Introduction
Gaming Keyboards are all the rage these days and near the top of almost everyone’s wish list, but what exactly is a ‘gaming keyboard’? Well, like anything else gaming oriented these days, it’s all the little extras above and beyond, such as better switches and fancy lighting. In this case, Tesoro has created highly tuned mechanical switches with very short actuation distance for lightning fast input. It also includes full RGB Lighting and an onboard 32bit Arm Cortex Processor giving you the power to program every single button and light on the keyboard to adapt to any scenario.Yes, you read that correctly, every single button on this keyboard can be reprogrammed. Need a macro key? How about over one hundred of them? Multiply this over 5 profiles and even the most hard core macro and shortcut junkie will be wondering what to do with the rest. Did Tesoro build the ultimate keyboard? Let’s find out!
We would like to thankTesoro for sending the GRAM Spectrum to us to check out. Let’s see how it stacks up!
Tesoro GRAM Spectrum Video:
About Tesoro
Established in 2011, Tesoro embraced the E-Sports community, sponsoring E-sports events and working with professional and amateur teams worldwide, all before ever shipping its first product. Tesoro has used this close relationship with pros and amateurs alike to design its product line tailored closely to what gamers need, and set new standards in the industry with innovation and revolutionary technologies. Tesoro pushes for the highest quality products, even when it has to design and build its own parts to do so and doesn’t overlook even the tiniest detail.
Specifications and Features
- Optimized Low-profile Design
- 60 Million Reliable Keystrokes
- 32bit ARM Cortex Processor
- 1000 Hz Ultra Polling Rate
- 512KB Onboard Memory
- Double-injection keycaps (104 keyboard only)
- All Keys Fully Programmable
- Instant Macro Recording
- Versatile Lighting Effects
- Detachable Braided USB Cable
- Compatible with Win XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10
- 16.8 Million Color Customizable Lighting
- TESORO AGILE mechanical switch
- N-key/6-key Rollover options
- Color Black/ White
- Processor 32bit ARM Cortex Premium
- Memory 512KB (4Mb) Onboard Memory
- Switch Gaming Grade
- Key lifespan 60 million keystrokes
- Material Plastic/ Iron
- Ultra-polling Rate 1000Hz
- Connection USB
- Key Rollover Selectable Full N-Key / 6 Key Rollover
- Backlit 16.8M RGB color
- Lighting Effects Yes
- Special keys Keyboard lock, Reset Hotkey, Instant Macro Recording, Instant Profile Switch
- Multimedia Keys 6
- Cable 1.8 meters, braided, detachable
- Weight Keyboard: 1.05kg
- Dimensions 445x136x24.5mm
Packaging and Unboxing
The Tesoro GRAM Spectrum comes in a very colorful box. The Keyboard takes up most of the front, but you can also find a close up of the low profile keys and some specifications.
The back of the box is just as colorful and gets a bit more detailed about the AGILE mechanical switches as well as the lighting and customization this keyboard is capable. Here you can also see that this board has a 32bit ARM Cortex CPU coupled with 512KB of memory to power all of the features.
The bottom side of the box shows that this keyboard can come with Blue, Black, Red or Brown style mechanical Switches, as well as worldwide regional layouts. Our particular sample came with Red AGILE switches.
Inside the Tesoro GRAM Spectrum’s box, we find the keyboard wrapped in a plastic bag and nestled in a tray with foam padding. The removable cord hides in the top section under Tesoro’s motto: “Break the Rules”.
Under the keyboard we find the manual. Here is everything laid out in all its glory, including the gold plated removable USB type-A male to Mini. One of the first things you notice about the Tesoro GRAM Spectrum when you pick it up is its weight. I measured this keyboard at 2 pounds and 3 ounces! It is rock solid and does not bend, twist or flex at all.
A Closer Look
The Tesoro GRAM Spectrum is a standard size, 104-key keyboard with a clean layout. You won’t find any crazy things like extra Macro keys, which you won’t need anyway (more on that shortly). Some features are hidden in other keys, like media commands in the F8 to F12 keys.
