Tesoro Excalibur G7NL Gaming Keyboard Review

By Julian Duque

Manufacturer: Tesoro Technology Inc.
Product Name: Tesoro Excalibur G7NL LED Backlit Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
Model Number: TS-G7NL
UPC: 0799430373319
Price As Tested: $89.99 (Amazon | Newegg)

Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by Tesoro.

If you attended CES earlier this year you might have encountered Tesoro’s booth which featured many of their upcoming products. The recently established company was trying to bring attention as they have just opened their doors to the USA market, with the objective of bringing their unique gaming designs catered for gamers. In this article, Benchmark Reviews takes a look at one of their keyboards, the Tesoro Excalibur.

As new as this company is, it is really interesting to see what they will bring to the market. At CES 2014 we got a quick glance of what they were going to offer and overall it looked quite promising. Now that they have released most of their products through their website it is clearly seen that they are affordable, and share very similar specifications from the already great keyboards in the market. This is clearly a good sign and I love to see the small companies bring competition in this already crowded market.

A quick look at the Tesoro Excalibur specifications found in Tesoro’s website reveals pretty good features as expected from a keyboard at this price range. One thing to notice is the absence of Cherry MX switches, however the Excalibur still uses mechanical switches from Kailh which are cheaper than their cherry variants.

• No missed keys with N-Key Rollover (NKRO)
• Gaming grade mechanical switches with 60 million key actuations
• Switches availability: Blue, Brown, Red
• 512kB on-board memory for macros
• Instant Game mode function key
• 4 level LED backlighting with dimming capability
• 5 level LED key lighting with single key illumination mode
• Rubberized Anti-slip bottom for intense gaming
• Compatible with Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8.1.

Of course we begin our tour of the Tesoro Excalibur by looking at it’s exterior. Unfortunately the Excalibur does not include any accessories and the cable is non-detachable. The packaging does not provide anything worth bringing attention to except that the Tesoro Excalibur comes in brown, blue, and red switches. It also mentions that driver and software for the keyboard can be found in Tesoro’s website however there is no mention of a users guide.

If you are concerned about a company’s logo being “too flashy” for your own taste you could probably argue that Tesoro’s logo is a bit more simple and adequate than that of the competition. The Excalibur is clearly marked by a Tesoro logo that is illuminated like the rest of the keyboard. I do have to say that the logo fits the design philosophy of the keyboard and is not aggressive but rather simple like the rest of the keyboard.

The place in which the Tesoro Excalibur keyboard really get it’s value, aside from the backlit keys, is in the addition of a number pad. Most mechanical keyboards at this price point are ten-keyless form factors and don’t usually include backlit keys.. This is because the Excalibur does not use Cherry MX switches, but we should not underestimate Kailh switches as they are exact clones of their Cherry variants, at least on paper. Cherry’s reputation over the years has been given by their outstanding reliability and quality, and until know it is still to early to point out any noticeable problems with Kailh switches.

Positioning and layout of the Tesoro Excalibur is pretty standard and this is pretty important as there is no short shift keys or short enter key. FN button location is also optimal near the enter key and easily accessible while not affecting usual functionality. The FN button also allows for switching between profiles, using media keys, and LED illumination levels. Each key has a rubberized feel to it but Tesoro does not mention what type of printing they used for each key.

The Tesoro Excalibur provides an elegant solution for LED back-light with 4 levels of LED back-lighting that include dimming and 5 distinct levels of on-key illumination. Tesoro has also provided an individual key illumination option, which I use a lot to emphasize my multimedia keys that I have set in one of the 5 profiles. Multimedia keys allow to easily control music, sound, and any playback file straight from the keyboard.

Being able to provide 5 different profiles is a thing, but doing it appropriately is completely different, and the Tesoro Excalibur does it really well. The Tesoro Excalibur includes 512kB of on-board memory which is enough to set 5 profiles, 300 macro keys, and 2000 macro keys presses per profile. Pretty impressive for a keyboard at this price point. My only complain here is the location of the profile keys, it would have been better to have dedicated keys for them.

Due to compatibility issues we have encountered with various USB controllers and N-key rollover through USB, the fact that Tesoro included an option to change to 6-key rollover really shows that they have considered even the smallest of details. The 9 key section located in the middle of the keyboard also features the Kailh mechanical switches, unlike other budget keyboards out there which usually omit these as membrane keys.

Implementing things like Macros support and different profiles requires more than just a hardware implementation. To correctly use this features, a gaming keyboard must have a successful graphical user interface for the user to correctly configure the keyboard. The Tesoro Excalibur G7NL’s software can be downloaded from their website, you will need to have the keyboard plugged in if not you will get the error message “Keyboard NO detected!”.

