Customer Reviews

Belkin n52te Tournament Edition SpeedPad

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(40)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

You'll find plenty of negative reviews about this little guy anywhere you look. I took all the negative points very seriously (there are a lot of very valid points) and decided not to buy it. However, I saw it at bestbuy a few days ago and man, I kind of drooled a little. Looks even better in person, so I thought what the heck, if I really don't like it I'll just return it and make up a story about bogus Mac software (which works impressively well, by the way. Not at all like your typical Razer software).

Its important to note that I never used the original n52, but I couldn't be happier with the n52te. Firstly, The spacebar isn't giving me the problems I was expecting. I see what people are talking about, when they mention not being able to hit it on the edges, but hitting the space bar at the far ends feels uncomfortable and unnatural to me anyways. I haven't hit space bar without it registering unless I try to get it to miss. I thought I'd have to pop the key off and put something in there to make it a little more stable, but it's really just fine the way it is.

The thumb stick comes off to reveal a d-pad, which I prefer. The small hole in the middle isn't a problem for me now and I don't see it being a problem later on.

I spent two days away from WoW just getting my macros in perfect order, and I honestly can't imagine needing more than is available with the n52te. Sure there are only 3 KeyMaps, where the original apparanly had 4, but I think I've got more than I could handle anyway.

There are blue, red, and green lights under the spacebar to let you know, out of the corner of your eye, which keymap is currently active. Very helpful, but these three lights are way too bright, in my opinion. I put a few layers of tape over them. Problem solved.

I'm just writing this to encourage folks not to give up hope, if you were initially really excited about this and swayed by all the negatives. I'll honor all the negative reviews and assume that if you're already accustomed to the original n52, you'll probably be disappointed. For everyone else, I really recommend you give it a shot. This thing works very well. Its made of quality materials, its comfortable, and dead sexy to boot. Looks incredible next to my blue DeathAdder. Five stars, absolutely.

Feel free to comment and ask me questions. I'll be more than happy to respond.

The purpose of a macro enabled gamepad is to ease the use of multiple game commands and improve both the timing and execution of commands as compared to a player who is pressing keys on a normal keyboard.

The Belkin N52TE comes with a lot of marketing hype. It is easy to assume that it will soon eclipse the Belkin N52, which has been the standard for gamepads for several years. Unfortunately it falls a bit short.

The N52TE has an improved keypad that seems to be mechanically better than the N52. Unfortuantely, the spacebar on the N52TE must be depressed precisely in the center and travels nearly 1/4 inch to make contact. This makes it difficult press and to use quickly.

There is a conveniently located thumb button that could be a real asset but has a mushy feel with no 'click' to indicate when it has been depressed. This makes it useless for quick, momentary functions.

The backlighting feature, instead of only showing the key tops, surrounds the entire perimeter of the keys with bright, blue light. Since one of the reasons to use a keypad is the convenience of not having to look at the keys for finger placment, this is more of a distraction than a help. Fortunately the backlight can be turned off.

The new N52TE has three, selectable keybanks. The N52 had four.

The software has a completely new UI. If you are a N52 user, you cannot transfer any of your current macros to the new unit, you must start from scratch. The new programming software contains most of the fuctionality of the current N52 software but lacks several features that most users consider essential:

---As currently offered, if a macro is running, hitting any other key will stop the macro.
---There is no access to the timing between KEY-PRESS and KEY-RELEASE. The timing between events within the macro is limited to a preset value and cannot be edited.
---While you can create and save macros by selecting [RECORD] and entering the keystrokes, there are bugs that prevent the effective editing of the macro.

I find the software to be unusable and I have put the N52TE on the shelf until the developers come up with something that works.

Belkin n52te Tournament Edition SpeedPad

This is a long and comprehensive review for those of you who really want to get informed about this particular product. Should you wish to skip the main dish and go straight to the point then please read the disclaimers below and go to "MY CONCLUSION" at the end.

