Performance

The performance of the keyboard consists of two parts. First the feel of the keys, the pressure point and responsiveness are the factors that can be compared to other keyboards. Second, there is the subjective opinion. While some like thin, notebook style keys, other want the key to travel far, while having a very soft pressure point and recoil. We try to give you an objective look at what to expect of the keyboards tested, no matter what your favorite type of keys are.

Gaming Performance

The first thing that becomes apparent when using a keyboard for the first time, is the noise level. The Reclusa is a keyboard which is very quiet and comfortable - except the space bar. The difference in noise level is quite noticeable, but you will get used to it after some time. Microsoft is using Razer Technology in the keys, which can be felt. No matter how hard you press the keys, they will always feel just fine. This should appeal to all the different gamers out there. I fired up Steam and Counterstrike. This game does not require much more than the use of WASD or cursor keys as well as jump and number keys. The interesting part are the macros you can set. I was able to set macros in such a way, that it bought all my ammunition and weapons with a single press of a button. The Microsoft Razer Reclusa feels great when having to press a lot of keys at once and during no time did I hear the dreaded beep of low cost keyboards, which denotes that too many keys were pressed at once.

Office & Windows Performance

While the Reclusa may not look like much of an Office and Windows keyboard, it packs a lot of features. All the custom keys serve default Windows functions. The buttons on the left range from simple but ingenious program controlling keys (default browser, e-mail client, Windows Media Player), copy & paste function and a knob which acts as a mouse wheel to scroll up and down. The right side knob acts as a volume control, while the buttons can be used for media control as well as "back" and "forward" for browsing. Typing on the keyboard is very comfortable, if you can live with the loud space bar.