THE LOBERA SUPREME
The keyboard surface of the Lobera Supreme features a brushed black color scheme with some metal effect. Since TESORO didn’t provide any actual measurement of the keyboard, I decided to measure it manually. The keyboard is measured as 19.5″ x 7.4″ x 1.1″. If you’re familiar with TESORO and know some of their products, the first thing that came into my mind when I saw Lobera was “Colada”. Yes, the design of Lobera is identical to one of their keyboard series called “Colada”.. so does that make “Lobera” the successor of “Colada”?
The main section of the keyboard features the usual QWERTY layout, with twelve function keys presented along the top. The F1 to F6 function keys also acts up as the multimedia control keys and F8 to F12 are the profile switch keys. The Lobera Supreme offers us five profiles that we can switch to on the fly giving us 300 macro keys and 2000 macro key presses per profile. Also the keys feature laser etched keycaps.
Although TESORO didn’t also provide any information about the net weight of the Lobera Supreme, it’s actually a heavy keyboard. If you’re carrying it, it feels like you’re carrying a laptop. What makes this keyboard heavy is that some parts are actually metallic and it contains a number of circuit board to perform its intended feature.
The right hand side of the keyboard has a full number pad, arrow keys, the usual keys that are above the arrow keys, and LED indicators for gaming mode, caps lock, num lock, scroll lock, and macro recording. The number pad features the backlighting controls which are the 8 and 2 key when pressed with the Fn key. The Lobera Supreme offers six different level of illumination which we will demonstrate later on but to give you an idea, it’s off/low/high/pulsate/gaming mode1/gaming mode2.
You can enable or disable gaming mode by pressing the LED indicator of the gaming mode, which took me quite some time to figure it out. If you want to record a macro, all you have to do is press the macro led indicator just like how to turn on or off the gaming mode. Then press any of the 3 thumb macro keys to start recording. After you’re done with the macro you want to record, the next thing to do is press the macro LED indicator again to stop the recording. Now you can start using your macro by pressing the thumb key macro you selected awhile ago. We can discuss more about macro and thumb macro keys later on.
The USB hub is also located at the right side of the keyboard. The USB hub when the keyboard is plugged supplies a 100mA of peak power. Exceeding that may cause unwanted damage or harmful effect on the keyboard. If needed, TESORO included one DC to USB cable to feed the build-in USB hub some more power. 100mA should only be good for USB flashdrives or a direct wired mice. If you decided to use the DC to USB cable, it’ll provide an estimated power of 2.5A. So with the cable, the overall power that the USB Hub can provide is 2.6A which is good enough for charging smart phones or wireless mice.
Do note that without the plug in DC IN power supply, the build-in USB hub of the keyboard is designed for low power USB portable devices such mouse, earphone / headphone, speaker, pen drive or MP3 player. -TESORO
As you can see, TESORO placed a warning sticker on the USB hub for the consumers information. Removing the warning sticker, we can see how the USB hub look like. The USB hub features 2 USB ports(USB 2.0) and ports for Audio and Mic. On the middle part of the USB hub is a DC plug.
Underneath the Lobera Supreme, there are 5 anti-slip design rubberized bottom feet/stand as well as two stands that features 3 different levels of angle adjustment. These ensure that the Lobera Supreme sits securely on its position, even when using the stands. Underneath highlights the keyboards model, power rating, international compliance standards, and TESORO logo.
As I have mentioned, Lobera Supreme features 3 adjustable level angles which is great. It gives users more option to choose from about their preferred keyboard angle. This is another thing that I am a big fan of. I am one of those users that wants their keyboards highly elevated from an angle that the keys are almost facing my face. I find my comfiest keyboard hand position that way. Here’s a slideshow of 3 levels of keyboard angles available for Lobera Supreme. I like the highest one.
And we have the roughly 1.8m braided connection cable which features a 2 gold plated USB and gold plated Mic and Audio plug. The cable is tightly braided which is another thing I am happy with. The cables are easy to bend for the consumers convenience.
As we mentioned earlier, Corsair and Cherry Corp. are now bed buddies for a year and we won’t be seeing any Cherry MX RGB keys on anything than Vengeance products. Due to this, Tesoro has employed Kailh keys in their products with custom-embedded RGB LEDs. Based on experience, Kailh keys are quite good and compete heavily with their Cherry MX counterparts, and yes Kailh key color designation are directly the same as the Cherry models but do note that Kailh makes their keys a tad stiffer than Cherry MX.
Awhile ago while checking the keycaps, there’s this one key that catches my attention and that is the “FN” key. The FN key of the Lobera Supreme is etched with TESORO logo. I wished they’ve removed the “FN” and used their logo alone instead. Personally, TESORO should have did the same thing to the windows button too. I mean, for me, having a premium gaming keyboard, I definitely don’t want to see windows logo on it. Here’s what the FN keycap looks like.
16 Comments
What is the availability for this keyboard. After much searching I cannot find a retailer with them or able to get one, also their website does not have the option to buy direct.
What region are you from? Yes, availability is quite the limiting factor for Tesoro’s port folio and shops that carry them are far between. Good point though that they should have a virtual storefront for interested people.
I live in Saskatchewan Canada. I thought since they are an american based company it would not be overly difficult for some for of shipment to Canada.
Speaking from a purely personal perspective, I think its just marketing that they claim they are US-based, seeing as all our concurrence with them have been from Taiwan.
Newegg and Amazon both stock Tesoro products, as for this specific keyboard (Lobera, Lobera Supreme) I don’t think it’s hit any outlet yet as we’re the only one with a review currently out (as far as I know).
I’ll relay your concerns to Tesoro in hopes of getting some info.
That would be very much appreciated, they have the keyboard on newegg.com but not newegg.ca I have a friend who is willing to let me ship it there and then mail it to me from the states if I cannot find another option.
Yeah, tried checking earlier and seems to me that only the newegg USA carries them. Must be a territorial thing. As of this moment, Tesoro is also scouting distributors here in the APAC region so that’s one of the limiting factor in their market expansion and it seems that goes for the western part of the globe.
I’ll work my contact and see if we can get answers.
Thank you. All your help is very much appreciated.
Already sent your concern to Tesoro. Chinese New Year is still in the air over there but will relay you their reply once it comes through or they’ll respond here directly.
Hi Goforth
I’ve forwarded your concern to Tesoro and they’ve responded to me. They have forwarded your concern to Tesoro US. I’ll get back to you once I receive a reply from them.
Hi Goforth,
I have forwarded your concern to Tesoro and they’ve forwarded it to their Tesoro US part. I will get back to you once they’ve responded to me again.
Its been a while with not contact so I thought I would check and see if tesoro us had abything to say. I do appreciate all the time you guys put in to help me.
I just found a way to get it. Mailing it to an american buddy who is the bringing it up to canada. Thanks again though
Yeah, they’ve been pretty quiet. Glad to know you’re still pushing through in getting one. We’ve also had questions for their other products’ availability so know that you’re not alone.
My credit card is invalid in the us. so back to searching it is…
Will try our best to get some feedback from Tesoro. Good luck in your search 😉
Hi Goforth,
Tesoro Lobera is now available in many shops, and we have opened new shop here: http://www.tesorogamingusa.com – good luck!
If any problem, feel free to contact our support to direct you to the shop nearest you.