed or not pressed; there is no semi-pressed nonsense. And with CS:S, I have less keys bound, so I very rarely had to actually look down at the keys, making the black letter’s a non-issue. I actually had a really great time playing Source with this keyboard, more so than Quake. To anyone that really wants to take their Counter Strike game to the next level, I would suggest this board for it.

Drivers

The drivers are pretty straightforward and include setup for your particular media player, features for binding macros and a section to make several profiles for key settings. Fairly standard layout for any of the Razer driver sets. In addition, I’d like to point out how great the company is and continually developing and maintaining the drivers for their products. I’m sure every company strives to put out perfect drivers right out of the gate, but Razer is actually one of the first companies I’ve seen that works with the gamers to constantly make their devices better and caters to the needs of their audience directly. I love it.

Conclusion

For anyone a little hesitant to drop almost a eighty dollars on a keyboard like the Lycosa, I don’t blame you. At half the price, I think the Arctosa will meet the needs of almost every gamer out there, and I’ve been extremely happy with the board since I got it. Like all the Razer devices, it’s stood up to some pretty heavy gaming and continued to be a be great addition to my desk.

Pros
- The Razer slim-key design is perfect for gamers
- Very reasonably priced
- Multimedia buttons
- Single USB cable, no more octopus wires
- Responsive keystrokes
- Able To Set Programs As Hot Keys

Cons
- Black lettering is a bit hard to read in anything by direct light
- Slick-faced keys are pretty slippery

8.7/10

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