Tesoro Technology (not to be confused with Tesoro Corporation of petroleum products) is a relatively new manufacturer of computer peripherals. They have been around only since 2011, the company is not widely known yet and it is difficult to find specific information about them, as the company does not share much else than details of their products through their website. Tesoro is currently strongly focused on keyboards, with eleven of them mechanical and one membrane gaming keyboard. In this capsule review we will have a quick look at one of their most reputable products, the Lobera Supreme.

Introduction

Much like every keyboard that Tesoro currently markets, the Lobera Supreme is named after a sword. Specifically, it is named after the "Slayer of Wolves" (Lobera), the sword of Saint Ferdinand the 3^rd. Being a classic medieval longsword, it certainly is nothing alike the fancy futuristic broadsword that the company pictures in their website and it is difficult to comprehend how exactly it inspired the creation of a modern backlit keyboard. Leaving the strange choice of name aside, the Lobera Supreme does have some interesting features that will be examined in this capsule review.

Packaging and bundle

Tesoro supplies the Lobera Supreme in a cardboard box where a window in the form of the company logo reveals part of the keyboard but does not offer access to test the keys if browsing at a store. Inside the box, the keyboard is very well protected with polyethylene foam slabs and a plastic cover. Alongside the keyboard, the company only supplies a basic quick start guide, an advertising leaflet and an USB power cable for the keyboard's USB hub.

The Tesoro Lobera Supreme Mechanical Keyboard

At first sight, the Lobera Supreme looks like it is made out of metal. It has a black body that imitates brushed aluminum, a short palm rest that looks like an anti-slip metal sheet and four sizable screws at each corner of the chassis. Unfortunately for those that had hoped this to be a metallic keyboard, it is an illusion - the keyboard is plastic and even the four visible screws are decorative, with no impact on the mechanical cohesion of the keyboard. If you do want a metallic chassis for whatever reason, Tesoro also markets the Colada, which is virtually identical to the Lobera Supreme but with a metallic chassis instead.

With the exception of three thumb keys beneath the Space Bar, the Lobera Supreme sticks to the typical 104-key QWERTY layout. The US layout is depicted in this capsule review but the company has other versions available as well. The characters on the keycaps are large, bold and laser-etched. Metallic brace supports have been placed under the larger keys, which are not as good as cross-type supports. This makes the large keys a bit wobbly but not to an worrisome extent.

A small purple area at the top right side of the keyboard is where the USB hub and the headphone jacks are. Note that the USB ports are very weak, capable of powering devices with a current of up to 100mA maximum. This limits their use to very low power devices only, such as wireless receivers. A DC-in jack is available and, with the use of the supplied USB cable, it can provide extra power to the USB ports. The USB cable can be connected to a port of the computer or to an external AC to USB adapter. It is very strange that Tesoro went with the messy solution of an extra cable when they could have installed a dual USB cable as most other companies do.

There are little of interest beneath the keyboard, with the exception of the tilt feet. Tesoro installed two feet at each side of the keyboard, allowing two tilt settings for those that prefer a mild or a steeper angle.

Tesoro offers the Lobera Supreme with every popular kind of mechanical switch available; Blue, Black, Red and Brown. The sample depicted in this review has Blue mechanical switches, which are relatively soft and with loud tactile feedback. Tesoro's supplier is not Cherry MX, but a company called Kailh. Unlike some companies, Tesoro is not trying to hide this fact. Kailh's products are a direct copy of Cherry's, advertising exactly the same properties, quality and performance. Our previous reviews revealed that Kailh's switches may not be as consistent as Cherry. This is not the case with the sample used for this review. All of the main keys required an actuation force between 53cN and 61cN, very close to the 58.9cN rating of the Blue switch.

The Lobera Supreme is one of the first keyboards that come with the ability to select the lighting color. The only partial exception is the three macro keys beneath the space bar, which are illuminated but it is not possible to change their color. Every major key has a LED beneath it and it can be switched to all major colors. However, it is not possible to program the color of each key individually, or even whether the lighting will be on or off. There are only three pre-programmed modes. The first mode illuminates every key. The second mode is a "game mode" that lights only the WASD, Space, Enter and arrow keys. Finally, the third is an "extended game mode" that expands to include the number, CTRL, ALT, TAB, Shift and Caps Lock keys. A stripe at each side of the keyboard illuminates the desk with (about) the same color that has been selected for the keys. The only visual dissonance is the lighting of the space bar key, where the company logo is far too wide and the lighting is clearly much stronger towards its center.

