Digital Trends

Razer Tarantula December 17th, 2007 | by Josh Norem

Features and Design

The Tarantula is a wired keyboard with full-size keys, a keypad and special feature buttons on both the right and left side of the keyboard. It’s all-black, with blue backlighting on the macro keys on both sides, and a pulsing Razer logo beneath the palm rest. The keyboard has a number of intriguing features.

The blue Razer logo on the palm rest softly pulses on and off

Anti-ghosting capability: We weren’t sure what this was when we read it on the box, but apparently it’s the ability to allow up to ten buttons to be pressed at once without the keyboard freezing.

Onboard memory: The Tarantula has 32kb of onboard memory that is used to store profiles for different games, so you can have a custom profile for each game you play (as long as you don’t play more than five games concurrently).

Ultra-responsive: Razer claims the keyboard polls (or “reads keystrokes”) at 1000Hz, which is eight times faster than a standard keyboard for increased responsiveness.

Programmable hotkeys: Each side of the keyboard has five programmable keys, and the keys themselves can also be replaced with custom keys that have icons instead of letters or numbers such as grenades, ammo, rifle, etc.

The Tarantula sports ten programmable keys, and you can even replace keys ten included icon keys for ammo, rifle, etc.

Headphone and mic jacks: You can plug your headphone and microphone directly into the Tarantula, rather than having to sneak behind your PC to plug them in. There are also two non-powered USB ports as well.

Headset users can plug their sets directly into the Tarantula for easy access

Programmable Media keys: The Tarantula features programmable media keys that let you control your media player of choice. You can also turn down the volume, zoom in on pictures, open your browser or put your PC to sleep.

Battledock: Above the keyboard is a small USB plug that lets you plug in Razer accessories such as the BattleLight, which is a light for the keyboard.

The optional BattleLight provides night time illumination