14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this year, we got a chance to review the Lycosa gaming keyboard from Razer, which proved to be a rather enjoyable experience, as we also had the opportunity to do some gaming in the process. However, since it’s been a while that the Lycosa was made available on the market, it now looks like the fellows over at Razer have decided that it's time to refresh their gaming keyboard offering with two new products. Do bear in mind, however, that you might end up saying that “new” doesn't exactly describe the latest keyboards from Razer – that is, after you get to take a closer look at the overall design and specifications.
Judging by the most recent additions, it appears that Razer thought that its Lycosa keyboard was so successful that anything else they would release just couldn't measure up to it. That would explain why the latest keyboards look exactly the same as the first Lycosa model – as a matter of fact, one of these gaming keyboards has been dubbed simply the Lycosa Mirror Special Edition, making the connection all the more obvious. In the meanwhile, the other model is called Arctosa, thus living up to Razer's naming scheme by adopting the name of yet another spider.
Now, as far as the differences between the two keyboards go, you should know that you will probably have a tough time choosing the one that best meets your requirements in a gaming keyboard. First of all, the only difference between the initial Lycosa and the new Lycosa Mirror is that the latter model sports a high-gloss mirror finish keytop, while the former used a non-slip rubber finish. The change in design may be due to the fact that some of the users have complained that, after using the keyboard for a longer period and the rubber finish wearing off, the Lycosa turned into a standard-looking keyboard.
With the Arctosa, there are a few more differences, which leave the keyboard with just the design of the Lycosa, eliminating the non-slip rubber and high gloss mirror finish, the backlight illumination, the integrated USB extension port and the audio jacks featured on the other two keyboards. This makes the Arctosa a bit more affordable at US$50, compared with the US$80 price tag of the other two models.