When a color has been selected for the keyboard, this extends to the strips on its sides as well, illuminating the desk. Unfortunately, the color reproduction is not always exactly identical to that of the keys, as the color of the side LEDs tends to be less saturated.

As for the structural cohesion and general build quality, the Lobera Supreme ranks above average but it could be significantly better. The main board of the keyboard is supported on a very robust steel plate but the external body is nothing more than average plastic. Internally, the parts used are very good and the layout is clean, with a very good and tidy assembly job. The soldering however is below average, with many dirty and messy joints. 

A Freescale MC9S08JM32 microcontroller is the heart of the Lobera Supreme. It is a rather basic model, with a 48MHz CPU, 32KB flash memory and 4KB on-chip RAM, commonly used in mechanical keyboards. A Genesys Logic GL850G USB controller for the hub can also be seen near the microcontroller.

Software

The Tesoro Lobera Supreme is a fully programmable keyboard and thus it comes with its own software that, unfortunately, it is very basic and archaic by today's standards. Even though it is very simple to use, the interface is not very practical and can be confusing at first. It has a "PC Mode", which disables all advanced functions and makes the Lobera Supreme an ordinary keyboard, plus five programmable profiles. Each of the profiles can be linked to an application, automatically engaging while that application is running. The keys can be programmed and re-mapped individually, but any changes of the lighting color affect the entire keyboard.

It is possible to either re-map a key, to launch applications with it or to perform a macro that has been programmed using the software. The macro recorder however is very basic. Macro recording is initiated by clicking the "Start Record" button, all key presses with their time delays will be recorded, and then it will stop once the "Stop Record" button is clicked. The time delays and the sequence can be edited, as well as new key presses can be inserted into an existing macro. It is also possible to set the macro to repeat a finite number of times, as long as the key is being held pressed or until it is pressed again. However, the recorder is unable to record anything beyond keyboard keystrokes, such as mouse movements and clicks.

The color selection brings out a list of about 180 colors for the user to choose from. Although most are just slightly darker hues of a major color, the number of colors is more than satisfactory. Different colors can be selected for each of the five profiles. Selecting a color instantly affects the entire keyboard, with every key and the side strips changing to that color.

Conclusion

When Tesoro released the Lobera Supreme over a year ago, its primary marketing point was the multiple color backlighting. In early 2014, that really was something special. Today however, most manufacturers have released at least one keyboard with configurable backlighting. This makes the Lobera Supreme "just another mechanical keyboard" and somwhat limits its marketing potential.

Quality-wise, the Lobera Supreme is relatively well made and solid as far as a plastic design will go. It could use cross instead of bar supports under the larger keys, but the feeling of the keys remains acceptable for a high performance keyboard. Aesthetics are a subjective matter but we feel that it is mostly suited to "aggressive" gaming systems, with visually complex or metallic cases. As a keyboard, the Lobera Supreme is a very good product.

The heart of every programmable keyboard is the software and this is where the Lobera Supreme appears to lack the most. It lacks polish and the macro recorder is amazingly basic for such a product. With the vast majority of gamers requiring the recording of at least absolute mouse movements and clicks, it is unlikely that any gamer will not have to look for a third-party macro recording software. Finally, it could really use a language check, as the English translation needs a pass from QA.

The Tesoro Lobera Supreme currently retails for $150 including shipping, a rather high price that pits it against many other advanced keyboards, such as the Razer BlackWidow Chroma. A little more can buy you the Corsair K70 RGB, which has Cherry MX switches and an aluminum body. Although the Tesoro Lobera Supreme generally is a good keyboard, it is not much of a deal at its current retail price. It is hard to recommend the Lobera Supreme unless somebody specifically likes its appearance much more over other designs or if is found retailing for less.