***

DISCLAIMERS:
I will attempt to make this review as unbiased and neutral as I possibly can in order to give the reader a better ground from which to make the decision of whether purchasing this product will be a good deal or not.
I often do a lot of research and reading before buying something, especially if it is a device as unique and expensive as this. If my research convinces me, I proceed to buy the item from a local retailer and try it out for over three weeks. If I like it I keep it, if not I return it (thus the three-week deadline). I strongly believe that with items like these that carry a hefty price tag and incessant bragging by the manufacturer, if I am not sold by the end of the second week, it isn't worth it.
Why do I say and do all of this? Simple, we are a community and our only line of defense is each other. Companies seem to be slowly phasing out of their commitment to please the consumer, and most consumers are ignorantly riding along with that. I believe that it should be the other way around; companies have to be driven by consumers who, by being informed, should encourage a healthy corporate competition in order to force technological evolution to everyone's advantage. That way we end up with the best that industry has to offer as the industry ends up with our commitment and money. Which then goes into another cycle; thus we all win. However, the only way to achieve this is by having informed customers who stick out for each other and healthily share all they know.
With that said, my goal is to save you time and effort as others do for me and you can do for others. Hey, it is your and my hard-earned dollar, if I already did the work, why should you do it all over again?

N52TE DISCLAIMER:
I am not a hard-core n52 owner, matter of fact, I have NEVER used a gaming pad of this kind before. This was my first attempt at expanding my gaming prowess with such a device. Also, unfortunately (or fortunately?), due to mere time limitations, I am not a hard-core gamer anymore; I am too busy with life and work that I just cannot play as often as I'd like. However, I do have a lot of previous experience with gaming and, because of my job, a keen eye and feel for good Industrial Design, Hardware, Software, Technology and overall Usefulness of something, particularly within the realm of tech-gadgets.

***

REVIEW (INDEX):
My review is structured by "CATEGORIES" depicting the several aspects of this device: Opening, Aesthetics, Design, Hardware Usage, Software Usage, and Conclusion. The paragraph following the title is the "neutral and unbiased" review and the paragraph following that (marked with a *) is my personal opinion on the "category" being discussed.

OPENING:
Included in the box are the n52te, a quick-start guide, an "n52te" bumper sticker, a drivers CD, and an orange piece of paper instructing the user to download the latest drivers on-line instead of using the supplied CD.
* I found this orange paper to be rather interesting -good and bad in its own right, the rest is pretty much standard content.

AESTHETICS:
Overall, the n52te looks very good. The chassis is made of a shinny black plastic with sparkles, a matte black rubberized palm rest and thumb-stick, matte black plastic keys, and "gamer-blue" LED lighting. The USB cable is of enough length and feels sturdy, the connector tip is gold-plated, and comes with a plastic cap.
It should be noted though that the LED lighting is a little overdone; however it can be turned off. Some may be able to easily tune it out off of their peripheral vision, but others will be bothered to the extreme with this as it bleeds A LOT through the slits between the keys (about 200% more than what actually shines through the symbol on the key). However, it is a nice touch as it gives the effect that the keys are "suspended" in a pool of light. Nevertheless, the same cannot be said about the LEDs that indicate which profile you have activated as they are REALLY bright and seem to be pointed right at your face; most will find these are quite hard to tune out and are impossible to turn off (to my experience).
* Personally, I loved the looks because it matched perfectly with the rest of my peripherals (Razer Lachesis, Razer Lycosa to name some), I am building up a dream-rig and am being vain enough to try and match everything together (function far overcoming form though). However, the only thing that turned me off was those sparkles, I assume they were trying to emulate that top-of-the-line car paint, but to me it just looks like it got dipped in high school lip-gloss... Yeah, you know what I mean!
- I didn't mind having it with the light on, it looked nice and, as I said, it matched the rest of my set-up. However, with the on/off switch being below the device, I think that you can accidentally turn them on and off with a modest push/pull (commonplace to mid-game intensity), though it never happened to me.

DESIGN:
The ergo-design is both its forte and biggest flaw. You must have larger hands to physically exploit the n52te fully; otherwise you will find yourself unnaturally stretching your fingers to hit certain keys and using some of its features.
* Personally, my overall ergonomic experience with this device was a catastrophe (see "USAGE" for details).

