subject: Razer Lycosa Gaming Keyboard Review [print this page] Here we are going to take another look at the Razer Lycosa and see if there has been much improvement to this model since it was first launched by Razer a good few years ago and was probably one of the first real specialist keyboards that was of use to gamers.
The Lycosa seems to have a lot of supporters and happy users, but unfortunately it also seems to have almost as many unhappy ones too. these statistics seems a little strange as as there are not that many units that throw up these kinds of conflicting views.
First thoughts were that many of the negative reviews came during the first months of production, perhaps when quality control was not as good as might have been and there were still bugs in the process itself or in the software that needed to be sorted out. Without knowing for sure this is difficult to surmise, but it is certainly common practice, especially among software developers to release things onto the market before they have been properly debugged and then use customer feedback to iron out any problems as things progress, hence updates and model changes. Although maybe not that ethical is can make sound business sense, conversely manufacturers can shoot themselves in the foot if they are not very careful, because of the internet word travels very fast especially on gaming forums and sales can suffer as a result of scathing reviews.
The results obtained for this article are from actual analysis of user feedback and the figures have shown a surprising trend so far. Units made prior to April 2011 appear to have had a lot pf problems, but from then onwards there has been a 50% increase in high feedback scores, a sure sign the earlier problems have been ironed out and Razer has got their act together.
Razer Lycosa Conclusions
It looks like Razer has gone some way toward ironing out some of the problems plaguing the Lycosa, at least on these statistics and although they are not renowned for their customer service it seems like they have sat up and taken notice at the many complaints and presumably the same number of returns.
The majority of the problems on Lycosa seems to center on unresponsive keys that do not work when they should, this has now been fixed according to Razer, problems with the backlighting going on and off, the media controls having a life of their own and some software glitches with Windows Vista and XP.
Users that have not had problems like this keyboard a lot, but its always going to be a bit of a lottery whether you manage to get a good one or not. On reflection it is felt that for this kind of money there are plenty of gaming keyboards around that do not have any of the Lycosas associated problems, including some of the more recent Razer products.
Bottom line, why risk the potential hassle of buying a dud and always having the thought in the back of your mind that it could pack up at any moment, save yourself any grief and get one of the latest models. With the latest crop of good keyboards around the Lycosa does seem overpriced.
Alternatives To The Razer Lycosa
The current price of the Razer Lycosa at the time of writing, is around $70. Other models in this price range include The Logitech G110, the stripped down version of the G19 with less functions, a nice keyboard and a good buy. The Microsoft Sidewinder X6, MS products are usually pretty good and the X6 is one of their best especially if you are left handed. There is the Cyborg V7, the retro styling of this unit may not be to everyones taste but it is still a fairly robust unit.
A recent addition is the Thermaltake Tt eSports Challenger Pro, this keyboard looks quite promising and may be worth investigating.
Finally for around an extra $10 on the price of a Lycosa, you could get the excellent Razer Blackwidow which is equipped with mechanical keys.
