Customer Reviews

Saitek PC Gamer's Keyboard

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I bought this keyboard despite some of the less than enthusiastic reviews I had read, and I couldn't be happier with it. I have no idea what those other reviewers are complaining about. The keyboard is nice and heavy with a detachable wrist rest, and of course the ever popular blue, backlit keys. The board is very stylish, but more importantly, it works flawlessly. Despite what you may have read in another review, the board DOES allow you to use the delete key to access the bios menu at boot up. It is no different than any other keyboard in that respect. It is also completely compatible with Windows XP SP2. Someone else mentioned that you couldn't use the separate command pad and the main keyboard at the same time. I don't know what their problem is, I use both the keyboard and command pad at the same time wihtout the slightest problem. The combination makes this the ideal keyboard for playing games such as first person shooters, as you can programme the keypad with up to 27 commands (9 buttons with three shift modes). Programming using the Saitek software is practically a no brainer (despite what others might have you believe) you simply open the profiler, click on the key you want to assign a function to, and then click on the key on the keyboard which corresponds to that function. It's no different that any other key mapping system. The one drawback is that, as mentioned elsewhere, there is no LED or any other indicator to show what shift mode you are in. It would have been useful had Saitek put the same blue LEDs around the shift mode keys and made it so that they would light up when that shift mode is selected. To me that is not a big enough of a problem to deduct a star for. I used a Logitech Elite keyboard prior to this, and the Saitek is far superior; if for no other reason than that with the Logitech you have to take an extra step to push a button to turn the I touch function on or off, and you have to push yet another button to lock or unlock the function keys. It was a real pain to be using a propgramme that made use of the function keys, and go to use the function buttons only to find that you forgot to unlock them first. No such problem with the Saitek. If you need special functions, you simply assign them to the command pad; so you have your special functions and your regular function keys work as they always have as well. All in all, the Saitek Gamer's Keyboard is a good, solid, fully functional keyboard that looks every bit as good as it works.

Great keyboard(so far) nice moody lights that make the keys stand out even during the day.(great for rainy afternoons in a dimly lit house). Not so great for night if you don't have an overhead light(or dim lamp). The ambient blue light isn't enough to see the letters. The letters should have been machine cut into the buttons for a blueness that could be seen. Works perfect in DOS, however because of the dark screen. Windows has a bright screen anyway. Am "((hoping))" to get a corner office Hutch with florescent lighting but this keyboard lighting will still help as it isolates each and every key and gaming pad button in blue light easing eye fatigue as others have said. Gamepad says it works without software, it does not. You need to install the software and set up a profile to get it to work at all. But it is a great addition. Works in XP SP2 for me, but not for everyone. Be prepaired for a driver hunt across your hard drive and the system32 directory for the .inf files. That is the Saitek way.(didn't have that problem myself).
The keyboard "is" or SEEMS pretty robust(knock-on-wood) and the keys are firm and don't give a flaky click or a loose feel, they are pretty sturdy. The game pad is a bit less firm and the keys do give a click and are not quite as stable as the keyboard but the GP seems some-what durable anyway. Other than the pretty lights and the GP this is just a keyboard, not a specialty gaming device as posted on many review sites like Tom's Hardware or Gamer's Depot or Computer Gaming World Magazine.

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.

Let me just preface this review by mentioning that I read many customer reviews(here and elsewhere) on this product before purchasing it. I focused on the negative reviews as to develop a good idea of any potential design flaws. After using this keyboard for almost 6 months I believe that Saitek delivers an attractive design with solid quality.

Command Pad: Many reviews bash this feature. It is quite a basic pad as compared to some, but it gets the job done. My only main gripe with the pad was how it failed to deliver some windows macros such as ctrl-alt-delete. During games such as WoW and CoD2 I had no problems whatsoever. The rumor about the horrible software and it being buggy was nonexistent for me. The customers who claimed it to be "impossible" and "buggy" seem to be computer illiterate at best, and judging from the frequency of grammatical errors in their reviews, possible English illiterate as well. If you are familiar with computer hardware then you will be fine with this software and pad.

Keyboard: The quietness, response, and overall feel of the keys rival any Logitech design. I am a huge fan/customer of Logitech equipment, and thus can confidently state that this board is of equal material quality. Saitek took a more simple route with this design(no LCD screen etc...) and the price shows it.

*I almost laughed out loud after recently reading some of the passionate and disgruntled reviews concerning the lack of key-symbol illumination. It is obvious that these reviewers did not know much about the product they purchased. Unfortunately failing to be informed about a product one buys totally demerits any kind of negative opinion resulting from that lack of knowledge. I would guess that 90% of the negative reviews about this board capitalize on this point resulting in a much lower overall rating than deserved.

Last and probably least comes the aesthetics, of course the most subjective part of any review. I found this setup to be very sharp looking. In the dark, the vivid key definition from the backlights allows any experienced typist to quickly find whatever he/she is looking for. This eliminates the need for symbol illumination. Although symbol illumination might be a nice touch, especially for the keyboard deficient, I feel that Saitek sacrificed this option to provide very durable lettering. I have lost some lettering on Logitech keyboards sooner than the 6 months I've been using this one(Although frequency of gaming has fluctuated). Saitek Engineers probably figured that most gamers would know the keyboard well enough to not need both key definition and symbol illumination, apparently an oversight on their part.

