One thing about Tesoro is that they provide options for their keyboards, and the GRAM XS is no different. Be it in a white or black color scheme or a linear or tactile/clicky switch, there are four variants of the keyboard available for purchase at the same price point. Quantifying value for money is all the more harder here because other such low profile keyboards are only just slated to be coming to market. Kailh had their switches come out earlier, and some companies based in Asia did give us a glimpse of what is possible with such switches, but Tesoro is to my knowledge the first company with a fairly global retail channel to also use chiclet keycaps and a slim case for an overall package that is more comparable to OEM membrane chiclet keyboards than any standard mechanical keyboard we use today. Tesoro worked with TTC here, as with Gateron for their optical switches used in the previous GRAM (SE Spectrum) keyboard, so I definitely appreciate what they are doing in coming up with switch options that serve a purpose while also being their own.

This could have easily been a one-trick pony, but the overall package is impressive as well. The usual suspect features are present here, be it 16.8 M RGB backlighting or on-board controls and memory for profiles, but executing these alongside the physical constraints of a low profile could have been botched and instead, we have good implementations of both. Perhaps it is also a result of the lower distance between the LEDs and the keycaps here, but the lighting is quite vivid, and the various effects come off well. There is a drawback to these keycaps, however, which comes with the thinner walls and ABS plastic used. I was seeing residual finger oil stains on the keycaps within a couple of weeks of using the keyboard, and the laser etched legends don't help either. The one-year warranty, coupled with the keycap design, means that you may have a hard time getting replacement keycaps unless Tesoro decides to make them available for a longer period of time. At the same time, releasing a beta driver to support finished, retail hardware does not add to the experience either. I completely understand how hard it is to come up with a new driver UI and base from scratch, as it is to have both hardware and software developed simultaneously, but it still leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

Thankfully, helping sweeten it somewhat is the revamped user experience that is all the better with Tesoro 360 compared to anything else they put out before. With color themes to match the two color options for the keyboard and a glimpse at what is to come next with support for multiple devices in a unified driver, things will only get better too. As it is today, key assignment is complete, albeit a bug exists in macro recording that will need some more time to remove multiple keystrokes, and preset lighting effects work fine too as long as you use the color sliders/wheel instead of the preset color options that may not be true to color. This really is the story of the GRAM XS today—perhaps it was released sooner than it should have been, but it has the distinction of being among the first to provide a high-end mechanical keyboard experience for those preferring a low travel distance.