PC Gaming Keyboard And Command Pad
by Saitek
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Our Price: $99.98 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of PC Gaming Keyboard And Command Pad
Customer Review: Blue Thunder!
Summary: 5 Stars
It's so cool to play this keyboard... there I am... blue lights glowing all around me, and I'm just let'n 'er rip! This keyboard is great for first person shooter games. 27 programmable macros! It takes on the competition, like a bully in a school yard. Awesome stuff!!Customer Review: Futurekeyboard.com
Summary: 5 Stars
This keyboard is the hottest thing going....Saitek has once again proven to have their product unique with a style of all their own. The Backlighting is absolutely awesome. Why dont other companies do it???????? ...what an effect. Good job guys...Customer Review: The way to play!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an awesome keyboard, like having your cake and eating it to. Use it for every day work, and with the stand alone keypad it's great for gaming!Customer Review: Kids had it for almost 2 years
Summary: 5 Stars
And it's worked well. Recommended that you bind your keypad for buys in Steam games.Customer Review: Keyboard extravaganza
Summary: 4 Stars
Saitek's PZ08A keyboard with additional Command Pad is for the PC enthusiast who has just about everything. The keyboard is more fun to look at than to use. That's not to say it isn't useful because it makes a viable replacement with a few reservations.
The prominent reservation in mind stands out because the PZ08A is a USB device and at least on my PC, the PZ08A is not immediately activated like my $11 PS2 keyboard. For instance; if you must access your System Bios, you may need to use your old keyboard to do it. *UPDATE ON THIS ISSUE*. In my BIOS is an option to detect USB on start-up. This was turned off by default. Turning it on allows access to this keyboard immediately.
I have a multi boot system managed by Partition Magic. Key presses are not accepted from the PZ08A whilst the PC is displaying boot options. I have kept my PS2 keyboard connected and must use it to access my system BIOS and the Partition Magic menu items before Windows takes over the operating system.
The keyboard is attractive with quality. It doesn't have a sleep or power button like my old keyboard but has a backlight intensity level button and three sound buttons. Of the sound buttons, only one of them applies to me (the mute) because I use headphones and not external speakers. I would imagine the other two are for speakers and perhaps another output sound device of sorts. The rest of the keyboard is standard QWERTY and Windows menu keys. The additional keypad is attached with a two foot cord that plugs into the back of the keyboard.
The PZ08A lies quite flat, even with the fold down lift brackets extended on the bottom surface. The rest of the keyboard is supported with good quality rubber feet. It may seem silly to comment on the quality of the rubber pads but cheap keyboards have tiny hard, round rubber buttons which quickly lose grip. The Saitek has substantial rectangular medium soft pads that resist sliding. This speaks of the overall quality design which the PZ08A exudes. It's all plastic but Saitek is apparently committed to selling something that not only works well but looks the part.
The backlighting is purely ascetics in my humble opinion. What you will see in a darkened room is a cool blue outline of your keys. In other words, don't expect to see any silk screening on the keys because the back lighting doesn't come through them. On the topic of looks, in order to make the PZ08A different from just any old keyboard, the Saitek design is a customary rectangle with four ears, one for each corner. They protrude out and down a little less than an inch. Granted, those great rectangular rubber feet are positioned diagonally along the bottom of these ears but the keyboard is slightly larger than it needs to be because of them. I have to say that the front and bottom aren't particularly affected by the protrusion because the Scroll, Caps and Num Lock LEDs are positioned on a small extension in line with the extended "ears". The width of the PZ08A is increased by more than an inch because of those stylish "ears". Saitek has also supplied a removable, contoured wrist support extension for the front of the keyboard. The wrist support adds another two inches or so to the overall front to back dimension. The keyboard isn't huge but it takes up more desktop real estate than many standard keyboards and a tight desktop will be over grown with the PZ08A ensemble.
Finally we come to the touted programmability of the PZ08A: You get the same modern motif of silver and black for the "Command Pad". Please understand that the Command Pad is the only programmable part of the PZ08A. It is physically separate from the main keyboard. Measuring approximately three inches by seven, with those same ears in the back and a contoured black wrist support up front, the Command Pad is a bit of a miniature of the keyboard. The difference is that this wrist support isn't readily removable. There are nine digit buttons which have the same back lighting as the keyboard. Which means; you can see the silhouette of those nine keys but you won't see the numbers on them in the dark. There are two more small silver buttons (like the light and sound buttons on the keyboard) that are designated "Mode A" and "Mode B". These buttons effectively triple the function of the standard pad's nine buttons when it comes time to program the pad.
Programming the Command Pad uses the same software and interface as programming the X52 / 45 Flight System. In other words, if you like Saitek's SST programming interface you will be right at home programming the Command Pad. I have more than one complaint regarding the Mode buttons. There is no way to know if the Mode is active. There are no LEDs to signify that Mode A or Mode B shift states have been achieved. The worst part of this all is that the buttons have scan time limits. You may press the Mode key but if you hold it too long or not long enough, the Mode will either toggle back to OFF or not have come on at all. There is no sure way to know if one of the modes has become active other than test the function in a game or application. Not good! You can watch this anomaly through the SST Command Key Control Panel applet. If you don't use the Mode "Shift" states, you won't have anything to worry about. Having nine programmable keys isn't all bad. Having 27 programmed keys that can be reliably called upon would be much better. One more important item that is a little disturbing: If you want a real manual for the keyboard and command pad, you may end up feeling slighted. The little paper leaflet is extensively under written and the CD manual, which puts you on the web, takes you to a strange place which provides no useful information that I could see. Granted I didn't spend a long time looking. The one tab that looked promising connected to nothing on my end. Never the less, the function and features of the PZ08A are nearly self explanatory and I have survived without a "real" manual.
Conclusion: The Saitek PZ08A and inclusive companion Command Pad are relatively inexpensive and you actually get quite a bit for your money. The whole outfit takes up significant space on your desk but it does it attractively. The PZ08A isn't exactly earth shaking, must have hardware for your PC and gaming experience and I have to say that the Command Pad has a way to go before it is remarkably useful. Adding two LEDs to the pad would change everything regarding the shift state awareness factor.
Would I buy the PZ08A again? Probably not, but I'm determined to have some fun with it for the time being.