HARDWARE USAGE:
I used the n52te only with Battlefield 2142. Judging by the design of the device it is easy to see that it was designed to be used primarily with FPSs.
However, this by no means implies that you cannot use the n52te with other genres, you very well could; however, chances are it will be very inconvenient. To illustrate, in order to fully exploit the n52te over other genres; say RTS, such a venture will require a lot of time wasted through clever trial-and-error mapping of all the desired shortcuts and macros into the device, possibly even extending out into the other memory banks for one single game. Adding to that is the time that will be wasted in getting accustomed and ultimately memorizing all these changes in order to execute them with the needed speed and accuracy that will actually make you competitive.
Therefore, you can conclude that though it IS possible to take this device VERY far, it will be a major effort consisting of a major waste of time.
* Personally (and here is where all my gripes are), I have "below-average" sized hands and, though I make up with very dexterous fingers and Belkin did their part with the adjustable palm-rest, I still found the n52te to be more of an inconvenience than anything else.
- I found myself uncomfortably stretching to press highest leftmost pinky and ring finger keys, the pinky one being just plain unusable for me.
- The "mouse wheel" felt strange, its click is inconsistent and the "steps" are too defined and offer way too much resistance to be of good on-the-fly use. Moreover, it is located too far back; I had to lift my other three fingers out of their place to have my index comfortably stretch down to move the wheel.
- The "spacebar" was simply out of bounds for me, I understand they tried to emulate a real space bar, where you just quickly slam your thumb down to press it, but they failed horribly. The n52te's spacebar is pretty stiff, it is located too far down from the natural resting position of your thumb on the device and, as hard as I tried, I never really found its "sweet spot". As others have noted, even if you could comfortably and quickly slam your thumb down, it is just unclear where and how to hit it to make it work 100% of the time. It WILL piss you off.
- The D-Pad felt rather stiff and it is a mind-battle to map it, I will try to explain my struggle. I was debating whether to map it in a "local" sense where my thumb defines direction, the nail being north, so pushing will be up (down in my case, I am used to "pilot-style" axis inversion) and so on. Or, on the other hand, a "global" mapping where just up towards the ceiling will be north. Still after this struggle I never used the D-Pad because it was too stiff for efficient use.
- The "alt" button above the D-pad was too flimsy and seemed that it was about to fall off, I mapped the space bar to this button.
- As you can assume, I barely trifled with the Macros and extreme customizations available.

SOFTWARE USAGE:
After downloading and installing the 1.02 drivers (as instructed by the orange paper), I proceeded to update the firmware from v1.01 to v1.02, and I was unable to. Razer's update program failed every time under every circumstance.
As stated above, I never used the original n52; however, I have found there is a very solid consensus of complaints about Razer's new take on the mapping software interface. It seems that (again, based on the seemingly unanimous on-line opinions) the new software is a severe step-back from the original n52's. Unfortunately I cannot confirm this but I can still give my opinion:
* Personally, as I stated above, I own two other products from Razer and I really like their interfaces, simple, useful, and with an added bonus of eye-candy. There is no question that the n52te's interface was designed by Razer; but I think they could have done a MUCH better job (again, based on the interfaces from the Razer products I own).
- The window is way too small for such a big device that has so many keys to map, I literally had to either squint or put my face up to the screen to make sure I was highlighting the desired key. I have read that the original n52 software had a feature through which you could physically press a key on the n52 and it would light up on the software; THAT would have definitely helped -proving that sometimes, it really isn't necessary to re-invent something.

BUILD QUALITY:
I cannot say anything neutral here; I didn't take the thing apart to examine it or anything like that, so I do not have a neutral opinion of its literal build quality, all I can say comes from my usage of the device.
* Personally, based on my gripes above, my honest opinion is that the n52te is of a questionable build quality:
- The keys, chassis, and palm-rest feel very good and very solid; however, the "space-bar", the "D-Pad", and the "ALT-Button" feel VERY cheaply made, to the point that I think that those parts were sub-contracted out to another manufacturer.
- Overall, the n52te is halfway up the build quality spectrum.

