Customer Reviews

Razer Lycosa Programmable Backlit Gaming Keyboard

5 star:		(75)
4 star:		(56)
3 star:		(34)
2 star:		(43)
1 star:		(70)

 

 

First, I'm not a gamer. I enjoy a good FPS but generally get pwned by kids 30 years younger than me. I didn't buy this keyboard for it's gaming features. I needed to replace my Logitech MX5000 BT keyboard because it was driving me crazy with it's connection issues. The criteria I had for the replacement was that it be wired (I've tried too many flaky wireless solutions); that it preferably have laptop style keys; that it be relatively quiet (so my wife can sleep in the next room); and that the keys have a switchable backlight (more on that later). The Lycosa met these requirements for me.

The keyboard itself is really nice looking, not too big, and very low profile. The high gloss body finish does show finger prints and dust. The keys have a matte rubber finish that feels good under the finger tips.

I'm almost a touch typist and I have been intrigued by the Das Keyboard II but I just wasn't really ready to commit to a completely unmarked keyboard. The Lycosa is actually a nice compromise in this regard because I can turn off the backlight completely and have a virtually unmarked keyboard.

Speaking of backlighting, it is true that the backlighting for the keyboard it somewhat dim, especially when viewed from a slightly slouched seating position. If you are not very familiar with the standard keyboard layout and you like to slouch when surfing or gaming, then this is probably not the keyboard for you. However, when sitting in a normal typing position the lighting is perfectly adequate even in a well lit room. I do understand the desire to want to control the brightness of the backlight. Maybe that can be supported through a driver or firmware update at some point in the future. It is interesting to note that when the keyboard backlight is in "WASD" mode, that the lit WASD keys are significantly brighter than normal full keyboard backlight mode.

I want to mention that I continue to use my Logitech MX1000 BT mouse and that I have the BT receiver for the mouse plugged into the USB port on the back of the Lycosa and it is working well.

The Lycosa will not be the right keyboard for everyone. If you need to be able to see you keys all the time, look elsewhere. If your a confdent typist and are looking for a nicely designed, high cool-factor, keyboard, then this one is worth considering.

Other keyboards I considered:

Razer Tarantula: Didn't like the industrial design as much and only the side keys were illuminated. Did like the photo-editing keys on the left side (I'm a photoshop user). Didn't have laptop style keys.

Saitek Eclipse: Popular keyboard. Terrible design IMHO. Ugh.

Saitek Eclipse II: Well reviewed. Only slighty better ID than the Eclipse. Backlight was too ambient making keys harder to identify. Keys felt a bit smaller than I'm used too when I was playing with one.

Das Keyboard II: Very high quality, totally unmarked keyboard. I might have to get one someday just for the pure novelty.

Logitech DiNovo Edge: Really nice looking and well reviewed. Nice laptop style keys. Not wired. Very expensive. Too expensive. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, it's expensive.

I intentionaly steered clear of the Microsoft and Logitech herds of keyboards because that's what I've used for the last 20-some years and and I've never had one I truly liked. In fact the last keyboard that I truly enjoyed using was the original model-m keyboard that came with my original IBM PC in 1983. These are still made today, but did not meet my "quiet" requirement.

This is a good keyboard, in most ways. The color is a nice glossy black, somewhat sleek, back lit in a nice cold blue. I only have one real issue with it:

The rubberized coating on the keys. More thought should have been put into this, as it seems to be easy to erode. My W, A, and D keys are seriously worn through on the top, to the point that there are no recognizable characters on those keys anymore.You just see the transparent key underneath, along with the "X" shape on the underside of the keys. This was a keyboard for gamers, eh? Considering that I've had the keyboard for 7 months now , and that the erosion started after about three months, are any of the keys going to be legible in another 7 months? This coating is really substandard. I still have 10 and 15 year old keyboards in use with all the keys legible.

After doing a lot of research I finally decided on this keyboard (instead of the G15 or a game pa). I'm used to just using 13 dollar microsoft keyboards, so it was a lot of money for 'just' a keyboard, but so worth it!

Just the keyboard alone, minus the programmable aspects, have been great. I love how it looks when lit up (which I've had no trouble with it seeming too dim), and when my computer is off it looks good too with it's dull black look instead of a shiny plastic like most keyboards.

I also love that it's a very economic design, and especially small for a programmable keyboard. One of my concerns was that some of the other programmable keybards simply seemed huge, and I felt like they were investing too much desk space both for normal computer use and especially for gaming where I have the bad habit of shoving the keyboard to the far left to use mostly the right side.

