One of the fastest growing verticals in the PC market is the peripherals market. There are so many different companies that are pushing out keyboards, mice, headphones and more to the masses. While this growth is a good thing, it also tends to saturate the market with products that are so similar the only thing that makes them different is the name and the price. This has made manufacturers move to new types of features and also to try and squeeze every last drop of performance they can out of their offerings and at the best price (one that is good for consumers and still make them money). Today we are looking at a gaming keyboard that has some very interesting features, the Tesoro Tizona. This keyboard offers Brown Mechanical switches and also a detachable number pad. So let’s dive in and see where this keyboard falls.
Performance -Testing the performance of a keyboard is… well different. The only real way to test it is to repeat the same tasks across a range of products and see how each feels when using it. For our testing we like to use the tasks of gaming and writing a document (we typically write part or all of the review on the test board). These two are the most basic tasks that we ask of our keyboards when you come to think about it.
We try to perform each task for about an hour and then swap out another keyboard and repeat (this is done three to four times). It is a very long process, but in the end gives us a very good feel for how it performs for us. Sadly this “feel” is subjective and could be different for each person. In our notes below we will indicate if an issue is due to what we are comfortable with or if it is an actual performance issue (like lag etc.).
Sadly, neither the Tizona keyboard nor the number pad re backlit. This might hurt them if the price is not right for the pair of them.
Gaming – For our gaming test we opted for two recent games, Watch Dogs and Wolfenstein, New Order. Watch Dogs is a third person game that requires a different style of control than the first person Wolfenstein. The Tizona did very well and had no product based issues. The responsiveness was solid and there were no problems with lag or control. Brown switches feel muddy compared to what we are most used to though so the overall feel of the Tizona that was sent to us felt mushy. This made the gaming a little awkward until we became used to the lack of real tactile response like you get with blue or red.
We also tinkered around with the quick keys and mapped them to the quick weapon switch, slide and also to grenade in Wolfenstein. This made quite an improvement in certain areas of the game.
Typing – Under normal PC mode the Tizona and its attached number pad performed very well. The keys were responsive during the writing of this review and although we were not fond of them during gaming the way they felt under more regular usage was more than acceptable.
