The problem with gaming keyboards, like most multifunction devices, is that they rarely excel at the multiple jobs they are tasked to perform. It's easy to make a keyboard bad ass enough to intimidate and impress your opponents at a LAN party. All that takes is some sexy design and the requisite amount of ubiquitous blue LEDs. But more often than not, the keyboard, for all its shining glory, tends to suck when it comes to the simple task of typing anything longer than "WASD." Now, that's fine if all you do with your PC is frag your friends, and flame your enemies while refusing to use vowels, but some of us actually like the English language, and use it to make a living.

That's why when I first saw the Razer Lycosa gaming keyboard, I was skeptical about how happy my fingers would be after spending a few days actually typing on it. As it turns out, that wasn't the problem.

Aesthetically, the Lycosa looks great. The letters on all the keys light up in a crisp, uniform blue that's bright enough to be seen in a well-lit room, but not so blinding in the dark that it distracts you from the screen. And you can toggle the light so that it lights up all the keys, just the "WASD" keys, for fans of first-person games. You can also, of course, turn the lights off, which I would argue makes the keyboard look even cooler. When the letters go dark, they are barely visible, making the whole keyboard look like a piece of a stealth fighter jet. If you aren't a touch typist, you're probably going to need to leave the lights on so you can see the key labels, but turning them off for a while and forcing yourself to find the keys is a great way to become a better typist.

The keys themselves are covered in a rubberized coating that feels good on the fingers. The rest of the keyboard is the type of glossy black plastic that looks really good until it's covered with fingerprints. This happens about 6.8 seconds after you first touch it. Typing was better than I expected. The keys are similar to a laptop keyboard, and a bit mushy, but they are easy to press, and are well laid-out. The Lycosa isn't as much of a joy to type on as the Saitek Eclipse II, which is my primary keyboard. But the keyboard looks so good, I could almost see myself giving up on Saitek and using the Lykosa full-time, but then I actually tried to gaming with the Lycosa, and soon changed my mind.

Even though the gaming keyboard contains the programmable keys, macro capabilities, and aforementioned ability to light up just the movement keys, things came to a crashing halt when I tried to adjust the volume while in the depths of a heated battle. You see, the Lycosa has a completely flat touch panel for the media keys. They certainly look cool when you turn on the lights, and a black slab of plastic lights up with buttons for skipping tracks and adjusting volume. But with the keyboard is that there is no tactile feedback at all, which means when you want to use one of these buttons, you actually have to look where you're putting your finger. And the buttons are close together, which means if you aren't paying careful attention, you'll end up turning the lights off on your keyboard, instead of turning up the volume. That's not the type of thing you want happening while you're trying not to die, and unfortunately, it happened to me several times. It doesn't help that the touch panel is also quite sensitive. A few times with the lights on, while I was looking at the touch panel, I wound up maxing out the volume while I was attempting to adjust the keyboard lighting.

What works for the iPhone doesn't work well here at all. Sure it looks cool, but in practical use, it's a pain in the butt. I'm sure after some time, I'd get more used to the touchy controls, or maybe find a way to disable them altogether, and still enjoy the Lycosa for the otherwise fine gaming keyboard that it is. But Razer seemed to choose the gimmick over the practical with the Lycosa, and came away with a keyboard that just isn't as good as it should be.

Other features, such as an onboard USB port, and pass-through audio cables are nice, but also add to clutter. Adding them causes the keyboard to have four wires snaking out behind it, and it takes up two USB ports.

If you value form over substance, there's no denying the Lycosa is one of the best looking keyboards you can buy, especially if you're partial to blue lights and shiny black. But unless you don't mind sitting up and staring at the upper-right corner of your keyboard every time you want to adjust the volume or change a song, you might want to look elsewhere for a gaming keyboard. I'm sticking with my Saitek Eclipse II, at least until Razer adds some tactile feedback to its media control buttons.

The Lycosa keyboard is available now, direct from Razer, for $79.99.