Yes, there is no "menu" button. Which I found inconvenient as well, but resolved it quickly by remapping the right "Windows" key to be the "menu" button". The "Steelseries" key cannot be remapped, but every other one can.
This is an absolutely excellent keyboard and I've been enjoying it since March 2018, and to this day nothing else to complain about it. It looks great, works great, easy to maintain (clean), software is awesome (and could be improved even more).
Thank you. that seems like a decent compromise, I do use left winkey as well as menu (a lot), but can't recall many cases where right winkey would be in use.
@E. Fylladitakis Some people (that includes myself) like and want the minimalist design, which still keeps full ANSI compatibility. I bought this keyboard especially for this, it has the minimum size for a full-104 key keyboard and fits my desk well. Other mech. keyboards might have extra functions, dedicated media or macro buttons, but they are also significantly BIGGER, and that becomes a problem for many people.
The position of the media combo-keys make it easy to distinguish between "Play/Pause - F8" and "Next - F9", since there's that gap between them, and these are basically the most useful ones.
Volume Up/Down are also well placed, at the end of Fn row, making them easy to find blindly. ~~ Finally, you seem to have missed in your article the fact that lighting can be controlled through the keyboard itself as well, not just the software.
Pressing "SS Key" + Print screen / Scroll Lock / Insert / Home / Delete / End changes lighting modes and adjust parameters (like color, speed) Even without installing the software, it's possible to switch to a more "pleasant" lighting, like "Starlight" mode. The keyboard remembers the last setting event through power-off, so moving it to a computer without the software installed is nice.
There is no need to try and justify your purchase to anybody. Every product has a potential market - if it didn't have any potential at all, nobody would bother reviewing it anyway. I am just highlighting what I think it is important, from my point of view. Readers are free to decide themselves whether the product fits their wants and needs.
About this however:
"Other mech. keyboards might have extra functions, dedicated media or macro buttons, but they are also significantly BIGGER, and that becomes a problem for many people."
That's not even remotely true. There are at least a dozen mechanical keyboards available with dedicated media keys/volume control knobs which are not even bigger than the M750. The dead space occupied by the company's logo would be enough to host at least dedicated volume controls.
Finally, that's a gaming keyboard and its target group is, well, gamers. I really don't think that a gamer cares about being able to switch to "starlight mode" without the software if plugging in the keyboard to another computer. I just never fathomed that someone would buy such an expensive keyboard for that feature. But thank you for pointing that out, just in case someone actually does care about that.
Sad how badly Ian Cutress has run this once great publication into the ground. Irrelevant, boring articles combined with endless keyboard reviews....ladies and gentlemen, I give you the result of liberal millennials "at work"
This site still does amazing work, including reviews of keyboards which are the most important peripheral for any computer. To make this site more useful to those of us that are here to learn and use it correctly, please remove yourself. I'm sure you can find plenty of low-quality "liberal millenials are ruining everything" places to spout your nonsensical drivel (try InfoWars or anything under the label of Fox News) and please stop slandering a site that actually engages in high-quality reviews and writing with a long history of excellent and truthful reporting.
"Sad how badly Ian Cutress has run this once great publication into the ground."
Hey, credit where credit is due. I'm the editor-in-chief, I am the one who's running it into the ground! =P
But in all seriousness, if you have specific concerns about the site I'm more than happy to hear them.
However as far as keyboard reviews go, I am very satisfied with them and intend to continue. They are a nice way to mix things up in terms of content, and they draw reasonable traffic and reader interest.
Sarah terra, you're clearly far too intelligent for this website and its readers who enjoy keyboard reviews, I suggest your find somewhere where your opinion and wisdom will be appreciated. /s
For the price it's not a bad offering, but I would rather go with the Masterkeys MK750 if I wanted a smaller keyboard with numkey attached. It's a bit more expensive ($140 ish the brown switch model, the others range from $150 to $160). The magnetic key rest and the incredibly comfortable keys are a mega plus, and it's very silent even with blue keys compared to other offerings.
But then again, I've yet to find one that is as nice as the old Vengeance K70 ( Corsair's new one is odd and not as good), although that was one noisy keyboard.
