Intro
The Razer Tartarus Pro is a gaming keypad. It is the culmination of iterative improvements on the Belkin Nostromo SpeedPad n50 that was released in 2001. In 2007 Belkin collaborated with Razer to make the Belkin Nostromo n52te. The intent was to take advantage of Razer’s sensor technology and software at the time. Eventually, Razer ended up taking over the production of the Nostromo entirely and rebranding the Nostromo into the Orbweaver and Tartarus lines. Today only the Tartarus line exists.
The Use Case
I’ve personally been using variations of this keypad for over 10 years, starting in 2013 with the Razer Nostromo Expert Keypad. As someone who grew up playing Age of Empires II, I have always been interested in how I can integrate hotkeys into my workflow to become more efficient and thereby faster.
I think this aspect of efficiency when working is often overlooked, because people are only focused on whether or not they can handle their workload versus how it can be improved.
However, from a pure performance standpoint, being more efficient will lead to more available mental bandwidth, which in turn frees up mental capacity that can be used to improve real-time decision making, or alternatively enable doing more within the same time frame. This can lead to improvements in output and productivity that improve the bottom line.
Another aspect of using a keypad is ergonomics. Better ergonomics improves injury prevention and/or injury management with respect to computer related RSI (repetitive stress injuries). For example, if all or most actions are performed with just one button, for many people that will be the left-click of their mouse, then the finger used to perform the action can become overworked and potentially injured with time. Using key binds redistributes the load more evenly and helps prevent or manage such injuries.
Technical Details
The Razer Tartarus Pro (v1) has a total of 32 programmable inputs. For me personally, the most ergonomic of these inputs are the 9 central keys on top of the pad, the thumb actuator button above the D-pad on the side of the device and the 8-way directional D-pad. Those are 18 inputs I feel I can use without significantly re-adjusting my hand. I use keys that are outside of these 18 inputs for key binds that I use less frequently. The effective ergonomics will vary slightly from individual to individual. The Tartarus Pro (v1) also allows you to adjust the wrist rest between two fixed settings (forwards and backwards) to accommodate more hand sizes.
The Tartarus Pro (v1) also uses Razer’s analog optical switch technology. Some readers will already be familiar with this or similar technologies, such as hall effect keyboards (HE) or TMR (tunnel magnetoresistance). Essentially, this enables the usage of keyboard switch features that are not possible on a traditional keyboard or keypad with fixed actuation points. Without going into too much detail of what it’s capable of, since most of the benefits are specific to gaming, I think the biggest benefit of these switches for applications such as poker and trading is that you can lower the actuation point of a key to reduce misclicks. Some may prefer a higher actuation point, but in this case I think accuracy is more important than speed and so I prefer to use the lowest actuation point, which is set at 3.6mm after the press (1.5mm is the minimum). You can set individual actuation points for individual keys, so you could still have faster actuation for non-critical keybinds if you prefer. I just use the global setting to set 3.6mm for all keys (that support the feature, i.e. all analog switches). For reference, the travel distance before actuation on a traditional mechanical keyboard is 2mm.
Caveats
Compatibility with operating systems besides Windows is limited. Whilst it is possible to use the Tartarus Pro (v1) on Linux and macOS, it’s not as straightforward as using it on Windows. Third party software is required to correctly map key binds and some features may be limited.
My current understanding is that analog switch input mapping does not work on macOS, and you are limited to the default actuation point of the switch, as if you were using a traditional linear switch.
A note on the Tartarus V2 Pro
The Tartarus V2 Pro was released during the writing of this article. I haven’t had hands on time with the updated version yet, but from what I can tell there are several differences that I will attempt to give an overview of below:
Positive Changes
– The wrist rest has more ways to be adjusted and therefore makes the Tartarus V2 Pro more ergonomic.
– There appears to now be some limited on-board functionality for storing profiles. According to Razer’s product page, it would appear that the last loaded profile is stored to on-board memory. My interpretation of this is that you can select a profile with Razer synapse and then turn off synapse and still have the profile be active, even after disconnecting the Tartarus V2 Pro and connecting it to a different computer.
– Adjustable actuation is now from 0.1-4mm, giving greater flexibility to those who want more of a hair-trigger/instantaneous actuation or more headroom to avoid accidental presses.
Neutral
– More total keys could be a good thing, but it depends on if you use the additional keys, since it increases the overall footprint of the device as well. Additionally, some users may not be able to reach all of the keys easily without readjusting their hand.
Bad
– The new MSRP is $199. If you don’t think you are likely to benefit from the additional features that were added in the v2, consider purchasing the v1 (MSRP $129.99) and saving the difference.
– The thumb space bar was removed. I think it’s mostly users that picked this up for gaming that complained about this change. Personally, I prefer a regular keyboard for gaming, so this wasn’t an issue for me, but I think it’s worth mentioning.
– The homing bump (raised area on a key so you can tell where your hand is without looking at the board) on key 13 (now key 21) was removed. This may be a minor nitpick, but I think that anyone who touch-types probably uses the homing bump on their keyboard to orient where their hand is placed. Likewise, on the Tartarus Pro (v1), because it has the homing bump, I can confidently know where my hand is without looking down at the keypad.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a way to upgrade your execution and be more efficient, a keypad such as the Tartarus Pro (v1) is an upgrade worth looking into. The recent addition of the Tartarus Pro (v2) is an alternative, albeit more expensive option with some changes that are worth reviewing before buying. However, at $70 more, many may prefer the older v1 version and its cost savings. Another competitive option to the Tartarus line worth considering are products by the brand Azeron. For example, their successful Azeron Cyborg II and more recently released Azeron Keyzen.
The Razer Tatarus Pro (v1) has an MSRP of $129.99 and comes in Black and Mercury (a white and grey colour scheme).
If you are interested in other gear that I am using or like, check out my Amazon wishlist here. Also keep an eye on the blog for more related postings of gear that I am using.
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