***

MY CONCLUSION:
I returned the n52te.

I see this device to be more of an inconvenience than anything else and I believe it is aimed either at the hard-cores of hard-cores or at those who do not know what they are getting into. Meaning that for most of us, the n52te will just feel like a re-invented wheel which we might never use to its full capacity. However, for those of you who have the time, patience, and available effort to attempt to exploit this device to its fullest, keep in mind the actual physical minuses I stated above; those are a deterrent to anyone and I am almost sure that they will be the reason that will eventually make you quit.

For me, with no time to "fully exploit" the n52te, it all boiled down to: "I do not see how I can dish out $70+tax for half a keyboard and how that is supposed to up my game so darn much." Moreover, as many have noted, I also felt I had a batch-one beta model and was being a Guinea Pig to Belkin -no thanks!

I rated this item 2 out of 5 stars simply because of the aesthetics, the concept, and remotely hidden potential behind this device.

***

I hope this review was helpful to you! If it was, please make sure to click "yes" below to help others find it. Thank you!

- Seb

i know allot has been said so im going to keep it short.
Im a N52 Nos owner and I bought TE as its replacement when it came out, i primary play FPS or 3rd person action games, so far my TE has seen several months of consecutive service,some of the games its trotted though: COD4, RB6V, RB6v2, FEAR,Half life,portal,A-Creed, Lost Planet,and even Tiberium Wars,

The good: N52TE has the same good button setup,
same awesome feel as its predecessor, and the back lighting rocks!
other major improvement are in looks, keys are a bit bigger, the dpad is easier to handle, the scroll feels tighter,the new plastic palm rest is VERY smooth and soft,and the on board memory concept works,it also appears that the scroll wheel/mouse driver conflict Glitch- (that hindered the N52 NOS) is not a problem with the TE.

The Bad: where Razer initially blew it,-happened with the drivers and the firmware. Version 1.01 was terrible and glitch-y, just bad software design all around, not to mention the design was a huge departure from form the N52 NOS as it was simplified down to the max. Newer driver versions have sought to bring back some of the complexity as well as fix existing issues (ENTIRE MACRO SYSTEM for starters) while keeping the "Razer" interface. (The original N52 NOS, featured a rather bland interface that was complex but functioned beautifully) another downside is that you cannot import your old n52 nos profiles even with the new 2.10 driver and 1.02 FW versions today, so you get to remake them.

now granted, this is actually not a HUGE hassel,
both editors can be run at the same time-
so if you put one next to the other, and re-input the data by reading off the old profile-you will be done in no time- 1 hour for me for all of my profiles.. 15+

*So should you get it?
The biggest reason for getting this is the same reason that would drive an individual to get its predecessor: If your looking for a palm sized fully functional,fully programmable, gaming keyboard, then this device may work for you. Also a device like this will work wonders for games which have fixed non remapable in game keyboard controls. with the N52 NOS &TE each key can be mapped to take any key or macro sequence: (Example-> Splinter Cell Double Agent has this problem)thus giving you the ability to fit the entire control scheme to your personal needs, (whether the game designers wanted you to or not)

I first want to preface this review by saying that I have NEVER owned anything like this. I am not some kind of strange Belkin fanboy, nor have I ever owned any other kind of gaming keyboard or any other product in this line. I am used to using the mouse and keyboard that came with my computer to play my game of choice, which is World or Warcraft.

My keybindings were becoming to plentiful to map comfortably to my keyboard so I found this device and decided to give it a try. From what I can see with the reviews here, some people really like their N52 (non-TE) and while I can't comment because I have never used it, I would think that once you get used to the layout of a gadget like this, any change will be for the worse.

I have good sized hands, they have no problem with reaching the keys, I had to actually move the hand rest back to get comfortable... but once I did, it was PERFECT. I have so much more dexterity in my ability to reach more buttons than ever before. I had no idea my thumb could accomplish so much...

