Wish I had purchased this years ago
Pros: -Ergonomics -Added game functionality within easy reach -Great RGB -Quality, tactile keys Cons: -Noisy keys (sone might like this, personal preference) Amazing device. I have been a keyboard and mouse gamer since the days of Doom and Sim City Classic. I was skeptical for years about these and asked myself, “how would this be different than using the keyboard?” It is… so much better. I have always been the guy that has to remap everything to the arrow keys on a keyboard and the surrounding area. As a result, I also had to either have my wrist at an angle or the keyboard at an angle to reach them. I tried many times over the years to use WASD but the alignment of those keys wasn’t right. My brain needed them to be perfectly aligned like the arrow keys…. And this keypad. Maybe that is why there was almost zero learning curve when I started using this keypad. The keys are all perfectly aligned just like my brain already expected having used the arrow keys for so many years. And now, there’s all these additional keys within easy reach! The only minor learning curve was therefore my thumb. For years it had sat idle while I game. Now I have trained it to operate the buttons on this controller and it has been a game changer. I think the best part though is the ergonomics. Everything feels more comfortable when I game now. I use a CouchMaster that rests on my gaming chair and now when I game my arms are in comfortable positions with the mouse on the right of my keyboard and this keypad on the left. Still handy to have the keyboard accessible for when you need it during gaming but now used rarely for gaming and more for work. The wrist rest is perfect. There’s only two positions for adjustment of it but it works great for me. I went with the Mecha Membrane keys and I really like the feel of them. I will say they are louder than I would usually go for, but I almost always game with headphones so it hasn’t bothered me. I have seen in reviews that people pull out the metal clip to make them more quiet but I like the clips as they aid in the “snap back” feel when you release the key. I didn’t go with the upgraded keys because I didn’t think I would use the additional features that were advertised. Specifically, I don’t think my brain would utilize the concept of having different functions or commands based on how hard you press a key. The RGB is great. I always create game profiles so games have unique lighting that matches the theme or feel of the game. It uses the Synapse software which all Razer users will know is a bit of a love-hate relationship. Super powerful software that lets you control not just the lighting but remap keys. Some games I have specific remaps in this software if the game itself doesn’t let me remap a button I want to. For example, I have the far upper left key remapped to ESC because it’s used in some games but they sometimes won’t let you remap it in the game. All that said, Synapse can be frustrating and unintuitive at times. It has a steep learning curve. I am lucky to have pushed past that curve, but for newcomers to Razer just understand that and be ready to hit YouTube. I would highly recommend this product, especially for keyboard and mouse gamers that are already used to using the arrow keys. Read more