On that note, because I'm a 'goofy footed' gamer that doesn't use the standard wsad with my left hand for movement, this keyboard was exactly what I needed. Most of the programmable keyboards I saw had the 'special' keys on the far left side, which I can't easily reach when I play games. With this keyboard you can turn ANY key into a programmable macro and it has quick and easy profile switching (and even auto-switching when a program starts up). For me this was great because I was able to turn the insert-pgdwn block of six keys into programmabed macros for my online gaming. It even let me bind macros/programs to the print screen and pause/break keys, which most games don't let you bind actions to in game so they're wasted. As well, you can disable any (any) key on the keyboard that you want (again controllable via profile options), meaning you can disable the pesky windows start/control button that will crash a lot of games to desktop!

Typing on the keyboard is very comfortable too. I write a lot, so I was worried I'd have to effectively have two keyboards, one for gaming and one for writing, but I've found this keyboard to be very comfortable with standard typing (as opposed to my work computer that I'm on right now that the keyboard feels like a game of whack-a-mole to get words out). Sucks though, no going back to the cheapo MS keyboards now even for writing, this one is just too comfortable.

Also being able to plug my usb drive into the back of the keyboard is nice, and keeps me from forgetting it. Having a headphone/speaker jack right in the keyboard is sweet too istead of having to fumble around the base of my tower for the right hole (feeling like a virgin drunk on prom night!). I've never had any problems with the keyboard slipping either, which has been a problem in gaming with the cheaper keyboards I'd use previously.

Oh yeah, I was concerned about how hard it would be to 'program' keys being my first programmable keyboard. I can't compare it to any other keyboard, but it was very easy (no need to read instructions, yay!). It will take a few hours to fine tune 'programs' between the keyboard and game, but once you get the hang of it you won't know how you ever managed without a programmable keyboard for gaming!

This is the first time I have given anything I bought 1 star. I normally research stuff I buy and am happy with what I get. However, my research on this keyboard was way off... So you're probably wondering "If there are so many positive reviews, why is this guy rating it so low?"

The answer is simple. Go to Razer's site, If you submit a positive review of their products to various sites, like Amazon, they send you free stuff. I was unaware of this until it was too late. Frankly, I'd be surprised if any of the 5-star reviews on here actually own a Lycosa. Don't believe me, hit razerzone(dot)com >> Community >> Share Your Razer Experience... I hope they send me swag for this review!

So what is so bad?

First off, this thing has a ton of well documented issues that I found out about when I started experiencing them. Google "Razer Lycosa Problems" to verify my claims. Here are some of them

- The Media touch panel (though it is nice when working properly) tends to freak out on you... For me, it happens a lot. Particularly, in my instance, the "previous" button likes to just randomly start getting hammered by a ghostly finger. So when I'm rocking iTunes at random intervals it will simply start skipping through my tracks in reverse roughly every second until it gets to the top of the playlist. You can "resolve" this by unplugging it every time this happens. Right now, it is about 5 minutes after I plug mine in. Turns out, some people have found out that you can take the board apart and carefully remove a screw to often fix issues.

- The caps lock key likes to freak out. I don't know how to explain it other than when you're playing a game, sometimes your fingers drift. Well, if you're playing an FPS that is fast-paced, in my case TF2 and you accidentally hit the caps key while pressing one or more of your movement keys, it will sometimes randomly stick the key you were pressing. So basically, you can't stop moving in a direction until... You unplug the keyboard. You can of course work around this by setting up your game profile to disable the caps key, but you shouldn't have to.

- Supposedly, the non-slip coating on the keys begins to peel too. Mine hasn't started, but it has already begun to rub off, a lot.

- I was able to "deal" with the above items and then, my keys just started not responding. It doesn't happen a lot, but occasionally, a key (for me i is often "A") will stop working until... That's right folks, I unplug it.

Razer did admit that some of these had manufacturing defects, but the board you're likely to get won't be one of those numbers.

I sent one back at first because I figured it was bad. The second one had the same issues. Then, just for the hell of it, I tried a 3rd from a local store to see if Amazon maybe just got a bad lot... nope... Same problems. To make it even more fun, their support staff does a great job of pretending they have never heard of these issues. Thankfully, I didn't have to deal with an RMA because I hear it is a total nightmare.

The sad part is, I really want to like this keyboard. It is comfortable for a low-profile board. It doesn't slide on your desk at all. The lighting is just-right for my eyes and the config software is very flexible. But the well-known bugs this thing suffers from make it nearly unusable.

tl;dr version: This keyboard is full of well-documented bugs that Razer has not resolved. Many reviews are probably fake so people can get free swag from Razer. You will probably want to put a bullet in your head if you buy one so do yourself a favor and buy something else.

