Overview - cont.

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The keyboards keys are covered with non-slip rubber finish, the same used on both the Lachesis and the Deathadder. This gives you a much more tactile feeling to the keyboard as apposed to the greasy slick feeling of a well used standard board. The clip-out stands that you find on the back are also made of the same material which will stop the board from sliding round during a raucous gaming session. The Windows keys are shaped differently from the rest of the button caps, with the logo slightly indented with a circle. This will help you discern whether you are pressing the dreaded Windows key during a game, or Alt. Razer make the possibility of a rogue key press even lower by allowing the button to be disabled when you are gaming.

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In the top right corner of the board, you’ll find a bordered rectangle that has the media keys, although there isn’t any obvious way of using them. These are part of the Touchpanel easy access keys that are essentially a laptop touch pad but with only a few active zones. As a result you only have to brush your fingers over the top to activate the wanted key rather than go through the hassle of pressing down a key. This is also the only place where you’ll find a lit Razer icon that unlike nearly every recent Razer release doesn’t fade in and out. The other Razer logo is on the removable – by four cross-head screws - wrist rest at the bottom of the board. This one is simply a printed glossy image on the matt black plastic rest, which is different from the original Tarantula keyboard.

The boards shape is interesting to say the least, as there are two rectangular cut-outs at the top and bottom of the board, which exists whether or not you have the wrist-rest attached. These are apparently just for aesthetics’ but, I’ve discovered the true usage of these notches. As this board is used for gamers, who’ll probably end up taking this board with them to a LAN party or just to show off, these notches make it easy to wrap the cables around it.

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Looking at the top of the board you’ll find some I/O ports, with mic and audio out. There is also a USB port, which is actually just an extension from your PC as the Lycosa connects with two USB cables, rather than just one. It’s fully USB 2.0 compatible as there is no intermediate circuitry involved inside the keyboard. Why the board doesn’t just have one USB cable that is split to this port seems strange but a keyboard such as the Enermax Aurora does this, but the two USB ports only run at 1.1 speeds.