Unless you have tiny hands like my wife (who can't reach most of the keys) you will LOVE this thing... It does have a learning curve, I got used to it with my 42 Warrior and it took a few hours of playing for it to become second nature, now once I get on my 70, because I am already completely used to the device, I will have ZERO problem getting all those extra abilities mapped correctly.

The program it comes with is CAKE to use. It doesn't matter what you map the keys to do, I mapped every key to a random keyboard key it doesn't matter, I just mapped a couple of them to a function modifier key (Shift, ALT, TAB) and re-did my bindings IN GAME to get it all straight, took altogether 3 minutes.

Great product, great looking, EXTREMELY comfortable in every regard, and gives me more buttons for comfortable binding then I ever thought possible.

I don't see what there is to dislike about this thing, I was a little skeptical at first, but I have grown to LOVE it in the 4 days since i got it.

PHENOMENAL!

I purchased this from a local retailer on 3/24/2008. My son choose the Saitek PZ31A Pro Gamer which I purchased at the same time.

First, others have complained about buggy software. I have not had any problems with either software or hardware.

For each game you use this unit with, you'll want a profile. In each profile, you can map each key (minus one to actually switch maps) to three different functions, one for each mapping (which goes by color).
This isn't as useful as it sounds, but it's still nice.

The software iteself is extremely easy to use. There is a picture of the controller on screen, you choose a button, then choose what you want that button to do. Each button can be mapped to up to tree different keys, functions, or macros. Switching is easy, however, I've found that switching between keymaps isn't that useful during a game. While not in battle, switching has some usefulness, but when you are trying to kill that last demon, you don't want to switch maps just to get to another weapon.

There are fewer buttons than I would have liked, but realistically, the fourteen buttons available for the fingers of the left hand are about all that can be reached comfortably. There is also a scroll button which can be used for up to three different keys. (One key for scroll up, one key for scroll down, and one key for press.)

The scroll button can cycle between keymaps, something I believe only it can do. My one disappointment was that the scroll button can't cycle between other keys. For example, if I have weapon sets mapped to F1, F2, and F3, it would be nice to be able to use the scroll wheel to quickly scroll through my weapons.

The thumb controls three keys -- a lower key, an upper button, and a D-pad. Each can be mapped to anything you choose, including all eight directions available on the D-pad. The thumb can only do one thing at once, however. Don't expect to use the D-pad and another button at the same time. This is important if you choose a thumb key to momentarily shift to another mapping. Since my D-pad is set for movement, and the upper thumb button to shift, I can't do both at the same time.

A manual is included on the CDROM, but simple exploration with the mapping application will give as much information except for two things. The D-pad has a removable joystick, and the hand rest is adjustable/removable. In either case, you simply pull the component off the base. The hand rest can be moved back about an inch, or the whole thing used without it.

Now, I wanted to make a couple of comparisons to the Saitek I bought for my son. First, the software for the Saitek is difficult to understand, and the colors the software talks about aren't the colors on the keypad. It also has several more keys available, which sounds good, but I'm not sure it would actually work well in practice. The one thing I really like about the Saitek is that it has a shift key that can be pressed by the base of the thumb, allowing use of the joystick and shift key at the same time.

Finally, my son has had issues where in the middle of a game, it seems to lose its programming and the profile has to be reloaded.

As for the n52te, I love it. I bought it specifically for Hellgate: London, and once I got the keys mapped for it, it worked wonderfully. I have also experimented with a profile for Starcraft, and while I don't believe it works as well for that game, it still speeds up my commands.

I have used both the Logitech G13 and Belkin n52te extensively, so I thought it would be useful to write a review comparing the two products.

Usage
I have used both keypads to play World of Warcraft (WoW) extensively. Typically I use the mouse to steer my character, and the keypad to do the actions on my action bar. I use the joystick to move forward, back, and strafe left and right. My hand is average to small in size.


Keys
The Logitech G13 has more keys than the Belkin n52te. In fact the main reason I bought the G13 was because I ran out of keys on the n52te. The G13 has 22 keys plus a joystick button, and two extra buttons near the joystick for a total of 25 programable items. The n52te has 14 keys, a scroll wheel up-down-click button, and two buttons by the joystick for a total of 19 programmable items. When you get advanced in WoW, the more buttons you have, the better your game will be since you can quickly do an action by pressing a button.

