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View Full Version : Z-Board Merc keyboard Review.



Jamie Nixx
11-29-2007, 09:21 PM
Well i was a little bored so i decided to do a review of my now favorite keyboard ever, the Z-Board Merc.

For those of you who don't know what the Merc is, its a gaming keyboard made by Ideazon, they are one of the most famous gaming tool makers around.

What sets the Merc apart from most is the unique Butterfly gaming controls on the side of the keyboard as illustrated in the crappy pictures :D

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/9210/dsc00539xg0.jpg

As can be seen the WASD keys have been changed into these awesome pads.

This is a pic of the keyboard as a whole, its about 3-4 inches wider than a standard keyboard.

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/3917/dsc00536xn7.jpg

And of the Hotkeys.

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/6343/dsc00538rt8.jpg

As can be seen in this next pic, the up down left right arrow keys on the right hand side of the keyboard as well as the delete, insert and end keys have been merged into one part of the keyboard to save space.

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/8888/dsc00537ze8.jpg

The disadvantage of this is the fact it makes the keys feel slighly squashed, but you barely notice the difference once you get used to it so its hard to take points off based on this.

Here is a pic of the packaging with Bioshock for comparison :D , as can be seen it is a hefty box, looks good though :rolleyes:

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/7503/dsc00541we3.jpg



A lot of people think of this board as a bit of a gimmick when they haven't even used one, i can say right now that for gaming, this board is second to none, the Butterfly controls are ergonomically designed for long gaming sessions and online CoD2 for 5 hours, my hand didn't cramp up once like it usually does with the normal WASD keys.

Also, this has made a big difference in games, much like a good mouse improves your accuracy, this will improve your movement 10-fold, moving around is faster, sharper and more fluid, in FPS games espcially and the brilliant thing is your fingers no matter how big or how small automatically sit on the keys, little niggles on normal keyboards such as hitting the space bar when you meant to press c to crouch or having to look at your keyboard to find the right button vanished within a few hours of playing.

This is a very smart keyboard also, it will automatically set the required controls for each game you play, so there no messing about everything is ready to go.

Considering this Keyboard is so cheap now in the US and UK for the price there really is nothing better, in fact in terms of pure gaming controls i doubt even Razer or Logitechs keyboards could keep up with this.

10/10, buy one of these now :D