Introduction

Razer has always been known to produce some of the best gaming mice, but it wasn't until late last year that they decided to venture in to the keyboard market with their Tarantula keyboard. Razer's slogan has always been "For Gamers. By Gamers". It says it all in my opinion.

The Tarantula created quite a fuzz late last year because it featured a system that lets the user reassign every button on it and has 10 extra keys that can be assigned to macros and special functions. Besides that the Taratula featured some new extra function that you wouldn't normally find on a gaming keyboard, e.g. zoom and media control buttons.

Right from the beginning the Tarantula was aimed at the hardcore gamers because it has anti-ghosting features and the keys have a short traveling length. As with most Razer products the Tarantula has 32 KB of embedded memory that lets the user store up to 6 different profiles.

Let's see how this feature rich keyboard performs!

The Package

The Tarantula keyboard comes in a big cardboard box, on the back you have the complete specification list of the keyboard. The special thing abut this keyboard besides from the 10 back-lighted keys is that it features 32 KB of embedded memory and the drivers lets you reassign any key. This can be useful i.e. BF2 doesn't let the user assign arrow keys as back and forward, with the Tarantula you can overcome this problem by assigning WASD to arrow up/down/left/right.


The keyboard comes with a quick start manual that helps the user setup the keyboard. Besides that you get a big sticker and a certificate of authenticity. The drivers were easy to install, I just inserted the CD and ran through the setup wizard.

Another new feature introduced by Razer with this keyboard is the BattleDock, a small port on top of the keyboard where you can insert various gaming accessories such as the Razer BattleLight, which is a small cathode tube, mounted so that it can illuminate the keyboard and a new BattleEye webcam.