Tesoro Gram Spectrum Gaming Keyboard Review

FEATURES & SOFTWARE

The features of the Gram are tied in with the software so today we have bundled them under one category.

First things first you are going to need to visit Tesoro’s site to download the software, Click Here!  The software is fairly easy to use but as with most, if you haven’t used it before it is going to take some getting used to and adapting.

Layouts for peripherals software are usually fairly basic and only differ by aesthetics and any major features. Along the top you’ll see there are six profile tabs. Five which are completely customizable and the first, PCMODE, which is standard and the only things with that you can adjust are lighting.

The lighting effects are fairly limited and not quite as vast as some of our previous reviews, most notably the Patriot V760, yet still offers some entertaining lighting options. The most appealing to us also which is  a basic demo mode for displaying the RGB capabilities of keyboards is the Rainbow Wave.

The colours that radiate off the Gram are outstanding and with the white keyboard light up amazingly! We were quite impressed by this. Some of the other lighting effects available are trigger, ripple, firework, radiation and breathing. These are all quite self-explanatory minus the radiation which basically is firework and ripple mixed together but the ripple is only carried out on the horizon of the row it was pressed.

Their is also an option called Spectrum, which when activated appears as the below image shows.We couldn’t quite figure out what the aim of this lighting setting was and the only thing we can gather is that it lets you individually choose lighting on each key. Which is great but we would like to see some more effort in the preset version and the user could then adjust from there. As it stands the user has to go in and light EVERY key now instead of just change a few that they prefer to.

That being said there are more pro’s then con’s to the lighting of the Gram as the colours are sharp and precise.

Once you get into the customizable profiles and get more involved in the gaming aspects of the keyboard you’ll be impressed. Each key is individually configurable to your preference, if you want the “R” key to be your “enter” key, it’s doable. Not sure why you would but just explaining the options.

Simply click the key you wish to change and then click the key assignment tab and follow it up with the new key you wish it to represent. Along with that you can have individual keys load up programs easily as well. For those of you don’t use the numpad this is a perfect group of keys to keep all of your programs at your finger tips.

Finally, you have the macro’s which are every gamers go to for making life easier and more comfortable.

The macro’s tab is a little hard to read and the writing needs to be enlarged if they do an update, as we had to squint to read it properly. But the macro’s are individually nameable and programmable in every way you would expect them to, delays, repeats, etc.

As mentioned there are five programmable profiles and the PCMODE profile. You can switch between any of the five programmable profiles by combining the FN key with the corresponding “F#” key. There is also the “PAUSE” button beside your scroll lock which allows you switch between your last used gaming profile and your PCMODE. This feature is quite convenient and keeps you from having to load up the software to switch between every time.

The Gram also features Full N-Key rollover ensuring you don’t miss a click mid-game. We used a rollover key tester and we couldnt’ trick the board at all.