Saitek Cyborg Keyboard User Reviews August 25th, 2008 | by Brandon King
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Average user rating from 18 users |
Obviously Some Bugs
by Delta on Oct 19th, 2009 at 2:40 PM:
Before getting this keyboard for Christmas last year from my girlfriend, I had a Saitek Eclipse, and although the LED on it is all but dead, it was a rock-solid keyboard that got me though the early days of WoW and most other things. The Cyborg up until now has been a pretty solid keyboard, the keys are fine, the layout is fine, and the macro software is pretty good. But as many other people here are experiencing, I've had keys die, starting from the number pad and going down the line. I actually decided to open it up and see if there was something to it, and surprisingly the two connectors that connect the actual tactile interface might either be poorly designed, loose, or both, as wiggling them around and trying the keys again, the keys work. My guess is that it could be just how all the wires are seated in there, I tend to push mine back and pull it forward a lot, so the main cable gets pinched or bunched up against the monitor.
I don't think I'd buy another one of these, might just find another Eclipse or get that tri-colored Eclipse, I don't use the macro stuff on it anyway, have a Nostromo n52 for that.
A promising start, but a total letdown
by Killertron on Sep 6th, 2009 at 7:18 PM:
I bought this keyboard to replace a v1 g15 which has served me very well for a long time, and took a hell of a beating before feeling a bit battered. I actually really like the look of this keyboard and reviews are very mixed, so i thought i would bite the bullet and try one myself.
Initial impressions were good. I personally had no problems with the (admittedly poorly documented) software, and once you get used to the macro software it offers a very high level of customisation. As a long-time WoW player and raider it certainly ticked all my boxes there.
The build quality of the actual shell itself is fairly sturdy also, although the pass-through audio connectors and the usb port are not very well finished or mounted; and become quite flappy after a a period of use.
My only real bugbear out of the box is that the keys really need a significant depression (or a good hammering for less patient gamers) for a keystroke to be registered. Perhaps i was spoilt by using the nigh-on bombproof g15, but it seems responsiveness has been lost in an effort to quiet keystrokes. A board that promotes, or even demands, ham fisted key presses is shortening it's own lifespan by default.
As well as a gaming board my cyborg has seen a lot of use as a general data entry tool, and as a long-term professional unix geek i feel i have given it a more rigorous workout than many who would need it for, say, general word processing etc. From the off i found it a bit clumsy and laborious when trying to bang thru large batches of coding.
It becomes boring having to sift through your work trying to find missed keypresses from the one time that you have not nailed any given key significantly hard to register a stroke.
I took to using a different keyboard for work, and this one for play. It all started to go really wrong once i had been using the board for a couple of months for this purpose. The feel of the keys deteriorated further to the point where it feel like you have marshmallows on the end of your fingers when using it.
The most commonly used keys developed a lateral wobble despite being perilously close together, which also results in the feeling of resting your fingers on a jelly when your hands are resting in "default" positions during raid down times etc.
Within a month of this time, 2 macro keys died which, i hasten to add, are almost never used as they were used for boss-specific macros that are rarely required. 2 of the cursor keys were inoperable shortly after, followed by the "d,t,m,n,p,l" keys shortly after.
After getting bawled out for wiping a raid due to a semi-dead keyboard, i vowed never to use this board again, and gave it a dose of ritualistic lump hammer action, so that it may feel the extent of disdain, before being binned.
To summarise: A visually appealing keyboard (if you like manga bots anyway), with some good ideas and a pleasant touchscreen interface, that suffers from a design brief overburdened with gimmicks, but lacking build quality or sustainability. This board is it's own worst enemy.
I am now back to the v1 g15, having found one on ebay for £20, and wish i had never left.
Cyborg Keyboard - A+
by Tim Davis on Aug 13th, 2009 at 10:56 AM:
Excellent keyboard addition for any Flight Simulator/Gamer. The programmable "C" keys work great IF YOU ACTUALLY READ THE DIRECTIONS and load the programming software. The default on the disk is to not autoload and many can't program the C keys because they did not check the little box to load the software.
Excellent keyboard, great for typing as well with very smooth key action.
The back lighting makes night flying a breeze because you can see both the screen detail "in the dark" and still see all the keys.
Highly recommend.
Don't waste your money
by Sean on Jul 13th, 2009 at 9:31 PM:
Just bought this 3 months ago and already the number four key has quit working. Actually I just tried to use a certain letter and it has also quit working. Compared to my last keyboard the typing also seems more awkward. It's like the keys are too close together or something. Anyway with 2 keys not working in just 3 months you should certainly spend your money on something else.
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Beautiful but the keys die early
by Pypur on Nov 4th, 2009 at 2:50 PM:
However... Ive had this keyboard for less than three months and two of my keys have already gone down the hole. As you can tell, my apostrophe key is unusable. At one point if I pushed hard enough, it worked. Now it's completely unresponsive. My h and g keys no long work with my right shift, which is odd...
For such an expensive keyboard, I'm disappointed that the keys are dying or just screwing up so soon.