The bottom of the keyboard has 2 large flip out feet to raise the keyboard to a more comfortable angle. 4 rubber feet on the bottom of the keyboard take care of anti-slip duties while the feet are down. The tips of the feet are also rubber to keep it in place while inclined.
Instead of reinventing the wheel, Tesoro took the well-established Kailh Switches and remade them into the lower profile AGILE switches. This provides gamers a well-known feel coupled with a shorter keystroke for lightning fast responses. You can still see Kailh stamped into the upper switch housing.
Tesoro provides this diagram of what sets the AGILE switch apart from traditional mechanical keys. 0.5mm doesn’t seem like much, but over hundreds of millions of clicks, you are quite literally saving yourself miles of unneeded key travel.
Here we can see the Tesoro AGILE keycaps (foreground) are much shorter than traditional mechanical keycaps. Another good surprise here is finding the Tesoro keycaps are double shot. A translucent inner layer is cast, with the letter raised above it, and the black layer is then cast over the top. It’s not a clear cap dyed black which can wear off in short order like many others. These keycaps will stay legible for the lifetime of this keyboard, many tens of millions of clicks later.
The GRAM Software open to give you a view of the keyboard, the onboard memory usage meter, and profile quick change buttons. “PC mode places the keyboard back in a default state where it acts like a keyboard again, useful if you get a little wild with changing keys to other functions. Here we can also change the illumination color of the entire keyboard at one time. You can also type RGB values in to fine tune your color.
Active and Reactive lighting effects can also be applied. The Rainbow wave is a personal favorite here, but the ‘Spectrum colors’ preset will light up just usual the WASD area for gamers.
To set an individual Key’s Color, you must choose the ‘Spectrum Colors’ option under lighting effects. From here, you can choose a key to get a popup to select your desired color, either from a preset, a color pallet, or by manual RGB values. This isn’t readily obvious, I had to reach out to Tesoro and ask how to do this. I would love to see this moved to a new effect preset called ‘user’ or ‘custom’.
Once you select a profile to edit, you get the options to reassign keys and functions. Every key can be assigned a macro, and you’ll find common options to use entered delays, custom delays, or skip delays between keys. You can also set the key to toggle mode where it will run a macro on a loop until you turn it off again. Very handy!
You can also reprogram any key to be any other key. This can be very useful for older games that do not allow keys to be remapped in game.
On the other end of the Spectrum (pun intended), you can completely disable a key if you find one you keep accidently hitting. It will light up a purple color like above in software only to indicate this. Pressing ‘Default’ will restore its original purpose.
All keys can also be assigned a shortcut to open programs of your choosing.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
Tesoro has developed probably one of the best feeling keyboards I have ever put my fingers on. The AGILE switches seem to feel unusually responsive, even for mechanical switches. I really wouldn’t have guessed that half of a millimeter less travel distance would really make much difference, but it really does seem to. They Keyboard feels incredibly solid, its weight feels good and there is zero flex when typing or gaming. The lighting effects are beautiful and the reactive ripple effect looks great.
The software works fairly well, but is a bit clunky at times seems to lack that final polish it needs to really be great. As most of the features can be assessed and programmed directly from the keyboard on the fly, the less optimal software doesn’t detract that much. While you can select from over 16 million colors of illumination, How to set a single key’s color isn’t readily obvious in the software, but that could be fixed with a simple software update. For some, the lack of an included wrist wrest may be a deal breaker for long gaming marathons.
All in all, the Tesoro GRAM Spectrum is a great keyboard for any gamer with its awesome quality and industry leading features. At $120 at Amazon at the time of writing for both the black and the white variants, this a good deal for a great keyboard and earns our High Recommended award!
Pros:
- VERY sturdy design
- Mind numbing amount of flexibility in programming keys to other functions.
- 104 Macro and/or shortcut keys
- RGB Lighting
- AGILE Mechanical switch
Cons:
- Minus a wrist rest
