Gaming keyboard head-to-head

why didn't you guys review the boards from saitek?

I have had my Razer Tarantula for half a year now and I'm really starting to hate the gloss black finish! I hate it in every possible thing, but still the manufacturers are going crazy about it and put it everywhere. It's the same kind of black that's seen on black Ninteendo DS lite, some Creative MP3-players and even laptops. I have no freaking idea who has decided it's a good idea to have such surface in something that comes in contact with hands! I mean it collects every single greasy fingerprint possible! And after that it collects all the dust from the room as well... The result is horrible. Not like I would keep touching the glossy parts all the time, it just happens.

Other than that I still reckon this is pretty awesome keyboard, the touch is nice and hasn't changed even I've used this quite a lot already. TBH I haven't yet found any use for the macro keys, but maybe it's just because I don't play games where they could come handy. USB-hub and headphone/mic connections are nice extra.

My personal conclusion is that there's no way in hell I would have purchased this with the full price, but that has more to do with me hating over priced GAMING-stuff in general than this being a bad product.

EDIT: And no surprise the Steelpad keyboard is virtually indestructable, it uses the same old Keytronic design that's been out for 15 years. Just paint it black, give it a new name and sell it for $$$ or £££ as a gaming product
:rollingeyes:

The Razer's build quality is not up to scratch for the price you pay. I know because i had one, and hated it. (luckily i didn't pay a cent, i won it :)).

my 2c that i posted on another forum:
The extra 'icon' buttons feel rough and scratchy, as in the vertical 'posts' that attach the key to the keyboard had a matt finish instead of a shiney one like the black keys. Mine had several keys which would register a keypress when you just lightly tap the top key, and then another when it was fully down, i.e. when you press the Q key you get "QQ".

A similar issue arose after i had the keyboard for a few weeks - when i pressed the 2 key, it would register a keypress of the 1 key (and no i wasn't even touching the 1 key) straight after, which meant that i'd try and pull out my pistol in CS only to have it switch back to my primary weapon - how ironic for a 'gaming' keyboard.

Soon after that all the media type buttons on the right of the keyboard stopped working altogether. Fed up with it i disassembled the entire keyboard (which includes taking out all 252 billion screws on the back of it) to investigate. Couldn't see anything wrong, reassembled it and it was working again, weird.

You can only program 8 different characters/keys into the macros too which imo isn't enough. Pretty much the only good thing about it is that you can press 6 or so keys at once without the keyboard 'locking up'. Lucky for me i got it for free (and sold it soon after and got myself a MS Natural 4000 - best $60 i ever spent ).

oh and the software is horrid.

Originally Posted by completemadness
why does the number of keys you can press at the same time matter that much ...

When playing Guild wars I regularly have keys I've assigned to: [view enemies], [view friendlies & items], [move forward] all down at the same time - that's 3. Add a [turn left / right] or [get / drop item] plus [attack skill / spell / heal / ...] and that's 5. I tried another keyboards that wouldn't do it - not good experiences.

Your point on keyboard sections though is valid.

I think the sound of a keyboard is a personal preference thing - I like mine relatively quiet (the innate tactile feedback of most boards is enough + usually you have on-screen feedback of some sort) but I will use whatever works best.

I'll stick with my G15. The only bad thing about it is that it's so large. And about disabling the windows keys, you can download a small registry hack to fix that. Like this one here: ftp://72.49.176.178:47024/disable_left_windows_key.reg

well im a razor user, i have 5 month with my keybord and i come from a very confortable 5 or 6 years old IBM keyboard... i tried several keyboards before switch from my loyal one... and i found the razor to be an excelent choice in quality and key feel, speed of writting and features and look factor....


my best advice is try them before you buy them

my model m still runs fine for me i dont think they will ever make a better keyboard

Originally Posted by LeMaltor
How many keys can you hold down before they lock up and wont accept input from more keys? If i missed this info sorry, my eyes r screwed at moment and vision is b0rked lol

2nd that. I've noticed that key maps can vary quite a bit across different keyboards - for instance, the Reclusa wouldn't register 6 keys of the WASDQE variety, where the G15 would. A little info on this would've been nice.

Originally Posted by TMM
The Razer's build quality is not up to scratch for the price you pay. I know because i had one, and hated it. (luckily i didn't pay a cent, i won it :))...

You can only program 8 different characters/keys into the [Tarantula's] macros too which imo isn't enough...

oh and the software is horrid.

Wow, I didn't realize that the Tarantula only allowed 8 commands per macro - and that probably includes pauses, if the Reclusa is any indication. If this is true, then I'm disappointed that Bit-tech didn't point this out.

Personally, I agree that the G15 is the keyboard gamers should be buying, but this particular 'shoot out' was a little light on details. If the Tarantula has an 8-command macro limit, then I'd argue that it loses to the Fightboard.

I have a perfectly good Logitech G15, despite the LCD on it being overkill the G11 would have been a better buy to be honest, with the same robust build quality and back light and Macro keys, I payed a brilliant £45 for the G15 though so feel content at that price.

I like the Razer Tarantula out of the reviewed here, but am somewhat disapointed that the ipod dock has been removed, and replaced with lets face it something that may not be used by many and alienated, battledock sounds stupid. I have no problems with razer though, I love their mouses and consider them to be the peak of mouses....