14 DAY TRIAL // Zboard's custom keypad provides a larger "key surface" for important controls such as movement, and other positions like duck and reload in more comfortable places. However, this comes at a cost: compression of your standard 101 keyboard to 97. And for normal typing, you're really going to miss those four keys not being in their usual positions. This is most noticeable when you go for Delete or Home, showed Atomicmpc after testing the product.
"The keys themselves are very slick, feeling great to the touch and depressing with a soft, barely audible clack. As far as build quality and functionality goes, the standard keys are tops. Firm rubber grips on each corner of the board make sure it doesn't shift. It stuck like glue to our 'review' desk and simply would not budge at all with even the roughest of sideways shoves", added the source.
It seems that without drivers, the board acts erratic. The additional Zboard keys do all sorts of random things by default, counter-intuitive to the alternate functions printed in small print on each key. Once ZEngine - the board's software - is installed, it works exactly as advertised. Profiles are available for a range of games, including popular titles such as Battlefield 2 and Counter-Strike, as well as the more reclusive Dungeon Siege 2 and Thief: Deadly Shadows.
The price, size and difficulty to use as a normal typing keyboard hurts the Zboard MERC, but - if you're mostly a gamer - feel free to add another half a point to the score, concluded the testers and awarded the keyboard with 7.5 points out of 10.
User reactions are ranging from "A piece of crap that keeps on disconnecting itself and reconnecting and randomly changing key assignments so you never know what is going to happen when you press a key" to "I've had one since they landed on our shores and I love it. My wrist now loves me for getting it too." So it's up to you if you want to spend $80 on it and try it out.
Specs: 34 gaming keys; 11 function keys; 97 normal keys; 53.5 x 20 x 2.7 cm; Zengine software.
