I was in the market for a new keyboard the other week and after looking around and seeing the quite poor selection around at the moment I decided to get one with an illuminated keyboard - I often find myself typing late at night (and making loads of typos - yes I am a 2 finger typer).
My usual choice of keyboard is Microsoft so naturally the first keyboard I looked at was the Reclusa which is a Microsoft/Razer joint hardware venture (Razor being a company known for producing gaming hardware like the stunning diamondback mouse I have).

The keyboard itself was really nicely made, and the wrist rest is an extrememly nice padded leather one - the best I’ve seen on a keyboard to date.The first thing I noticed when I plugged it in however was the illumination - which is NOT good.
The purpose of my buying this keyboard was simple - I wanted an illuminated keyboard - i.e I want to be able to see keys in the dark. This keyboard illumination is the purpose of the Reclusa and also its major failing.

The actual problem is something I can only think of calling “light bleed”, a picture is worth a thousand words so take a look at the photoshopped image below which demonstrates what the Reclusa looks like in the dark;

Light bleed

While this may look cool, it defeats the purpose - you can hardly see the letters on the keys because the light between the keys is so bright.
Here is an actual photo of the keyboard in action which shows this effect but is quite hard to see:

Razer’s website however shows that the keyboard light shouldn’t look like this at all - their official images show this wonderful thing;

Razer telling lies

I asked where I bought the keyboard and was told that the Reclusa is exactly like I described - not like Razer’s official images.

Luckily I was able to return the keyboard and I bought the Logitech G15 2007 instead.

This keyboard is exactly the opposite of the MS/Razer one. Bright crisp light from the letters and no light at all between the keys. I was a little dubious of the orange colour but it is really nice in the dark and has grown on me.
This was what I wanted and expected from an illuminated keyboard.

*Note that in the image below it appears that you can see “lines” between the keys - you cannot see any lines in reality, the keyboard is a solid black and the only illumination is the actual letters on the keys.

Yes it actually does light up exactly like this

The G15 also boasts an LCD screen which can be used for a variety of things from gaming info though to media information and you can even program rss feeds to be displayed on it - this is a very nice feature.

summery:

Microsoft/Razer Reclusa
Pros:
Great build quality
2 USB ports
Lovely padded wrist guard

Cons:
Dreadful keyboard illumination
No control of illumination

Logitech G15 2007
Pros:
Excellent keyboard illumination
3 step illumination control
multi function built-in LCD panel
media player keys
2 USB ports

Cons:
hard plastic wrist guard
Would prefer it if the back legs tilted the keyboard up more - even with the legs out its quite horizontal

In conclusion:
The main thing I was looking for in my new keyboard was the illumination.
I wasn’t interested in anything else other that I wanted a cabled one and a decent brand. The Logitech G15 fulfilled all these criteria - The Reclusa failed at its main purpose.
What is more disappointing is that Microsoft/Razer have faked images of their product and what you see certainly isn’t what you will get.