Saitek Eclipse Review!

[x06jsp]

I know this is a bit old now but its still a good keyboard and i still love it so here you go.

Saitek Eclipse Review!

This next review will be on the original Saitek Eclipse.
Price at time of review : £22.99

lets start by taking a look at it.

here it is in the dark with the backlight, this is perfect for if you want to play game with minimal light!

the beautiful keys. in my opinion saitek has got the colour of these keys perfect! they look absolutely amazing in real life with the combo of the red behind them.

Build

As soon as you get this keyboard out of its box you can feel the quality of this product, even if it is made out of plastic.

The board itself is held together with 4 Hex bolts that add an industrial feel to the board. Each one of the keys is smooth to the touch and relatively quiet to use not quite as quiet as a laptop keyboard but very close.
the only slight niggle that i have with the build quality is the extendable wrist support the two parts that hold it to the main body of the board are quite flimsy and when the support is fully extended if it takes a knock it retracts very easily.
but on a plus note without the rests on the underside up the board will not slip on the desk thanks to the four large rubber feet but with the rests up and I'm pretty sure the majority of you reading this will have them up it is quite easy to jog the whole board, not a good thing for gamers.

Features

This board does not have many features and there are none really for those of you that like the media keys. But saitek have taken a leaf out of Apples book and have included 3 volume keys on the top right hand side of the board. Next to these is the light button that allows for high intensity, low, and off, the lights are also perfect for when you are playing games with no other lights on.
the board is usb plug and play aswell so there is no faffing needed.

Conclusion

price: 8/10
build quality: 8.5/10
features:6.5/10
usability: 9/10

overall: 7.75/10

this board earns a very respectable 7.75/10 as it is very let down by the lack of extra features but its score is brought back up by the build and ease of use and of course the light.

so if your looking for a no nonsense keyboard that also looks the part then the Saitek is a perfect choice. but if your looking for a board that is laden with features then you want something more like the Logitech g15 (£50) or the Razer tarantula(£60)

Josh

[phen0m]

Nice review.
I was thinking of buying this but I hate the enter and shift key.

[SXRguyinMA]

nice review, sweet looking keyboard

[Yeticorn]

Nice review.
I was thinking of buying this but I hate the enter and shift key.

That's odd, because I have an Eclipse, yet it doesn't have the odd enter/shift keys. That's really wierd.

Mine looks like this one:

[nevermind1534]

I would like yours much better.

[Yeticorn]

If I have one irk about the keyboard, it just doesn't have any media keys. When I'm in the middle of a full-screen app/game, gotta minimize, play, etc. Other then that, I absolutely love it.

[xRyokenx]

I have the same keyboard, the red one. A friend of mine has the blue but I think it would be sweet if they had a green one or multicolor LEDs so you could change it. The lack of media keys bothers me too... hence why I have Ctrl+Shift+Arrow Key for changing tracks and Play/Pause.

Nice review by the way.

[xmastree]

That's odd, because I have an Eclipse, yet it doesn't have the odd enter/shift keys. That's really wierd.

What we're seeing is just the difference between a us and uk spec keyboard.
See that third pic? look above the 3, there's a £ sign, and above the 2 is " rather than @.
That's the uk one, and the enter key is perfectly normal.

(the clue's in the price...)

multicolor LEDs so you could change it.

The Eclipse II has both blue and red LED's, and can also combine them for purple. No green though, but hey, we're modders so what's stopping you?

[SXRguyinMA]

the Eclipse III is out too

@xRyokenx, the Cyborg keyboard has media keys

[xRyokenx]

Ooh, that thing is sweet. Too bad it's over double the retail price of the Eclipse and it's too bad I'm broke, hahaha.