Ideazon MERC Stealth Illuminated Gaming Keyboard

I'm a big fan of Ideazon products. I previously owned their Zboard, but had some problems with it. The Merc Stealth, though, that solves all the problems I had and then some.On the positive side of things, the keyboard is responsive, with solid keys and good action. A complete, full-sized QWERTY board sits next to a pad of game specific keys, allowing easy transition from gaming to typing without any problems. The back lighting is clear, with three colors to choose from, all at three levels of brightness (or off, if you'd rather). Unlike some earlier boards of this type, the lettering on the keys themselves is translucent, so the light actually shines through. This makes them very visible in dim light. A jack for a mic and headphones, a pair of USB ports and a few multimedia controls fill out the physical features.The software the board comes with allows you a great deal of flexibility. Using the software, you can build a keyboard layout profile for any specific game, changing what each key will do when pressed. You can just swap letters, or set up entire macros that will run on a single key press. A goodly number of pre-made profiles comes with the board. It's easy to use the software, and you can print out a sheet showing exactly what each key is programmed to do, in case you forget. The board will automatically switch profiles based on what game you are running.On the negative side, this thing is HUGE. It pretty much takes up the entire keyboard shelf on my desk, and is big enough it can be awkward to get to various keys at times. It also has no integrated wrist support, you'll need to get something separate for that. The software, while good, can be picky. In my case, it took a bit of work and an email to Ideazon to get everything working. And while there is a full numerical keypad, there is no separate section with the delete, home, end and page keys, they are all part of the number pad. When you have number lock on, you have a number pad. When you have number lock off, you have the various keys that surround the home key. That can be a bit awkward to use.Finally, Ideazon was recently bought up by SteelSeries. It remains to be seen what level of support SteelSeries plans to give to the older, Ideazon products. They seem to have integrated the products into their website, but it still might pay to be aware of this potential problem.

I owned the older version of this key board for a couple years (it still works by the way I just like new keyboards every couple years). The main difference between this one and the old one, is that this one has lighted keys. I gotta say, I am really glad I upgraded to the lighted model. I write at night, and sometimes I just hate turning on the room lights. The lighted keys are especially useful for web browsing or some other mouse-heavy activity that requires you to re-orient yourself to type... typically my eyes are adjusted to the bright screen and I can't really see the key board at night. The illuminated keys allow me to re-orient to the keyboard with a glance.The keyboard is solid, tight, and nice to write on. It is evenly lit and has that nice new keyboard sound. :)Also, the keyboard has two USB ports, as well as microphone /headphone jacks. These are conveniently located on the back of the unit so the cables are easy to reach, but won't interfere with the operation of the keyboard. The USB ports work great. My headset uses the USB ports so I cannot address the utility of the mic/headphone jacks, but it should keep many people from stringing headset wires all over--especially if you do not have easily accessible jacks on your computer.It is easy to switch key-illumination colors/intensity with a small button near the F1-F2 keys. One reviewer mentioned that this keyboard's keys must be closer together than others because he found it awkward to type. I found that the width of the keyboard is (backspace to ~) is the same width as the one that originally came with my PC from Dell. However, I also noticed a slight awkwardness when I first started using this type of keyboard several years ago... I suspect it comes from positioning myself in the middle of the keyboard--which is not the middle of the typing keys. The functional gaming keys on the left side cause you to be a little off center from your usual typing orientation if you center the whole system to your body. You will get used to this over time, or you can take care to orient yourself to the typing keys. If you write much, you will find you naturally adapt to this keyboard rapidly.There is one more thing: the keyboard is wider than a standard keyboard. This was necessary to add the functional keys on the left side while keeping everything else standard-sized. This could affect how you store your keyboard if you have a slide-out keyboard drawer on your desk. I have a standard-sized keyboard drawer and it works great for typing--the size is fine for supporting the over-sized keyboard and typing. But the keyboard is too wide to just slide into the desk. You will need to rotate the keyboard about 45 degrees to stow it in the desk's keyboard drawer. For many of us this is no big deal, but some people may want to know this ahead of time.I am very please with this keyboard.