Now,this.review.may.seem.crap...Thats.because.i'm.writing.it.with.a.lycosa.keyboard,and.my.spacebar,along.with.other.keys,no.longer.works....Oh,neither.does.my.enter.key...

But.the.other.one.does.now...go.figue(oh,my.r.key.just.stopped.working....It's.back.again....hooray)

So.one.period.for.a.space,3+periods.for.a.true.period...

Is.this.enough.to.warn.you.off.buying.one.of.these...?

If.so,good,this.company.doesn't.deserve.your.hard.earned.money

nfortnately(now.yo.key.doesn't.work)-i.boght.twooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

when I am when playing some of the keys remain pressed "but not physically" and after a few seconds is released and does not respond when press it again, this happens randomly , and install the drivers and continues the same problem. commonly fail key is W,A,S,D.

users report the same problem in forums.

DO NOT BUY RAZER

Got this for my son Christmas. It broke after 1 week of normal use. Keys started sticking or not working, media control quit working. He is very careful with PC stuff, he did not do anything abusive to it.

Razer customer support was just horrible, lack of response, crypic answers, kept trying to say our PC was broken and its not the keyboard, etc. After we did everything to satisfy them the keyboard was in fact defective, they finally admitted they should replace it, and its been two months now and still waiting for RMA so we can ship it back to them (they won't send a new one til they get the defective one back).

They told us "we have no replacement keyboards in stock and do not know when we ever will" and tried to get me to settle for the "Mirror Edition". But regardless, its been weeks and they keep telling me "you should get an RMA in your email any day now". I have gotten that response from them three times now. DO NOT BUY THIS KEYBOARD, its poorly made and Razer customer support seems designed to give you the run-around. They DO NOT stand behind the product. I will never buy anything from Razer, ever again.

I really love the look and feel of this keyboard, and I wanted to love the keyboard, because a good low profile keyboard is hard to find. But, as so many others have said, it simply doesn't work. It's beyond retarded that an $80 keyboard has such gaping flaws. The shift/ctrl/alt keys stop working as they please, and I have to reconnect the keyboard to fix them. I've had the same problem across 3 computers, including 2 motherboards on one of them. With and without drivers (any and all revisions). Nothing fixes it. Razer support is beyond useless.

Extremely disappointing, won't buy from Razer again, even though I'm pleased with my Lachesis, they simply do not stand behind their product. I'm gonna try an Apple keyboard, as I've heard good things, and I know from experience that Apple will back their product up if necessary.

Update: The keyboard I had was recalled a while back, so I filled out the recall page, and... was ignored. My Lachesis has since had 2 buttons begin to work only intermittently, and their drivers are still awful.

I urge you to think long and hard before purchasing any products from this company.

I use a Logitech Illuminated Keyboard now, and it's very pleasant to use. I'm shopping for a new mouse as I write this.

I got this for my wife to use on her computer and two weeks into owning this keyboard the right shift key stopped working. About a week after that the down arrow stopped working and the number 2 above the q and w keys popped off.

My wife takes extremely good care of her things and for this keyboard to have this type of issue speaks volumes for the apparent lack of quality that Razer is putting into their keyboards. I have a Logitech Illuminated keyboard that is worth every penny I paid for and its been dropped off the desk, had coffee spilled in it and it still works like a charm.

Trying to get Razer to issue an RMA has been a nightmare. I have copies of all emails and RMA request's sent and email replies from Razer support asking me to try the keyboard on another computer when it was clearly stated that the number 2 keycap popped off.

Overall it has taken me more than 10 emails to Razer to get the RMA.

I would definitely stay away from the Razer keyboards as it's also been noted on other hardware sites that they have a lot of known issues with this product.

I bought this keyboard thinking it would be a great keyboard. I took it home and plugged it in and everything seemed fine. A few weeks after purchasing it I realized this thing is not overly friendly when using the directional keys. They are to low and hitting the directional arrows usually means you are hitting the casing of the sides as well, very annoying. I dealt with it and kept using it. I then took a closer look at the lights; Some of the lighted keys are dark underneath the letters meaning something was blocking the back lighting. I peered closely and saw it was the stuff underneath that the actual keys mount on, yeah great design. OK, i can deal with that. Then the keys started rubbing off on top and you can see all the back lighting underneath (the stuff around the actual letters and numbers). Wow I can't believe it. I paid a lot for this keyboard and it is just horrible. The touch feature for turning off the lights is very poorly designed as well. I don't know how many times I have actually had to turn it back on in the dark and sliding my finger all over.

I went back to my Logitech G15, with the price this thing cost and how it was suppose to be high quality I am sorely disappointed. My Razer Lachesis review isn't much better than this one as well. I will never buy another Razer product again more than likely unless they get their act together.