I will recap this lengthy review by recommending this keyboard to any capable computer enthusiast who desires a good value.

Best keyboard ever. Hands down. Has a very nice touch and responds when you type on it. The blue glow has a nice "kewl" factor. The MAIN reason I bought it was because of the programmability. You can program the function keypad to do commands or type sentences at the touch of a button. Bottom line? It works. rather nicely at that. It runs a program running in the background so you can use it in games. I use it in Word typing documents, cut-n-pasting things VERY quickly (one button) if you copy or paste a lot, this is perfect. I use it for database programming when I type the same few words over, and over. I even have one key to 'flip' windows (instead of alt-tabbing all the time, just hit the function button). I would highly recommend this keyboard over any other if you are looking for the BEST.

The good:

--Solid. Doesn't move easily and has a good feeling keypress (if you're a fan of the 'click' type keyboards this isn't for you - it requires a bit more effort to press the keys and is fairly quiet).

--Blue. Not dark blue, more aquamarine, but a nice soothing color nonetheless.

The bad:

--Not good in the dark. As mentioned by others, the keys are not transparent at all. The LED's actually hinder identifying the keys in low light situations.

--Software. I've encountered a few issues with the drivers included with the keyboard. Not show stoppers, but annoying. If you're not using the keypad, don't install the drivers.

The UGLY:

--Keyboard not recognized in CMOS or during boot. I'm running an MSI Athlon 64 motherboard with a BIOS password. I have to plug in my old USB keyboard to work in CMOS or enter a the CMOS password. Yes, I have legacy USB support turned on in CMOS (otherwise my "old" USB keyboard wouldn't work). It appears others in the Saitek forums have experienced this issue too. Really annoying having two keyboards kicking around....

Pros:
-Looks awesome, especially at night, very sleek and uncluttered
-It feels very sturdy
-Keys are very quiet
-Buttons feel very good, they aren't mushy like the Logitech Elite
-Backlight can be turned off if you don't want it on, plus it has 2 brightnesses
-Command pad is VERY useful and easy to program
-Very comfortable with removeable/adjustable wrist pad
-Full sized keyboard, unlike some other lighted keyboards
-Extra large space bar

Cons:
-Takes up a lot of desk space with the Command pad
-No media keys besides mute/volume, but that might not be a bad thing for some people
-Letters on the keys don't light up (Saitek has a new board out sans Command pad that has solves this)
-USB only, but that's probably because they need to power the LEDs

I ordered this with a pang of guilt; thinking what a waste of money for something that probably won't improve my gaming skills or experience by one jot.

Well, I feel guilty no more. I also bought a laser mouse, but the solid, responsive Saitek gamer's keyboard is MUCH more helpful than the new mouse. And YES, I am totally having more fun and doing better at gaming now. The feel of the keyboard is totally solid, even a bit heavy - so you can mash and pound to your heart's content. It's also very responsive. When I need to shift to a new weapon or something (I am playing Battlefield 2 these days), BOOM - it's there.

Highly recommend.

Oh yeah, it's also great for typing!!

My only gripe's that the letters on the keys (or the tops of the keys themselves) aren't translucent, such that they are visible in the dark when the backlight is on. Sure, you can see the layout of the keyboard clearly, but seeing the letters however faintly would be much better.

I bought this keyboard about a month ago and I love it. I wanted a backlit keyboard, and was looking at the other Saitek (eclipse I believe), but people said the paint wore off the keys so that they didn't even have letters on them anymore. I found out about this keyboard, and decided to give it a try.

The backlighting is even and bright (or not too bright, depending on your settings), and the added numerical pad is awesome. 2 shift keys give you 3 times as much assignment than a normal number pad. I play everything from guild wars to first person shooters and having certain weapons/skills mapped out to those keys really helps. You can even assign entire sequences to each key (great for multiplayer games when you need to say sentences quickly).

This keyboard plus my Razor Diamondback (in blue, also bought from here) make an awesome combo, and blend with my blue-lit computer.

And anyone who complains that you can't see the keys...I haven't had a problem. Especially when its in front of my monitor. I definitely recommend this keyboard, esp for the price on here (I've seen it in stores for TWICE as much!)

UPDATE 1/14/2010 - It has now been years since I originally wrote this review and I'm still using the same keyboard. Everything still works, keys are still there with no rub off, backlighting is still going strong, and the wrist rest is still attached fine. I even did a full cleaning by removing and soaking the keys in rubbing alcohol, then wiping down the case with rubbing alcohol and it looks like the day I bought it. I'm VERY happy with this keyboard!

Another Update 8/29/2011 - Why not write another update since this is still going strong! I ended up switching this out for a G15 a few days ago, only because I would rather have the built-in macros on that keyboard than the separate keypad on this, but I'm keeping this keyboard as a back up. Still the same update as a year and a half ago: looks great, works great, no issues and I actually sort of miss the feel of the keys compared to the G15!