Saitek Eclipse 2 Illuminated Blue/Red/Purple

Pros:

-Lovely, soft typing keys but not too soft that they feel sluggish.

-Perfectly sized and spaced keys which make it ideal for gaming and typing alike.

-Height adjustors can be set to 2 different levels.

-The backlit keys are a god send in dim lighting. You don't fully realise until you try to use a standard keyboard again.

-There are an adequate amount of hotkeys for media players and volume etc

-The black keys are very hard wearing and even after 3 years have none of those shiney spots that you see on most keyboards (from grime and grease).

Cons:

-Ever since I first bought the keyboard, the left Ctrl key sometimes gets stuck if you try to press it at an angle (with hand stretched).

-I don't really see the point of the dimmer twist knob. It takes such a prominant position yet it is rarely used.

-To make the keyboard look more 'industrial', Saitek have placed pokey-out bits on the corners which house the rubber feet. They are just annoying and get in the way on your desk.

What's in the box?:

-Saitek Eclipse II keyboard.

-Detatchable wrist rest (Never used it).

I have now had this keyboard for over 3 years and it is still going strong. I purchased the keyboard for around £30 and I do not understand how anybody could rate this down on value terms because similar style gaming keyboards from other leading brands are usually not far off £100! That said, I was always adament that the best keyboards for gaming are the bog standard £5 keyboards but I had some cash spare and decided to give this a go.

It is wonderful to type on and I have yet to find another keyboard that has such a nice feel while typing. The keys are perfectly spaced and have a very nice response.

One of the main selling points of Saitek keyboards (I think they were the first to have it) is the backlight feature. The first Saitek Eclipse keyboard had backlit keys but Saitek never thought to make the letters clear so therefore you still couldn't see what key you were pressing.

This has changed though and the Saitek II features fully laser-etched keys so when the light shines through you can see the keys nicely. There are 3 colours to choose from: Blue, Red and Purple. Also, the side edges of the keyboard have a clear strip that let out the light from the backlight system so gives your desk a nice glow of what ever backlight colour you have chosen... nice.

I find that I just leave it on blue most of the time because that is the default colour when you turn on the computer. I think Purple is the brightest colour though for when you are typing in the dark and Red provides a nice ambience for playing shoot-em-up games :).

Along with the colours you can fully turn off the backlight feature or there is a dimmer knob so you can turn down the brightness of the backlight. As mentioned at the start though, the dimmer know has a very prominent position above the NumPad and it feels like a bit of a waste it being there.

Aside from the standard keys there are Volume Up + Down keys, a mute key and the Play/Pause, Stop, Skip and Rewind buttons for media players (usually only works with Windows Media Player).

People may vote the keyboard down because of this lack of 'Hot Keys' but I hate it when companies make a gaming keyboard then think it is a good idea to throw in loads of different gimmicky shortcut buttons that either don't work without cumbersome software or are accidentally pressed during a game causing everything to bog down while Microsoft Outlook loads. (With this I am referring to the Microsoft Reclusa gaming keyboard that causes me to open my Internet home page every time I accidentally miss the Tab key).

In my eyes a 'Gaming Keyboard' should be nicely proportioned to be as standard size as possible, have nice and soft but responsive keys, have good sized keys and key spacing and feature very few gimmicks.

This keyboard provides all of that and more, with the lovely, functional backlight system.

I believe there is a Saitek III keyboard now which I haven't tried but I would do my utmost to recommend the Saitek II. 3 years on and not a scratch.

I bought the above keyboard about 2 or 3 months ago, and so far it's my favourite yet. This is fantastic to use in a dim lit area, and great when trying to make the kids think it's late and turning off the lights. the blue seems the best colour as it;s easiest on the eyes.