Razer Tartarus Gaming Pad Unboxing & Overview
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2014-05-07
·
1,318 words · ~6 min read
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Giveaway for a chance to win great prizes. Visit intelgamingromo.com to
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learn more. By popular demand, actually only one person asked for this unboxing,
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but I was going to do it anyway. So, there you go. My unboxing of the Razer
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Tarteus game pad, whatever you want to
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call these things. Basically, Razer has
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taken the Orb Weaver, which is their mechanical gaming device. There you go.
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So, it's kind of a a keyboard replacement. So, you still use your
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mouse and your mouse hand, and then you use this in what would typically be your
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keyboard hand, but it is completely optimized for gaming. This is now a
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membrane version, so it is a lowerriced version of a very similar sort of
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concept as the Orb Weaver. So, let's go ahead and open this bad boy up and have
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a look at what are the key differences. So, just like the orb weaver, it is
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backlit. They have made some changes to the ergonomics and unlike the Nostromo
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which was an existing product, okay, they have made some new ergonomic tweaks
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as well. So, the Tarteus is fully
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integrated with Razer's Synapse 2.0 software, which means all of the 25
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buttons on it are fully programmable. I do think their marketing for this
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product is a touch deceptive on the to to put it sort of completely honestly
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though because what Razer says is 25 fully programmable keys and eightway
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thumb pad. The eight-way thumb pad is actually included in the 25 programmable
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keys. So I'll show you where all of them are if you want guys want to check this out. So there's 15 here just like that.
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So here's where your WD fingers would typically go. You've got a nice
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convenient bump right there in the center so you can find your way back to it easily. The backlight is implemented
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in a very different way compared to the orb weaver where the each key is
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individually backlight. So you can see there's quite a bit of spill through from the back which some people will
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find more attractive and others will find less attractive. Okay, so there's
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your 15 keys. Then you've got eight more here. So this is
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an you can probably actually hear those clicks. That's an eightway thumb sort of
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joystick button. You've got an additional button here and an additional
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one here. So that's 15 + 10 is 25. You
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can actually switch between eight different profiles on the fly. And each
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of these buttons is completely customizable and remappable using
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Synapse 2.0. You just have to set it up one time and then you can use it online
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or offline whichever you prefer. You can have an unlimited number of game
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profiles and you can have unlimited length macros which I find to be a very
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very attractive feature. Now unlike the Orbw Weaver, the Tardus doesn't feature
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quite the same degree of customizability. So pretty much all you
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can do is take the wrist rest and move it up and down like this. So there's a
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little key right here that allows you to go ahead and move that back and forth.
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On the orb weaver, we saw a bit of a higherend implementation of this
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functionality where there's a metal skeleton on the bottom of it. And then
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you can actually move here you go the thumb piece out here. You could move the
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bottom piece out and backwards. And then you could hold on. Let's see if I can
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get that. Yeah, there you go. So you could move this piece and you could actually unlock this rest right here
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which had a nice rubberized grip to it. Much the same as the Death Adder 2013
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edition. This one uses more of a soft touch feel overall and is quite a bit
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lighter as well. But one thing that I like that Razor's improved over the Orb
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Weaver is it has a gorgeous braided cord that just feels more durable. And this
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might seem like a trivial thing to you, but if you have cats, braided cables are
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a godsend. I have had cables that were on the brink of destruction and if it
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wasn't for the braiding, they wouldn't have made it. Now, Razer's branding for
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this is infinite possibilities, and I see where they're coming from because in
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addition to the unlimited profiles and the 15 buttons over here, you can
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actually use the 8-way pad over here as
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a modifier. Now, I personally would probably still end up using WD as
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opposed to this 8-way pad, even though I understand why people might want to use
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this for movement, then they have access to more spells or macros or whatever
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else. So, you can kind of use it however you want. But, this is very appealing to
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me, using this as a modifier for what you're doing. So, if you use this as WD,
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then you could actually map eight different functions to the 10 key here,
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for example, by holding it this way and pressing it this way and pressing it
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this way, etc., etc., and so on. This makes this not only useful from a gaming
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standpoint, but I've also you heard of even creative professionals using these
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kinds of devices as a as a quick hotkey
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device that actually sits next to their keyboard and you can use in things like Photoshop, for example. It works on
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Windows or Mac, so whichever you prefer is just fine by Razer. And in terms of
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ergonomics, I'd say if you have smaller hands, you're going to find the Tartarus
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more comfortable by default than the Orb Weaver, even at the Orb Weaver's
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smallest setting. So, I'm going to go ahead and adjust this one back down. I
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did find it to be a little bit on the big side for me. So, you can see that
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because it has a larger key matrix. Actually, I'll put the Tarteus in front.
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So, it has a larger key matrix there. There just wasn't much that I could
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reach with my smaller hands and it expands very nicely for people with
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large hands. So, go with the Tardus with its MX Blue or go with the Orb Weaver
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with its MX Blue switches if you have larger hands or if you prefer mechanical
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switches, which many many gamers do. Or if you want something that uses membrane
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caps, so you can hear, much
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quieter, very different tactile experience. Or if you have smaller hands
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or or whatever else the case may be, Razer's got a couple of different options for you. Thank you for checking
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out my unboxing and overview of the Tartarus from Razer. Don't forget to
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subscribe. Don't forget to like this video if you liked it, dislike it if you
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disliked it, and leave a comment letting me know what do you think of these.
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Would you rather just use your keyboard? I mean, Corsair tried to implement
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something with the Vengeance K60 where they added like a little addition to the
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keyboard that was like a little wrist rest thing, but I don't think anyone ever actually ended up using it because
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I think everyone who cared about that was already using something like this. So, so what do you prefer? I actually
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don't think I ever mentioned the large rubber grippy pads on the bottom. Those
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are excellent. Uh I don't know if they had Yeah, very similar to the ones on
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the Orb Waver actually.