Overall and Final Verdict
So the Excalibur Spectrum is basically the same exact keyboard as the Tesoro Lobera Spectrum that I previously covered. Normally that would be a bad thing but in this case it is great that Tesoro is offering a few different options in the full RGB market. Frankly if you are looking for a full RGB keyboard most of your options are going to be a lot like the Lobera with a gamer focused design. So having a clean design like the Excalibur available is great for people who don’t like that more aggressive styling. What do I mean by a “clean” design? Well like the Lobera the Excalibur is all blacked out, but in addition to that it has a thin bezels and none of the case has additional lighting or diamond plate texture. It’s not as clean and simple as the Code keyboard with its pin hole LED indicators, but it is step in the right direction. Dropping the weird font on the keycaps would really polish the Excalibur off.
The Excalibur Spectrum performed good in my testing with only a few small issues that are typical when running Kailh switches and thin keycaps. The RGB backlighting looks great and has full control meaning you can set each keys backlight individually. This leads me to the software. I would love to see Tesoro add in a few more lighting effects in the future to keep up a little with some of the more expensive competition in the RGB market. I also feel like the software is a little overdone with a theme that matches the Lobera’s gaming styling more than the simpler Excalibur. Beyond that my only real issue is the lack of a standard bottom row. I would love to be able to swap out the ABS keycaps with a nice doubleshot PBT set but they won’t fit the bottom row.
So the Excalibur Spectrum looks great, performs well, and have great backlighting right. But none of those are even its best feature. The Excalibur Spectrum has a listed MSRP of 119 but can be snatched up right now at least for less than $90! To put that in perspective the M800 from SteelSeries is currently $179, the G910 from Logitech is $139 right now, and the Razer and Corsair RGB mechanicals are $166 and $169 currently. That is a huge gap in price compared to the competition. The software on all of those is better than what you will get here, but for that but you can get two Excalibur Spectrums for the price of one M800!
Live Pricing: HERE