Hands-On With SteelSeries Ikari Mouse and New 7G Gaming Keyboard

Engadget recently had the chance to review some high-end gear from SteelSeries. While they may be a little on the pricey side, it seems that both the Ikari laser mouse and the 7g keyboard received favorable reviews. "The Ikari laser mouse they announced last year is particularly great, with a built-in processor and sensitivity settings to allow for a customized and precise sensitivity setting in a plug-and-play setup particularly suited to professional gamers. Settings are easy to work, and the actual sensitivity and response of the mouse easily outclasses our prior mousing experiences. New to the market is the SteelSeries 7G keyboard, which is making its debut on Monday the 5th. The keyboard is fully mechanical, with no-click switches that give it a much stronger, smoother tactile feel, while simultaneously catering to gamers by registering half presses. The keyboard weighs a ton thanks to the heavy-duty iron-infused plastic and the gold electronics, and is quite capable of handling abuse. We grew up typing on heavy-duty keyboards, and this is easily the best one we've used this decade -- though the $150 pricetag also makes it the most expensive outside of the Optimus Maximus."

Professional gamers?

particularly suited to professional gamers

Once they've sold to all 6 of them, then what?

Re:

I dont know if its just for proffesional gamers even if this is a market its well suited for. I'd consider getting one just for typing and the odd game. They did say it was rather quite good even at the say to day tasks.. I guess if they could get the pric

Caps Lock! Oh No!

The Caps Lock is still there. Why on Earth did they leave the Caps Lock there? I'm sticking with my happy hacking keyboard, with the much more useful Ctrl key on the left center.

Re:Caps Lock! Oh No!

You cant remap your keyboard? What, are you some kind of windows user?

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Well, it is a gaming keyboard.. I kind of took the Windows user thing as given.

Aikon-

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You cant remap your keyboard? What, are you some kind of windows user?

Yes I can remap the keyboard. I can't re-silkscreen the key caps though.

More importantly I don't want to have to fart around with keyboard maps in Linux, Windows and MacOS whenever I switch keyboard.

Re:

I can't re-silkscreen the key caps though

You bought the wrong keyboard then. Get yourself one fo these [thinkgeek.com] and never worry about it anymore. QWERTY, Dvorak, Gamer, who knows? Poke at a couple of keys and find out what's mapped where!

Re:

My happy hacking keyboard does what is required.

I'm in the market for a robust, high quality, compact keyboard with the right layout. But nothing has surpassed the happy hacking keyboard yet.

Re:

In XWindows, try this in xorg.conf:

Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"

In MS Windows, try caps-as-ctrl.reg [gnu.org]. You will need to reboot after installing.

For both pro and casual gamers?

Both of these products are obviously built for pro and casual gamers

While I can see "pro gamers" shelling out $150 for a keyboard, I'm not so sure about casual ones.

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Personally, I want to know what the fuck gamers are doing to their stuff where they need reinforced steel and a mouse with it's own CPU. Is this shit REALLY necessary?

I'm not asking that rhetorically, I'd seriously like an answer; the whole "Professional G

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Because "Hardcore" gamers get pissed and throw or smash shit. My old GM back when I played WoW was on his third keyboard after about a year. Nice solid durable keyboard will most likely be able to take a throw against the wall or maybe a good stomping on

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Personally, I want to know what the fuck gamers are doing to their stuff where they need reinforced steel and a mouse with it's own CPU.

I don't know about the mouse, but a heavy keyboard with mechanical switches is nicer to use IMO. Weight keeps it from

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Well there are many gamers with money that dream of going "pro" or just want to copy the "pro". While pro gamers will probably spend that much money on gear they are usually addicted to their gear and will not buy new one unless the old breaks. I doubt any

Prior mousing experiences

"...the actual sensitivity and response of the mouse easily outclasses our prior mousing experiences."

Well, that's a phrase you don't hear every day.

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Oh lord, a superiority complex.

Gamers bleat that 4000dpi is needed for that "uber" control. It's not. Not even close. The day any human being on this planet shows me manual dexterity with an object weighing half a pound capable of precision control to wit

Not sure how this qualified as a review

More like a cut and paste of a PR release. All I saw was short blurbs about "This rocks, you ought to buy it", along with some tech buzzwords thrown in. Not a single word breathed about ergonomics, how the programmable interface actually works, the details of the customizations and how effective they actually are. Really, the summary IS the article.

This is a slashvertisement if I've ever seen one.

L shape enter/return key and small backspace key

Just from looking at the keyboard I hate it already. An L shaped enter/return key and a tiny backspace key with the backslash next to it.

I've always hated the L shaped return key because it forces you to move the center of the key slightly higher...which is too high for a pinky. The large size you could say makes it easier to hit, except that most L shaped keys have terrible balancing so hitting it slightly lower or higher than the middle of the key can cause the key press not to register.

Now the tiny backspace key really gets me. I had a keyboard with a tiny backspace key and it pissed the hell out of me because I would often hit the key next to it since it was so small.

Re:

That would be a rebadged Keytronic Ergo series. An awesome keyboard, but considerably cheaper if you buy it with letters affixed.

Analog?

"catering to gamers by registering half presses"

Does this meen that the keys are analong and can be programed that way? or is it just another button that clicks halfway down?

The idea of having analog 'WASD' sounds real nice for pc games. Still 150 is too m

waste of money

seriously, "iron infused plastic and gold electronics"? way way too much masturbating.

Re:

It's not too much masturbating until you bleed.

Was this supposed to be a review?

This has got to be the sparsest review I've seen for any product. WTF? The specs say that it has a USB port and speaker/mic jacks, but did we get a picture of them? Did they even mention them? Nope, I had to guess from the picture of the connectors. T

Model M

Get it, use it, annoy your roommates. Seriously, I have 3 or 4 of these things, use them all the time, and only had to pay for one ($1.50, the rest were free).

a...men

/signed

The ads for movies and what-not is getting really annoying. I don't remember /. being this bad but... maybe I'm just new here.