A Closer Look

Looking at the Lycosa for the first time, two aspects become apparent. First, the compact design and weight (or better lack thereof). The keyboard is incredibly light and can easily be transported to and from a LAN party. Secondly, the lack of any extra buttons like those found on the Logitech G15. Razer has designed the Lycosa with only the gamer in mind. There is no additional setup or learning curve involved with the Lycosa. Simply plug it in and enjoy the benefits of the input device.


Razer has decided to ship the Lycosa with a wrist rest. Even with this addition the keyboard can be considered compact, but you may also remove it, by unscrewing three screws on the underside. While this option is great, you may not have a screw driver at your immediate disposal, to remove or attach the rest. The Razer logo can be found on the middle of the handrest. Razer has also indented the cable connector so it will not stick out during travel. This little design also helps when wrapping the cord around the keyboard for transportation.


A very useful feature of the Lycosa are the microphone and headphone jacks along with the USB port. This means you can plug in your audio, as well as your gaming mouse straight into the keyboard. To avoid any problems, the separate USB connector needs to be plugged in separately into the system as well.


There is nothing out of the ordinary on the underside of the Lycosa. A simple, black & white sticker holds all the usual information and there are two small, plastic standoffs. We also spotted a "2" written on the underside of one of the standoffs.


Once the keyboard is plugged in, the blue glow perfectly lights up each key. They can be seen well both during the day and at night. Thanks to the flat key design each key is still visible when sitting at the usual angle in front of it - not just from above.


Remember where I mentioned, that there are no extra buttons on the Lycosa? Well Razer has chosen to place the multimedia functions in the top right corner. This is also where you can toggle the backlight between on, off and to just lighting up the WASD keys. This latter feature is perfect as you will always find right back to your main keys and are not distracted by the surrounding ones. The downside is the lack of customizability of this feature. It would have been good to be able to add further buttons like crouching or jumping functions to this setting.