Belkin n52te Tournament Edition SpeedPad
by Belkin Components
(Click here)
Customers in the UK,
buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: Belkin ComponentsAudio: English (Original Language)
Release Date: 2008-03-10
Platform: Mac OS X
Model: F8GFPC200
Color: Black
Product features:
- Gaming accessory incorporates keyboard and gamepad functions into one easy-to-use device
- 15 fully programmable keys built for complete customization and speed
- Programmable 8-way thumb pad with removable joystick
- Adjustable wrist pad and backlit keypad and scroll wheel
- Embedded memory powered by Razer allows you to personalize multiple player profiles for all your games
- Belkin Neoprene Notebook Sleeve for 17-Inch Laptop (F8N049-BR)
- Belkin 15-Inch Messenger Bag (Dove/Tarragon)
- Belkin USB Wireless Mobile Mouse (Blue)
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Belkin n52te Tournament Edition SpeedPad
Customer Review: Has some issues . . . but recommended
Summary: 4 Stars
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**Overview
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After shopping around for a few weeks, I finally settled on this pad. While it took a few days to get used to, I found myself preferring it immensely to a normal keyboard while playing World of Warcraft. In the case of first person shooters though, I didn't find it to be a huge improvement over my $10 dell keyboard.
Unfortunately, after about five months of persistent usage, the top-right key (equivalent to the 'r' key on a normal keyboard) stopped functioning and required some jury-rigging to revive. As of this date, the key works for the most part, but fails to register strokes with enough frequency to prompt me to shelve the gamepad.
In a nutshell:
*is it worth $60?
-Probably not. It probably cost $4 bucks for some chinese kid to make this.
*is it the best gaming pad out there?
-The evidence points to the original n52 as being the best
*is the original n52 still available?
-No, so its irrelevant to these reviews. Stop talking about it!
*is the n52te better than your $10 dell keyboard?
-yes
*will the n52te make you a better player?
-if you spend the time to get used to it yes. Its a fairly large control scheme shift with a correspondingly long learning curve.
*did the n52te break?
-yes, but only after I enjoyed using it for 5 months
*will I buy another one?
-possibly
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**Ergonomics and Layout
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This is definitely one of the stronger points of the gamepad. Unlike most of the other pads out there, this one actually looks like it was designed to have a hand placed on it. The palm rest provides nice support and guides your hand into a graceful position--unlike the claw I frequently find my hand in with a normal keyboard. And while the n52te doesn't have the bajillions of buttons that other comparable pads have, you'll find that you can press all of them without having to move your wrist up and down which greatly decreases hand strain. And honestly, with the exception of a very small number of games, theres little use in having more buttons than the n52te provides as long as you set it up intellegently.
However, it does have some knuckleheaded design choices. First being the placement of the space key. If you insist on using the d-pad, you'll find that the tip of your thumb is extended far past the space key thus requiring that you strike the far corner of it with the knuckle of your thumb. While I did not have the experience that other reviewers have reported of the key not registering if you don't hit it dead in the middle, the space key on my pad did have kind of the sticky feeling if it was pushed off-center. This was really not a huge problem though as the key layouts I used never required the heavy use of both the d-pad and the space bar simultaneously.
Another thing I didn't like about the design was the shoddy quality of the d-pad. If you see the analog stick and think that you're actually getting an analog pad, don't be fooled. Right out of the box I tried using it with the stick on, but wound up trashing it after about 10 minutes. It only served to make a d-pad that felt squishy even more unresponsive. Really it's just a crummy old digital pad akin to the one on that off-brand super nintendo controller you bought because it was 15 bucks cheaper than the real thing. Sure you could move Mario with it, but it just never felt right. Furthermore, they made it too big. Normally with a d-pad, I expect to be able to to keep my thumb in the middle and be able to pivot it in the appropriate direction. With this pad, I have to lift up my thumb and put it back down on the desired direction. And that just feels clunky to me. This, by the way, is my greatest disappointment with the n52te. I think its a great idea to give more control to your most dexterous digit which has tragically been relegated to merely making your character hop, but the d-pad on this thing just doesn't feel right.
Aside from the thumb area though, the other keys work fine. They have a slighty rough texture which, as a one with sweaty hands, is quite nice. I've seen some people here complaining about the backlight, as for me, I could take it or leave it. I play in a pretty well lit room so I just turn it off. However if you're the type that has trouble guzzling mountain dew, eating cheetos, and playing WoW in the complete darkness of your mother's basement, it might be a handy replacement for a desk lamp.
Last note on this subject . . . I have no idea why they decided to add a scroll wheel to this thing. If you don't already have a mouse with a scroll wheel, you have no business buying this pad. It doesn't really get in the way which is nice and I've occasionally used it for an extra 3 buttons (you can rebind scroll up/down to any keystroke or macro) but its presence is almost entirely superfluous.
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**Software and Macros
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I hear a lot of people bitching about how it doesn't have this feature or that doodad from the old version so its not worth buying, but I've found it to be completely adequate. The interface might not be great, it took me maybe an hour or so to get everything set up exactly the way I wanted it with some trial and error. But once its set up the way you want it, there little reason to be screwing with it anymore. Granted though, I didn't do anything crazy with the macro editor, I essentially just added 10 Hz turbo mode to some of my keys (a very nice feature in WoW). If you're looking to press one key down and have the controller go through 15 abilities, things may get a little dicey. But screw it, learn to play.
The most legitimate complaint I've seen about the software is the ability to have only 3 firmware keymaps. I personally only use two of them, one for WoW, and another for first-person shooters, I just alter the keybinds in individual games to match up with my general FPS keymap. I can see that some people out there would want to have more than these three keymaps, but keep in mind, these are only the firmware keymaps, ie. the ones that are stored in the controller so you can bring it over to your friends house and change the mapping. If you need more than three maps, the software gives you the option of saving a key layout and loading it back up at a later date. Effectively allowing you as many maps as you'd like. And as far as bringing this thing over to your friends house, if you're nerdy enough to have to take this everywhere you go, you're not above bringing along a usb drive with all your keymaps anyways.
