Razer Tarantula Gaming Keyboard

by Razer

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 16 x 6 x 0.6 inches ; 5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000I20IHA
• Item model number: RZ03-00070100-R2M1
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 13, 2007

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

From the Manufacturer The Razer Tarantula is the first definitive keyboard created for gamers by gamers in Razer's suite of advanced gaming peripherals. The sleek design and fully customizable functions are specially engineered to empower competitive gamers with seamless control and unparalleled flexibility.

Anti-ghosting Capability
With the Razer Tarantula's anti-ghosting capability,

An integrated USB hub, as well as headphone and microphone jacks, add to the convenience.

Customize the 10 keys flanking the keytop.

Hyperesponse gaming keys.

BattleDock: A modular docking station for gaming keyboards.

Optional BattleLight.

Optional BattleEye.

you can press up to a whopping 10 simultaneous buttons without the "ghosting" effect. The Tarantula's anti-ghosting support is more than any other keyboard out on the market.

Macro Keys
Customize the 10 keys flanking the keytop to optimize your gameplay. Now you can execute up to a series of 8 keystrokes with the touch of a single macro key! You can also add delays ( up to 200ms ) for a superb degree of customization.

Profile Switching with Ease
Using the software drivers provided, you can now effortlessly store up to an unprecedented 100 profiles to handle any game that come your way. The On-The-Fly profile switching automatically detects and activates your preset game profiles once that particular game is loaded.

Fully Interchangeable Keys
Customize your keytops with the Razer Tarantula's unique feature to remove and add on keys! The Razer Tarantula Tool included in the package enables you to swap any of the standard keys amongst themselves or replace them with the extra 10 gaming hotkeys included! Now you can have each of the keys on your keytop customized to your preference.

Ten Gaming Hotkeys
We've included 10 custom FPS keys with popular icons such as Armor, Knife, Zoom In/Out, Pistol and Rifle with your Razer Tarantula. Watch out for more customizable keysets to be released for other popular FPS, RTS and MMO games.

32KB Onboard Memory
Embedded memory powered by Razer Synapse enables you to store up to 5 onboard profiles for different games onto your Razer Tarantula gaming keyboard.

Keymaps
Relish in the ease and speed of switching to different sets of keys by configuring up to 2 keymaps per profile! Now you can change between your regular QWERTY keyboard layout and your customized keymap with just the press of a button.

Optimized Hyperesponse Gaming Keys
Unique membrane keys reduce key latency and maximize response for critical actions during competitive gameplay.

Razer BattleDock
The Razer Tarantula features the world's first modular docking station for gaming keyboards! Now you can add on accessories to your Razer Tarantula for extra features and added functionality! Included with your keyboard is the Razer Tarantula Tool to remove your BattleDock cover each time your want to add on a new Battledock accessory.

Razer BattleLight
Let there be light! Illuminate your keyboard with an iridescent glow to enhance your gaming experience. Equip your Razer Tarantula with the BattleLight and gain that unfair advantage over your rivals in low light conditions.

Razer BattleEye
Eyeball your enemy! Perfect your gameplay with the BattleEye, a webcam that docks with your Razer Tarantula to provide real time visual feedback with your opponents. Let them witness your triumphs and feast on their anguish as they get fragged.

What's in the Box
Razer Tarantula Gaming Keyboard, BattleDock cover, quickstart guide, 10 hot keys with icons, Razer Tarantula tool, user's guide, and CD-ROM.

Product Description

Razer Tarantula Gaming Keyboard

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Keyboard - With Caveats, January 7, 2008

By 

Glen Tan (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Razer Tarantula Gaming Keyboard (Personal Computers)

I've used this keyboard for about 6 months now, and this review is based on my experience over this span of time. I am an avid gamer, and play mostly FPS (First-Person Shooter), RPG (Role-Playing Games) and RTS (Real-Time Strategy) games.

