Performance
Now that I have had experience with multiple gaming keypads like the Orbweaver, Nostromo, and the G13, I had a good idea of what to expect from the Tartarus. Especially because a lot of the Tartarus’s features came from the Nostromo and or the Orbweaver. This meant I knew how I wanted to set everything up, so I jumped right into my testing. For FPS testing I used the stock setup with a few exceptions and tweaks to keep my melee, frags, and other game specific buttons near my WASD keys. For melee I found the button just below my thumb actually worked very well for quick reactions, but it also was a great pick for binding to your voice push to talk as well if you don’t use a button on your mouse. My testing included a couple games of Battlefield 3 as well as Crysis 3. Once everything was setup I quickly adjusted from the previous Razer keypads to this new design. With a row less than the Orbweaver I still had all of the keys I needed but people who put all of the keys on the Orbweaver or the G13 will have trouble with the lower key count.
Seeing that I have been playing a lot of League of Legions recently, it was only right that I also toyed with the Tartarus in game as well. I didn’t need a high key count this time around. It was just an issue of setting the middle row to your normal qwer keys and then binding the keys around the edge to things like my 6 item locations, my TP back button, and the rest of the functions you put to use. You can also setup macros for example that will set off a q spell every 4 seconds if you are trying to build up your tear (item) in game. The thumb pad is perfect for moving your view around the map without having to move your mouse, something that you can’t do with a standard keyboard while keeping your qwer keys at hand.
The green backlighting is going to be polarizing, people who love green or have other new Razer products won’t have an issue with it but those with other backlight colors on their keyboard or mouse might not be as happy. I do with the Tartarus would support full color spectrum like the G13. Going back to the membrane keys took a little time after coming from the Orbweaver, but it wasn’t long before I had gotten used to them while doing my testing.
Lastly I put the adjustability to the test. One picture below is with the palm wrest all the way out and the other is all the way in. If you look you can see that with the palm wrest all the way out my fingers aren’t sitting with a claw grip. Not only does this help with getting the Tartarus to fit different hand sizes but some people prefer to grip differently. I do miss the additional adjustability that the Orbweaver has that allows the thumb controls to move around as well.