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**In-game Performance
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In my opinion this pad really shines in games like World of Warcraft. That is, games where you have one entire buttload of spells and abilities, but super-precise movement is not necessary. While there's a lot of different ways to set it up, I found that the best configuration for my warrior tank was to bind movement to the d-pad and bind all of my abilities to the keys under my index through ring finger with the pinky in charge of ability sheet swapping (alt, shift, ctrl). Granted you have to be very comfortable with mouse moving for this to work, but it gives you full access to all the abilities and macros you'd ever want to use while maintaining constant control over the movement of your character. And since it allows you to have your hand on the mouse at all times, you no longer need to employ the dreaded and nubbish tab-targetting. The only caveat though is that since my thumb is on the d-pad all the time, physically hitting the space bar while moving forward is next to impossible, so I bound jump to one of the side buttons of my mouse (a logitech MX518) which worked out fine. The space key I wound up rebinding to open up my inventory which worked out quite nicely. It took me a few days to get used to this new setup and chances are it will for you too, but don't be discouraged, it will make you a far better player.
As far as first person shooters go, some of the utility of this pad diminishes. Since the d-pad is way to spongey to control movement, I found myself reverting to the old WASD scheme. Which feels nice enough, however theres one big problem here, the pad has no keys that correspond to the number buttons, so you'll either have to cycle through the weapons with your scroll wheel, or be fairly creative with your keybinding. I wound up binding my guns to the cardinal directions of the d-pad, but if you have more than four, then you start to run into trouble. Honestly its not a huge problem if you've got a mouse with some buttons to take up the slack (I use the side buttons on my mouse for grenades and such) but if you want to play a game like ARMA II which has literally every key on the keyboard bound plus ctrl-bound plus alt-bound, you'll need to go back to a full sized keyboard. So if you only play first person shooters, I recommend getting a full-sized gaming keyboard. You'll probably be happier with that in the long run.
***********************
**Durability
***********************
As I mentioned at the top I had the "r" key fail after about 5 months. I was playing an FPS and noticed that my gun wouldn't reload anymore. I opened it up (fairly easy to get inside of with a small phillips screwdriver) and noticed that when I had its guts splayed out on my desk the 'r' key started working again. Thinking that I had just sovled the problem by happenstance, I proceeded to screw the whole thing back together only to find that, when put back together, the key had stopped working again. My best guess was that there was some FOB in the housing that was causing a short when it was screwed together tightly. So I took it apart again and cleaned it pretty thourougly only to find that the key was still broken. Uhg.
So I wound up determining the exactly point of the housing reassemblage before the key stopped working. Turns out that when the portion of the housing nearest the ctrl key pressed into its seat all the way, it caused the 'r' key to bug out. After spending an unfruitful half hour trying to figure out why this was, I wound up jamming a shim made out of a folded up piece of cardstock between the two halves of the housing and screwing it back together sans a few screws.
This worked for a while until I noticed that the 'r' key stopped working when the ctrl key was depressed (no more crouching and reloading). Which was where I decided to just give up on it.
You might think that I'd be angry that it broke, but honestly, I put it through a lot of abuse. I'm not the kind of guy that chucks my keyboard across the room in a fit of rage, but I can get slightly heavy handed in the heat of the moment. I even spilled a beer on it once to no immediate ill-effect (was a bit sticky to the touch for a bit though). It is worth pointing out that my $10 dell keyboard has lasted almost two years though and shows no signs of quitting (and its filled with even MORE beer).
So yes, the life-cycle on this device is somewhat shorter than I would have liked. But it wasn't broken out of the box which was . . . nice.
Description of Belkin n52te Tournament Edition SpeedPad
Whether your passion is rooted in FPS, MMORPG, or RTS games, Belkin?s n52te is built to dominate with swift execution. Gain a competitive edge with portable player profiles, 104 custom functions, cool blue backlighting, and enhanced with Razer?s killer performance tools. Bring on all challengers and see why your n52te won?t be the only thing that?s lit up.Amazon.com Product Description
 The n52te is an innovative keyboard and gamepad with incredible personalization options powered by Razer. View larger. |
 Engineered to optimize your gaming speed and prowess. View larger. |
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Keyboard and Gamepad Functionality
The n52te puts keyboard and gamepad functionality into one small and easy-to-use unit, delivering more tools for customizing your game than ever. Using feedback from hundreds of gamers, Belkin's engineers designed the n52te's intuitive nature and stylish versatility to give you easy access to your arsenal of deadly maneuvers.
An adjustable soft-touch wrist pad offers maximum comfort and endurance, while the backlit keypad and scroll wheel give you total control in dark conditions. Gamers demand speed and instantaneous response, so the n52te features enhanced tactile feedback and button responsiveness for rapid key presses. Non-slip, rubber stability pads keep the device in place so you can concentrate on firing, bobbing, and weaving.
Supreme Customization
Need to custom tune your device to match your unique fragging needs? Not a problem with the n52te. Fifteen fully-programmable keys and three keymaps are built for complete customization and speed, giving you intuitive setup and performance. The 8-way thumb pad is programmable, as well, and it sports a removable joystick.
Powered by Razer
Thanks to Razer SynapseT embedded memory, you can personalize multiple player profiles for all your games and access killer performance tools. The inclusion of onboard memory also means that you get plug and play versatility with no additional software installation.
What's in the Box
Belkin n52te, quick start guide, and Nostromo Array Programming Software.
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