I just got the razer tarantula, my first gaming keyboard. 10 macro keys, 5 down each side, you can program then for up to 8 keystrokes, 200ms in between keystrokes (i am currently trying to give them feedback and encourage them to up the delay to several seconds for us wow'ers). You can have up to 100 profiles but only a few that are useful in real time.

It has a Profile key on the board which does 2 things:

If you hold down the profile key and press F1-F12 it will go to that respective profile.

Each profile has 2 keymaps, so you can have every key bound to an action, then switch over to qwerty style for typing.

Pressing Profile key by itself will toggle the 2 keymaps for that profile.

Regarding the 100 profiles, it seems that only 6-100 have full functionality for selecting an executable to work with, naming, auto-switching. Not sure what all the 1-5 lack yet havnt played enough.

So this makes Profile+F6-F12 really the only useful ones during gameplay.

For WOW I use each profile for a different character, and have not played with 2 keymaps yet cause I just dont have a need, but for people into binding every single thing and making tons of macro's ingame.....this could come in handy.

It plugs into 2 usb ports on the computer, and maybe my power supply is not strong enough because when I plug in my MP3 player to the keyboard I get "Hub does not have enough power to use your device", although I have not tried plugging anything else in. And have not tested this on a different computer with stronger power supply or more free ports.

You get 10 replacement keys, which are supposed to be for the 10 macro keys down the sides. These replacement keys use icons that seem specific for a FPS gamer, perhaps CS?

They designed this keyboard for the FPS gamer, but i'm working on making it great for MMO's also.

The only illumation on this keyboard is the 10 macro keys (which looks nice with the replacement keys installed), the profile key, caps lock, number lock, scroll lock, fading symbol on the bottom.

The overall look of the keyboard is fantastic! Typing is a pain I keep messing up my password, but you have to get used to any new keyboard you buy. Fast response is evident. I thought I would not notice a difference but it is there.

The multimedia keys are kinda hard to press but this is a minor detail.

The tilda key is very close to the 1 key, making it hard to press the one I want(being new to this keyboard).

My first day buying the keyboard I just could not justify it for the price, but now I'm loving it.

Another detail about the keys: The F keys are much smaller than normal and are hard to press, I'll get used to this but its hard being a priest that uses the F keys for healing spells.

Regarding reprogramming all the keys: The windows start key can be reprogrammed to any single key, I made mine LCtrl, so i just have 2 control keys next to each other and no chance of minimizing game in the middle of a duel. All normal keys can be programmed for up to 3 simultaneos keystrokes (no macro).

Even if you dont want 2 full keymaps, you can use the profile button to switch the macro keys, and have 2 keymaps with qwerty keyboard and different macro keys, giving you 20 macro keys that you switch out 10 at a time. (For example, pvp macros and pve macros), or w/e you can come up with for you FPS gamers. Maybe buying weapons and ammo.




OVERALL: Great keyboard, don't give up your G15 for it unless you want a smaller keyboard, this thing is pretty big and compact at the same time, thin keyboard, but long and wide.

I got a response from the company saying they fowarded my suggestion about higher delays in macro's to the engineer team. If this is true, then I love this company for taking gamer's feedback to improve product. Being that this keyboard is very new, they just might be doing that.

Hope this review was helpful.

Doh! Forgot one important detail.

The Battlelight and Battlecam accessories are not included in the box, at least not mine. And I have no clue how to get these, I do not think they are out yet, not on newegg, ebay, razerzone, no where.

All I got was the keyboard, software, a sticker, a manual, a box.

Currently you can have up to 200ms delay between keystrokes, im pushing for more like up 8000ms.....For example on WOW there is a global cooldown for 1 second between attacks (1000ms), and spells can take like up to 8secs to cast (8000ms), so to have like a dot macro for a warlock you need keypress, 3.5 seconds, keypress, 1.2seconds, keypress.......If they increase the delay between keypresses on the macro's then this keyboard is close to perfect.

when making a macro you can do no delay(which im not sure how long it will actually take, havn't memorized the spec's and im at work), 50ms, 100ms, and 200ms, in between keystrokes on the macro......only one delay in between each stroke, only 8 keystrokes per macro.

well you dont have to put a delay, if you do no delay at all im sure you are getting about a 4ms delay by default just because nothing is really instant.

it is possible to just do say 3up 3down 4up 4down 50ms 3up 3down, or w/e keys you want, so you do not have to use the 50ms if you want it faster.

And, just curious, what is an example where you need a specific 4ms delay?

Do you know what the prices will be on the accessories?

I will probably just make my own with a usb light heh, btw the expansion "Battledock" is just a hole in the keyboard is ~1.5" by ~3", and has a usb female that is the same as the most common usb female in mp3 players/digital cameras/and pda's. So im sure its easy to make your own accessories for this thing, not to mention the 2 standard usb ports on the keyboard itself.

A pointless addon but its for looks. From the screenshots razer offers, it doesn't light up all the keys even, stops near the F key or so.

Guess some light would help if you are in the dark, keyboard far from monitor and you are trying to hit an uncommon key. Not so sure how much "advantage" it gives you if you can't touchtype to begin with.

Been a while since I've talked in this thread...but I saw talk of more comparison between keyboards regarding performance and "bling". If you are not wanting top performance but want a fancy show off keyboard, I've seen a few that use imaged keys and complete underlighting. With the Razer Tarantula, it is plugging into 2 usb ports for as much power as it needs, every key on its own engine for hyper fast response and anti-ghosting. 10 keys at a time and immediate response (which I have noticed a difference from my last keyboard and my g/f's current keyboard) is far more important to me than fancy lights. This thing has a 2port usb hub as well to plug in flash drives or what have you, and between that and all the engine's, memory, its just not possible to have all that and a fully backlit keyboard. As far as "bling" on the tarantula: I find myself just stairing at the razer logo fading in and out, its awesome. I replaced the L1-L5 and R1-R5 keys with the FPS themed keys that light up more.

After using it a few weeks now, typing on it just feels amazing. I cannot go back to a normal keyboard now. I occasionally switch with my g/f's computer and use a microsoft keyboard that is not for gaming. Has no anti-ghosting, I cannot even angle-jump on WoW, and just does not feel as good.

Thats right, 10 keys woot. Not sure the conversion but I got the Tarantula for $100 USD.

Alright, after 6 months of using my Razer Tarantula I am loving it a lot more!

Right when I got it, I was disappointed with the macro feature only having up to 200ms delay (useless for us wow gamers) and I expressed my disappointment to Razer.

Back in May, I found that they had an update for the Firmware that increased to to 6.35 seconds delay. WOOT!!!!! Talk about customer service.

So now this thing is perfect. Excellent response time, still trying to make use of all the macro keys (even for CS it seems that just hitting b43 b64 b63 is easier than using the macro keys...habits I suppose).

The USB Hub on it is pretty much useless. I do use the headset jacks however so that I have more range with the wires.

Great keyboard I love it.