Tesoro’s philosophy of it’s simple but it works great continues right on with the GUI. Unlike other more confusing software, I am actually not worried that Tesoro has no user guide for the Excalibur G7NL. The software constitutes of 6 profiles including a PC mode which is not customisable. Each profile allows for unique key assignment, macro settings, launching programs from a key, and even a disable key option. Unfortunately we see no lighting customization, which hopefully will come by in later updates.

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Each profile allows to set dedicated macros keys to any key. Tesoro allows for users to import macro’s from library’s, and has a pretty useful macro creation setting with the usual Start/Stop, delay time and repeat settings. With 512 Kb of memory you can set up multiple macros settings for each profile.

The unique key assignment and the launch program key features I found really useful specially since I type in many languages. and having the ability to switch keyboard layout on a hardware level is a clear plus. End users might also find these features good to type in the dvorak keyboard layout, or any other custom layout. Clearly the Tesoro offers a lot of customization on a software level, and surprisingly on a very simple and excellent GUI.

As usual we will test some of the features that Tesoro claims are all standard in the Excalibur G7NL. Of course there is no tendency as how to one keyboard compares to another one in terms of user experience as this is very subjective, but things like N-Key rollover are usually marketed but not implemented. For this test we will be using Aqua’s key test to test for N-Key rollover on the Excalibur G7NL. What is interesting is the lack of a P/S 2 port, which is generally needed for N-Key rollover. We would also like to test the reliability of Kailh switches however, even membrane keys only fail after millions of presses and therefore only time will tell Kailh’s reliability.

• Motherboard: Asus Gryphon Z87
• Keyboard: Tesoro Excalibur G7NL
• OS: Windows 7 Ultimate
• Software: Aqua’s Key Test

Clearly the Tesoro G7NL passes our test with flying colors. We randomly selected 50 or more keys to press and tested the keyboard 10 times. The keyboard registered each key, each time, passing our N-Key rollover test over USB. One thing to notice is that when changing between 6 key to N key rollover there is a small delay for the system to recognize the keyboard.

My review of the Tesoro Excalibur G7NL ends better than what I had expected. The keyboard has plenty of features and doesn’t fail to deliver any of them. This same features also add plenty of value for the end user who is looking for a 104 key backlit mechanical keyboard that supports N-Key rollover through USB, has on-board memory to set profiles and Macros, and looks somewhat elegant. Of course there are some drawbacks, as for example the keyboard’s Kailh switches have still yet to prove that they can compete with the cherry MX variants.

With Macros support the keyboard experience can change a lot. In fact it is probably one of the most important feature I look for when looking for a good keyboard. With macros it is really easy to do repeated key patterns which can be a game changer in multiplayer games, however this is not the most important feature. A true gaming keyboard also has mechanical switches which allow for better user customization. If you are wondering how Kailh switches feel or sound, find their cherry MX variants, they are almost identical. Add to that N-Key rollover, and a dedicated gamer profile, the Tesoro Excalibur has them all.

Certainly, how good an item looks is completely subjective and can not be measured. However, we all know there are certain limits and boundaries as to how a gaming product should not look. Fortunately, the Tesoro line-up is anything but flashy. I find that their decision to stick to a more traditional design good as they did not risk to commit many of the crimes new companies make when making new products. The Excalibur G7NL features individually backlit keys and traditional black theme which makes good contrast with the blue LEDs.

Surprisingly the Tesoro Excalibur G7NL is actually really sturdy and heavy despite it’s light price tag. The keyboard does have rubber feet that prevent it from sliding when you get mad and start beating the crap out of it; if that is the type of thing you do to your keyboards I’m pretty sure the Tesoro Excalibur G7NL is the right keyboard for you. My only concern is the quality of the Kailh switches, but to this date people have not found any trouble with them.

Functionality for the Tesoro Excalibur is pretty optimal as it does what is supposed to do without any hiccups. N-Key rollover works flawlessly through USB which is really impressive. The GUI is . Aside form that, the layout is correct with appropriately sized keys and an inclusion of a number pad. I would have preferred dedicated macros or profile keys but this is a feature that could add a lot of extra cost to the keyboard.

In summary, the Tesoro Excalibur G7NL deserves excellent recognition from me due to it’s incredible low price tag, all the features it brings, and the quality that comes from a new company. Available online for (Amazon | Newegg), you can get a backlit mechanical keyboard that still brings many key features and a very simple to use GUI. You also get a very sturdy keyboard that has quality to back it up with a 1 year warranty.

+ Affordable
+ Individually Backlit Switches
+ N-Key rollover through USB
+ Macros support

– No USB pass through ports

• Performance: 8.75
• Appearance: 8.75
• Construction: 9.00
• Functionality: 9.25
• Value: 9.25

Excellence Achievement: Benchmark Reviews Golden Tachometer Award.