Build Quality: 9/10
The keyboard is very well constructed, with a solid feel, and plenty of space. This is not a keyboard for people with limited desktop real estate. The lighting on the keyboard is very pleasing, and the Razor logo on the palm rest fades in and out. The keys are all removable via the tool provided inside. Feet are properly rubberized, with the usual height stands to prop it up. The cables coming out of the keyboard are thick and well-constructed, and the connectors are gold-plated. Impressive! Overall, excellent. Makes you feel like you paid for proper quality.

Feel (9/10) & Function (5/10)
The keys are very responsive, and are on the firm side. There was no learning curve involved when I switched from my $10 cheap Logitech keyboard.

Ergonomics are acceptable, but aren't revolutionary in any way. This leads to my main comment about function. The customizable gaming keys run down both ends of the normal keyboard, and look great in theory. In practice however, I found using them a pain. Stretching my little fingers (probably the least dexterous of all fingers!) to hit one of the several gaming keys is a real hassle, especially when you're in the middle of an intense FPS battle. For example, trying to hit one of the left hotkeys is completely impractical if you're using the typical WSAD (forward, back, strafe left and right) and in the middle of combat, as it requires you to stretch your litle finger, which messes with the rest of your hand placement (unless you're a piano player, or especially dexterous, or possess large hands). Also, your right hand will be on the mouse, rendering the right keys nigh impossible to use as well.

On to the USB Ports. I haven't had problems with the ports, except that they're low power ports, and unable to support devices such as hard disks. Also, they're not USB 2.0, making them inefficient for large transfers of data to/from a media player. Otherwise, they've worked fine for me when I use them, which is almost never.

The ports for audio are unusable for me, because improper grounding of the LED lights on my keyboard means that there is a rising and fading buzz that corresponds with the Razor logo illumination. This is the biggest "Con" for me with regards to the keyboard. I tried to use them, but the buzz drove me crazy, and I haven't used the audio ports since. I'm not sure if it's a problem with my particular keyboard, but if not, it's an unacceptable flaw as it renders the audio ports unusable. Nobody wants to listen to electronic buzzing, especially not after paying this much for a keyboard.

Conclusions:
This keyboard is good value overall, and if appearance, build quality, and BASIC functions are your top priorities, then it's an excellent choice. If you're looking for a keyboard that will expand your gaming horizons, and change your gaming habits, this isn't it.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as it looks, March 31, 2008

By 

Provost "VerusEx" (DOVER, NH, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Razer Tarantula Gaming Keyboard (Personal Computers)

Big keyboard, with wide key spacings. Nice for gaming but not so good for typing, repeated letters are a real problem and it takes some time to adjust to spacing.

Big downsides are software and customer support. I have had repeted incompatability problems between Razer software and iTunes and Microsoft Outlook. I have only had the keyboard for a week but have had to reload software sevral times (seems to be the same problem I had with short lived Razer Death Adder Mouse).

Razer also has awful customer support, they don't seem to acecpt returns of failed products. So if you buy from Amazon, hope that yours fails before Amazon's 30 days are up.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not worth the money., December 12, 2008

By 

Ummm no (Texas) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Razer Tarantula Gaming Keyboard (Personal Computers)

Just got it, so no say on durability yet. May update later about it.

The good points are:

{

its shiny black.
can press more than 3 keys at once and have them register.
has easily pressed keys.
has reprogrammable keys.
media keys, and a port for expansions.
has a shuffle list key.
can bind programs to macro keys.
profile key can be used with other keys to cycle profiles.

friendly tech support, with some helpful tips. they haven't seemed to have gotten around to outsourcing their techs, so i can actually understand what they say to me.
a tool for popping out keys so i dont have to pull out a butter knife or something. (how i broke the space bar on my g15 while trying to clean it.)
}

the bad.

