Tesoro Excalibur Mechanical Keyboard Review

[section label=”Price/Where to Buy”]

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Price / Where to Buy:

US – Approx.: $79.99:

[easyazon_link identifier=”B00S5Z0FK2″ locale=”US” tag=”back2gaming-20″]Tesoro Excalibur – Blue Switch[/easyazon_link]

[easyazon_link identifier=”B00O4F0V4W” locale=”US” tag=”back2gaming-20″]Tesoro Excalibur – Red Switch[/easyazon_link]

[easyazon_link identifier=”B00O4FGKLK” locale=”US” tag=”back2gaming-20″]Tesoro Excalibur – Brown Switch[/easyazon_link]

[easyazon_infoblock align=”none” identifier=”B00S5Z0FK2″ locale=”US” tag=”back2gaming-20″]

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[section label=”Introduction”]

Tesoro Excalibur

Tesoro Excalibur is an entry-level mechanical keyboard with a number of advanced capabilities like macros, built-in memory, game profiles, and adjustable LED backlighting with several backlighting schemes. The keyboard is available in three modifications with Kailh Blue, Brown and Red mechanical switches.

Excalibur is the first Tesoro keyboard to have a classic solid look. It can be used with a gaming station as well as on an office desk due to its straight solid lines. The adjustable blue backlighting makes Excalibur suitable for use during the daytime as well as at night.

[section label=”Features & Specifications”]

Specifications

Dimensions: width: 450 mm length: 145 mm height: 24 mm
Memory: 512KB
Profiles: 5
Macro keys: all
LED levels: 4
Key lifespan: 50 million keystrokes
Multimedia keys: 6
Connection: USB
Cable length: 1,55m
USB ports: no

Features

• Excalibur has a lot of advantages compared to the keyboards for the same price.
• Excalibur’s mechanical switches endure tens of millions actuations and do not degrade over time.
• Excalibur’s blue LED backlighting is convenient when it comes to choosing the exact zone you want to light up. It is not necessary to keep the whole device shining.
• Excalibur’s 512Kb of built-in memory are capable of storing up to 200 macros or 2000 keystrokes in 5 gaming profiles.
• The keyboard’s Full N-key Rollover capability is useful if the game is hot. No keystrock will come unregistered.
• No more fancy curves. Pure austere look and performance.

As an entry-level mechanical keyboard, the Tesoro Excalibur offers all the basic features of a gaming designed mechanical keyboard has to offer. Equipped with blue LED backlit, it provides convenience when having an intense gaming during night or in dark rooms. The LED backlit is customizable too. So you can coordinate each LED to your preferred setup.

Tesoro Excalibur is available in Blue, Brown and Red Kailh key switches.

Tesoro is a manufacturer of gaming peripheral products usually designed for intense PC gaming and they surely strives to develop the world best gaming gear to truly improve gaming experience. As what they’ve said “We don’t follow standards – we set new limits.“

[section label=”Closer Look – Unboxing”]

Unboxing the Tesoro Excalibur

We had the chance to also review Excalibur RGB edition and the packaging of both Excalibur are actually identical. The only difference of the two is that the RGB is indicated on the box of the Excalibur RGB edition and the non-RGB does not have the indication.

The back indicates the keyboards features, function keys and detailed specifications in many different languages.

Opening the up the package, I’m a bit disappointed on this one. Like its Big brother RGB edition, the entry level Excalibur is just plainly wrapped up with plastic bubbles. The cable is also protected by a plastic cover with a twist tie to keep things in place. This kind of packaging is not ideal for shipping. Although we have seen this kind of packaging on high-end PSU as well. I guess this is what you get for an entry level mechanical keyboard that’s cheaply priced at $88.9 on Amazon.

The Excalibur come with a product brochure and a manual. 1-Year Manufacturers warranty is also implemented. Oh shocks, no key cap puller tool included.

Closer Look – Tesoro Excalibur

The Excalibur boasts an elegant, classic look with a solid build. Nothing fancy or revolutionary for an entry level keyboard. The packaging may be a downer but looking at the Excalibur closely, we can see Tesoro did a wonderful craftsmanship on this keyboard. A matte body design making it a great looking keyboard.

The keycaps are of quality and laser etched making its blue back lit illuminate beautifully. I guess Tesoro went literal on this keyboard when they’ve stated “No more fancy curves. Pure austere look and performance.”

A closer look at the keycaps when the blue back lit is on. Looks good.

Like any other Tesoro keyboard that’s mechanical, the Excalibur is also equipped with Kailh switch keys. What we got here is a Red Kailh key switch. The Excalibur is available with Blue, Brown and Red. The Red Kailh keys doesn’t have that much tactile feedback or clicks but it’s designed to have a lower actuation force for faster response time when it matters. A usual choice for professional gamers.

A fully illuminating LED blue back lit. It’s very blue.

Flipping the keyboard upside down, the excalibur has a plain design for its chassis but it gives of that metallic look. Although it is plastic.