The n52te keys are all pretty much the same shape, and the middle key has a bump on it to help you locate where you are. The G13 has the most common keys the same shape, but other keys near the edges have a different shape. I find this helpful since I can feel the key and know where I am due to its shape. The G13 all has four keys with a concave impression to help you locate where you are on the keypad. Again, I find this more useful than the one key the n52te uses with a bumb on it.


Joystick/D-Pad
The n52te has a D-Pad that allows you to control movement in 8 directions. It has an optional joystick insertion that makes it feel more like a joystick. When playing WoW, I actually only used 4 directions, and disabled the corner directionals, since it was too easy to go the wrong way by mistake. With just 4 directions (forward, back, strafe left, strafe right), it was easier to use.

The G13 has a small joystick which allows you to control 4 directions. Comparing the two, I think the G13 is much easier on the thumb than the n52te. After hours of play, and days of gaming, this makes a big difference. The G13 moves much easier and with less effort than the n52te. The G13 also pivots more naturally, so it is much easier to switch directions with less effort. The only thing I don't like about the joystick is the joystick button is very hard to press.


Ergonomics
I feel that the n52te actually promotes carpel tunnel syndrome in the way its designed. The problem is that it forces you to bend your wrist upward so that you are continually putting stress on those tendons. The palm rest does not help, as it simply forces this bad wrist orientation. In order to use the n52te without pain, I actually had to prop up my elbow on some books so that my wrist could be in a more natural position.

The ergonomics on the G13 are far superior than the n52te. The way its designed it allows you to keep your wrist in its natural position, as when you are typing, without having to bend it upward as in the n52te. I can use the G13 continuously for hours upon hours with no discomfort at all.


LCD
The G13 comes with a LCD display, which the n52te does not have. At first I thought I would not use it much, but now I find it to be a helpful addition. For WoW, it shows your characters stats as well as other things such as your equipment durability, so you know when it is time to repair. On battlegrounds it shows stats like how many players on each side, time elapsed, deaths, killing blows, and honorable kills. The LCD does other stuff too when you are not playing the game (time and date, cpu usage, stopwatch, rss feeds, music info, etc). So I think it is a nice bonus.


Programming
I found both units really easy to program. It is very easy to assign any keystroke or key combinations or macros to any key on the keypad.


Conclusion
Overall, I would say the Logitech G13 is superior than the Belkin n52te and would highly recommend you buy the G13 over the n52te. My feeling is that the G13 is the next generation of keypads with all the best features, while the n52te is the old generation of keypads which has now been surpassed.

I held off on getting one for a long time, despite positive reviews from friends, but decided to take the plunge for a recent game.

I like it a lot. Expect to spend 1 day getting used to it another few days really getting a feel for it.

It really boils down to one simple benefit:
The thumbpad.

With this one simple thing, you put movement in control of your thumb (which previously was probably relegated to "jump" duty on the spacebar while movement required two fingers if you wanted to "strafe run") and now you have your fingers free for activating a bank of 14 hotkeys plus three more if you count wheel-up, wheel-down and wheel-push, which you can do with your index finger without leaving the thumb pad.

The other two buttons I don't find to be generally useful: the one above the thumbpad and the one below it, as I rarely want to take my thumb off of the movement pad to activate them (although if the game has any ability that can't be done while moving anyway, these are good buttons for them). I do think that a couple of left-side pinky buttons would be doable -- it really could use a few more buttons for those button-heavy RPGs -- but for FPSs you've got plenty.

The software is very nice and more configurable than I thought. You can map any button on the device to act as any button on your keyboard, including the wheel-up, wheel-down and wheel-press (by default, the n52te wheel maps to a mouse wheel but I always re-assign it because hey, I already have a mouse wheel).

You can also do macros. The easiest way is to simply "start recording" and then press the buttons in the order and speed you desire, then "stop recording". For example, perhaps I want to switch weapons, wait 1 second (while the game does the animation for switching weapons) and then execute a maneuver and then switch back; this is very easily accomplished.