{
the audio/headphone ports require that the keyboards headphone/microphone jacks to be plugged into the pc. while many would say duh, that makes sense. i'd reply why have them unless i just feel like having my headphones closer to the keyboard?
also it DOES need 2 usb ports to be used fully. basically that extra line gives two usb ports connected to the keyboard. so really only 1 extra usb port gained.

as another review posted, the keyboard's play/pause DOES NOT WORK with winamp. it does w/o the software drivers. but after its just screwed. had to resort to using windows media player *shivers*. the keyboard actually functions better with media players without the driver/software.

the media keys DO NOT WORK with anything other than the selected player. why they decided to go from the universal controls, i have no bloody clue. i used to be able to go to any player i wished, and have it work. no software needed.

the media keys are not movable, or reprogrammable. i dont like having to take my mouse hand off the action to swap songs. would be much better if the keys were movable/remapped.

can not bind any keys/macros to use home/delete/windows etc etc. can't insert them, cant move around anything. can't click the times in milliseconds to modity them if dont want the standard timing.

now for the anti ghosting. yes, you can press 10 keys at once. sadly only 6 of them ever work for me. that is with the software installed too. granted 6 is better than 3, which i hardly did more than anyhow. i unfortunately wield usb 1.0 ports on my pc, so that is probrably why. not likely to ever use more than 6 keys at once anyway. i use more than 3 for stuff like descent 3 or freespace. after burner, turning up left/right, while banking left/right, while dropping chaff is sometimes needed. or when i have to hold shift to walk, and move diagonally and jump at same time.


the battle dock is completely useless. can buy an overpriced web cam, or a gimpy ineffective light. i dont see why i should have to hang a light over my keyboard to see the keys. if they can't have glowing keys, maybe a trim with lights, like it is on some of their mice. or more translucent casing in some areas or glow in the dark paint for letter keys, with the ability to toggle the light. also a little fan or something might be nice, or expandable keyboard memory. and a nice case to carry all that extra baggage.

no lcd display. i liked it on my old g15. would have made a nifty battle dock accessory.

the wrist rest is not removable, or adjustable. all for the sake to have a glowing snake emblem.

no disable windows key button either. have to remap it. i actually use the windows key often, so remapping it is a pain. there is an option for keymap a, keymap b, but, thats only for profiles not stored on keyboard, in other words, not standard. thats because the first 5, which are stored on the keyboard (for the rare case i'd actually drag it's ultra expensive butt some where else), only can have one keymap. the key maps are basically where i can rebind all the keys on one setting, hit profile and get the b side, with the normal goods. so basically i'd have to carry a flash drive if i want accurate functionality.
my hot fix would be to turn the razor key (which is really the right windows key/menu key) into a windows key, but apparently i cant.

no macros are able to be bound on any other key except the designated special keys. of which have an abysmal macro rate. on my old g15, i could store like 32 characters, this is more like 8. so before i could save entire commands.

tech support, basically almost any question about the functionality of the keyboard = me s.o.l. (and i dont mean satellite of love). They knew how to repair it, but not how to actually make it an acceptable piece of hardware for its high price. nice people though. so its not their fault.

the macros are executed very slowly.

the software only allows executables to be bound to macro keys. in order to bind files, batch files, or whatever, have to get the link manually, and input it into the open window.


over all my old logitech g15 owns this keyboard so badly, that i feel slightly sad i bought it. people might ask, why did i buy a tarantula if i had such a great keyboard. because i rode my old one so hard it started to fall apart. that is after a few years of hard service. one of the few logitech products that actually didnt break within 6 months. only minor annoyances.

the tarantula is not worth buying unless you absolutely need the extra few keys when gaming. if not, get a g15. it has better macro system, lcd display for looking at time, and winamp song. better media buttons, disable windows key switch.

dont misunderstand. this keyboard is actually a good keyboard. i do like razer products. they are overpriced in general, but usually worth having (at discount price). but this is no where near worth 80$, nor is it better than logitechs g15. which is the saddest part? me spending money on it, or the fact that this keyboard could actually dominate the logitech with a few minor changes? instead the tarantula tragically fails.
}