The Excalibur features four quality rubber feet to prevent the keyboard from sliding. Specially during intense gaming sessions or just plainly typing something long.

Since the Excalibur is pretty much an entry level keyboard, the angle feet is of the plain side too with nothing much to offer. This keyboard only offers one level of angle adjustment which I think will suffice given that this keyboard will only offer the basics of a gaming mechanical keyboard.

The model and some voltage specification at the back.

The Excalibur does not offer a braided cable but the rigidity of the cable is quite good so this cable won’t fail you anytime soon. Pretty much sure that this will still be working after a few years.

A custom design of the usb plug but it does not feature any golden plate USB or the likes of it. It doesn’t matter actually since gold plated USB doesn’t dramatically nor even enhance the performance of the keyboard.

[section label=”User Experience: Performance”]

Performance

Excalibur offers a blue LED backlighting which is very quite convenient when the light are off. For an entry level mechanical keyboard, I’ve pretty much expected the the Excalibur would offer so much of its LED feature but Tesoro went on and added 6 levels of LED brilliance. It’s a great add on but it is not necessary to keep the whole device shining.

Level 1 – LED off
Level 2 – LED Dim
Level 3 – LED Brightest
Level 4 – LED Breathing effect
Level 5 – LED Game mode 1. The only LED lights left on are W, S, A, D, F8 to F12, Enter, Space, Arrow Keys, Numpad 8 4 6 2 and Numpad Enter.
Level 6 – LED Game mode 2. Additional keys like 1 to 0, Tab, Caps, Shift, Alt, and Ctrl are turned on.

The Excalibur might be an entry level keyboard but I have been using an RGB edition for a year now and it’s very much satisfying in terms of typing, gaming, and everyday casual desktop use. I do expect the same thing of satisfaction from a plain Excalibur edition since the only difference between the two is that the other offers RGB feature of LED backlighting.

[section label=”Software”]

Software/Driver

Tesoro did not include any CD for software/driver installation, so you need to download the appropriate utility tool at the Tesorotec website for you to be able to customize the Excalibur with its macros and functionality per profile. The Excalibur has a built-in 512Kb of memory that are capable of storing up to 200 macros or 2000 keystrokes in 5 gaming profiles.

Like other Tesoro products, the Excalibur has its own utility software that you can use to customize your keyboard profile setup. It would be convenient if Tesoro would decide to have one single utility for all of its peripheral product.

The UI of the software is not so much of a friendly user but pretty much self explanatory. There are some areas that are needing of improvement and further development like the design, functionality, and user friendly.

[section label=”Final Thoughts & Conclusion”]

Final Thoughts

The Tesoro Excalibur proves to be a good mechanical keyboard and the Kailh based switch works well. The packaging is disappointing though compared to other offerings we’ve seen from Tesoro products, with the keyboard wrapped in nothing more than bubble-wrap and some twist tie.

The keyboard seems well made and the blue illumination is good with 6 level of LED profile, the Gaming Modes 1 and 2 are awesome.

The Kailh switches performed well in game and as good as any other mechanical switch that I have used, they can pretty much offer the same performance compared to any Cherry MX key switches.

The software UI on the other hand may look a little odd but it performs its task well enough though improvement can be developed on Tesoro’s side. Price wise, the Tesoro Excalibur is priced competitively for an entry level mechanical keyboard that offers pretty much every basic of what a gaming mechanical keyboard has to offer, a back-lit mechanical keyboard, with basic software, very little illumination customization, no wrist rest, no USB hub and no on-board audio.

Tesoro Excalibur G7NL is actually really sturdy and heavy. Functionality for the Tesoro Excalibur is pretty optimal as it does what is supposed to do without any hiccups. N-Key rollover works flawlessly through USB which is really impressive.

BossMac’s Notes: Ultimately if you’re looking for a decent keyboard without much cosmetic flare to it the Excalibur is a good choice. Tesoro has been a mainstay in our review labs and their keyboards have been in use for a long time in Nielzx’s desktop and thus we can vouch for the quality of their products. Overall, the Tesoro Excalibur is a good choice if you want a simple mechanical keyboard with some flexibility for customization via software without the premium of RGB edition.

Tesoro backs the Excalibur Mechanical gaming keyboard a 1-year warranty. We give the Tesoro Excalibur our B2G Recommended Award and B2G Value Award.

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Price / Where to Buy:

US – Approx.: $79.99:

[easyazon_link identifier=”B00S5Z0FK2″ locale=”US” tag=”back2gaming-20″]Tesoro Excalibur – Blue Switch[/easyazon_link]

[easyazon_link identifier=”B00O4F0V4W” locale=”US” tag=”back2gaming-20″]Tesoro Excalibur – Red Switch[/easyazon_link]

[easyazon_link identifier=”B00O4FGKLK” locale=”US” tag=”back2gaming-20″]Tesoro Excalibur – Brown Switch[/easyazon_link]

[easyazon_infoblock align=”none” identifier=”B00S5Z0FK2″ locale=”US” tag=”back2gaming-20″]

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