I also personally found it helpful to map a button on my mouse to be "shift" so that I can get twice as many keys on my n52te. So I can map the top middle button to be "3" and then map that to something in the game, then map "shift-3" to be something else in-game and basically double the number of available buttons.

The only real downside to the n52te is the button layout and how some games (mainly RPGs) do not visually support a 3x5 layout.

That is, if the game only has one hotbar of 10 buttons, I have to remember that the "6th button" on my screen is actually the "first button of the second row" on my n52te.

Luckily, games like Warcraft and Warhammer are configurable enough that I can visually put three rows of buttons on screen and then map them to match the physical layout of my n52te. For FPS games I typically just draw on a sheet of paper what I'm mapping to where until I get the hang of it.

I also wish they had a left handed version (which is to say, a version for the right hand so that lefties can use the mouse in their left hand). I had switched to a left handed mouse a few years ago and actually had to switch back to a right handed mouse in order to use the n52te.


All in all, I'm well pleased with it, but it definitely has a learning curve. Hardware-wise and compatibility-wise, I've had zero problems with it, even on 64-bit Vista.

Please note from my title that I upgraded from the n50 and not the n52, so what was an upgrade in many categories for me may not be for the average n52 user.

That being said, there were several things I really liked about this controller and only a few things I didn't like. Overall, the construction is solid and the controller is comfortable to use. I have experienced none of the rocking that some have reported. I have not tried to remove the optional joystick, so I cannot attest to whether the supposed hole that is left in the directional pad is as bad as some have said. I also don't use more than three shift states, so losing one shift state wasn't a loss to me. The space button does have some "quirks" in that you must press near the center or it does not respond. However, all other buttons were extremely responsive. The backlighting option is nifty, but I found myself turning it off after a while because it was a distraction. I do miss the scroll wheel having an "on/off" state, but that was changed for the n52 as well and not just the n52te.

The software wasn't as bad as I had read before buying it. Yes, all the delays are preset. However, delays can be as little as 50ms and you can stack multiple delays between key presses. So unless you need a response time of less than 50ms, there shouldn't be an issue except that instead of the editor auto-timing your delay you'd have to figure it out yourself and insert the appropriate delays. I don't know about the one macro at a time issue. I know that I can fire a macro while moving with the directional pad and it works just fine, but I don't use two macros simultaneously. Overall, the software seemed more intuitive to me than the editor packaged with the n50. The fact that the profiles are persistent to the controller was a huge selling feature for me and has been a pleasure to take advantage of.

My general assessment based on what I have read and experienced is this...if you are upgrading from the n50, this controller is probably a very nice upgrade. The additional buttons and features were nice. If you are upgrading from the n52, you might want to look at what new features this controller brings and what features you lose. Some may find that the n52 does everything they need it to and this controller may be a disappointment unless you specifically want the persistent profiles or backlight features.

Lastly, bear in mind that there were some screwy shipment issues when on this controller early on. I am not sure what the situation is like now, but pay attention to the estimated shipment dates so you don't get hit with an unexpected delay.

I never owned the N52 original so this is the first key pad I have ever purchased. WOW after reading the reviews of the N52 owners I wouldn't have ever even came close to purchaseing the N52te edition. Ahhhh...but I do know someone that owned one and he assured me that if I was a noob to this type of device I could enter it without any bias. So, with that said I found this device a little on the pricey side, but after using it for 48 hours I fealt well adjusted to it. I had none of the problem the N52 users complained about, I actually found it very easy to use and control. The size seem to match my hand almost perfectly, I have average size hands so the reach was good and confortable. I do agree that the interface that maps the keys is ridiculously small, but I was able to get it set up for Call of Duty 4 within 15-20 minutes. I like the back lite keys, although I agree they could be a bit dimmer, but I didnt find that to be distracting. So if you are new to these types of game improving key pads, this is a great addition that will make you a better player, but if your one of the people that doesnt like change and is confortable with the N52, well look at the reveiws and you can see what they have already decided. But I bet if they gave it a chance and got used to it they will be telling