Ideazon Z Merc Gaming Keyboard

I got this board about a week ago I'd guess. To tell the truth I got it only at the suggestion of a friend. I used to be skeptical of boards with extra buttons that had to be mapped by a program. This product has changed my mind . The Merc board wasn't a bad buy at all . I picked it up at Best Buy for $39.99. For the price you get pretty good quality.

I like this board first of all because for a board that has both a full QWERTY keyboard and an extra 34 key gaming pad on the side. It isn't really as big as I was expecting, and its surprisingly light weight for its size. Over all the look of the board is nice also, with it's silver black and red color scheme . One problem I can say I have had is the placement of the USB cable, or rather ware the USB cable comes out of the board. With the channels to re rout the wire all have them coming out at the top about 3 inches form the center to eather side. I would rather be able to rout it out of the side of the board because of the setup of my desk (witch is tiny) so it can become a problem for small work or gaming areas but it doesn't present it's self as a large issue so don't worry to much about it .

The setup of the game pad works vary well for me with its larger buttons and slight tilt it feels vary conformable even to me, a person who has big hands. The slope of the gaming pad works in your favor also because anyone who has been in a long gaming session knows a keyboard that is to thick can lead to cramps because of the odd angle of your hand and fingers.

One feature that struck me as smart was that all of the keys on the gaming board are actually not just extra buttons that must be programed one by one . They are just a set of secondary buttons that are rearranged and set up for ease of play. This help a lot in customization because you can actually remap the controls in game and keep playing without having to restart the game. The program also auto detects this change and changes the profile for you, witch is a great feature witch makes this product vary user friendly

The keyboard, while not particularly usefully for normal computing. Serves it's purpose well in game. Nothing to special about it relay but having a full keyboard there dose help so that you are not constantly switching form game pad to keyboard as you type (If you don't have a mic that is ) As some one who uses the key pad all the time I do not like that the UP,DOWN,LEFT,RIGHT buttons are all meshed in with the keypad. At the top there are media buttons witch are nice for those who like to listen to music while they play . There are also 3 programmable buttons at the top to open aplacations . While I don't see a particular reason for this it could be of some help to some one i'm sure. All of this is fully programmable throu the Z Engine program included with the board.

I do like the Z Engine program . Its vary simple and user friendly. To use it you simply open the program witch is set by default to startup with windows. From the program list you choose your game and double click on the profile you want and its set up and ready to go you can open your game and play. Z Engine as I installed it form the disk didn't relay have to many games but a quick 5 min trip to there website and a small download(for the update I just downloaded a new copy of the program it was completely free) and reinstall it . It did suggest in the documentation that you do this first but of course I didn't listen to the paper and I had to re install . Any profile can be exported and shared witch is nice so that you can take other peoples without doing any work yourself . Don't hate me thats what it amounts to.

Overall in terms of ease of use and comfort the Z Merc Gaming Keyboard is a great product for not such a bit price. I would suggest anyone looking for a good Gaming device without paying a lot for not so much I would suggest the Z Merc Gaming Keyboard.....

Merdok Drake