Front

At a first glance, the Durandal Ultimate looks like an interesting gaming keyobard, and it still does when you take a closer look. Tesoro decided to not equip this keyobard with additional macro keys which makes the Durandal feature a standard size layout. In the upper right corner you will find LED's, which indidact Caps Lock on/off status, Num Lock status and there is furthermore an additional "G" sign. This shows whether the keyboard is in gaming mode or not. Tesoro decided to replace the Scroll Lock sign with their "G" LED and right next to that one you can find the Tesoro logo, which features a purple backlight. Compared to the other backlit signs, this one is by far not as bright.
Judging from the first look, one might think that this keyboard has been made from aluminium, but in fact, the Durandal G1NL is made from plastic with a high quality finish that looks like brushed aluminium. The upper right corner as well as the wrist rest feature parts made from ABS with an industrial design pattern. It's unusual but suitable for a gaming keyboard and it give this thin an individual touch.
Like all high-end gaming keyboard the Durandal Ultimate comes with CherryMX keys. In our case, there were Cherry MX Brown switches, but you can get anything you like, whether it's Cherry MX Black, Brown, Red or Blue.



To provide gamers with additional functions, Tesoro placed a FN key next to the ALT GR key. Pressing the FN key and F1 to F6 one can adjust volume and scroll through playlists. Pressing FN and the keys F7 to F12 makes it possible to access up to five different game profiles. Tesoro chose to perform laser engravings on the keys and behind each key cap there is a separate LED, whereas the brightness can be adjusted in several steps. When the backlight is at maximum the effect is not only well visible in the darkness, you see it clearly during daytime too.

Back

If you flip the Durandal you will realize that this product is quite heavy. The weight also helps with providing the keyboard with a safe stand on your desk, although it doens't feel like being glued to a table. On the rear you can find the two feet, you get with every keyboard. Furthermore there are two USB 2.0 ports, which are able to power devices which need less then 100mA, which is enough for flash drives or mice. Also on this side the build quality is on a high level and we like the sleeved cables and the gold plated connectors.

---

Page 1 - Introduction

Page 2 - Preview

Page 3 - Features

Page 4 - Front/Back

Page 5 - Software

Page 6 - Conclusion

Discuss this article in the forums