Set apart by software, how exactly? What does is do that any of the other 3 significant players in the space (Razer, Logi, Corsair) don't? If anything it's far less functional.
"SteelSeries's Engine software is practically the main feature of this keyboard." - aka nothing special here if you're not using Windows :D Apparently if not on Windows, you won't even be able to switch profiles (not that switching profiles works any better on my G.Skill keyboard with dedicated keys for that purpose).
The software really isn't anything special especially when compared to the level of customization that actual programmable keyboards (via qmk) have. The ability to map a single key to multiple functions via layers or tap dancing is unmatched by most offerings, since there's no tradeoff of losing your normal key functions while adding extra macro functions, without the need for extra macro keys.
I'd like to see a review of the Tada68 or other similar fully programmable products, if possible.
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timecop1818 - Saturday, September 8, 2018 - link
So hold on, is menu button completely gone to be replaced with their Fn key equivalent?wavetrex - Saturday, September 8, 2018 - link
Yes, there is no "menu" button.Which I found inconvenient as well, but resolved it quickly by remapping the right "Windows" key to be the "menu" button".
The "Steelseries" key cannot be remapped, but every other one can.
This is an absolutely excellent keyboard and I've been enjoying it since March 2018, and to this day nothing else to complain about it.
It looks great, works great, easy to maintain (clean), software is awesome (and could be improved even more).
timecop1818 - Sunday, September 9, 2018 - link
Thank you. that seems like a decent compromise, I do use left winkey as well as menu (a lot), but can't recall many cases where right winkey would be in use.wavetrex - Saturday, September 8, 2018 - link
@E. FylladitakisSome people (that includes myself) like and want the minimalist design, which still keeps full ANSI compatibility.
I bought this keyboard especially for this, it has the minimum size for a full-104 key keyboard and fits my desk well.
Other mech. keyboards might have extra functions, dedicated media or macro buttons, but they are also significantly BIGGER, and that becomes a problem for many people.
The position of the media combo-keys make it easy to distinguish between "Play/Pause - F8" and "Next - F9", since there's that gap between them, and these are basically the most useful ones.
Volume Up/Down are also well placed, at the end of Fn row, making them easy to find blindly.
~~
Finally, you seem to have missed in your article the fact that lighting can be controlled through the keyboard itself as well, not just the software.
Pressing "SS Key" + Print screen / Scroll Lock / Insert / Home / Delete / End changes lighting modes and adjust parameters (like color, speed)
Even without installing the software, it's possible to switch to a more "pleasant" lighting, like "Starlight" mode. The keyboard remembers the last setting event through power-off, so moving it to a computer without the software installed is nice.
E.Fyll - Sunday, September 9, 2018 - link
There is no need to try and justify your purchase to anybody. Every product has a potential market - if it didn't have any potential at all, nobody would bother reviewing it anyway. I am just highlighting what I think it is important, from my point of view. Readers are free to decide themselves whether the product fits their wants and needs.About this however:
"Other mech. keyboards might have extra functions, dedicated media or macro buttons, but they are also significantly BIGGER, and that becomes a problem for many people."
That's not even remotely true. There are at least a dozen mechanical keyboards available with dedicated media keys/volume control knobs which are not even bigger than the M750. The dead space occupied by the company's logo would be enough to host at least dedicated volume controls.
Finally, that's a gaming keyboard and its target group is, well, gamers. I really don't think that a gamer cares about being able to switch to "starlight mode" without the software if plugging in the keyboard to another computer. I just never fathomed that someone would buy such an expensive keyboard for that feature. But thank you for pointing that out, just in case someone actually does care about that.
Sarah Terra - Saturday, September 8, 2018 - link
Sad how badly Ian Cutress has run this once great publication into the ground. Irrelevant, boring articles combined with endless keyboard reviews....ladies and gentlemen, I give you the result of liberal millennials "at work"m16 - Sunday, September 9, 2018 - link
It just so happens that the majority of people happen to use keyboards and there's a lot of new offerings showing up.If you want to talk about drivel and politics, there's a place for you, fox is elsewhere on the internet, and it includes retirees.
imemerson - Sunday, September 9, 2018 - link
This site still does amazing work, including reviews of keyboards which are the most important peripheral for any computer. To make this site more useful to those of us that are here to learn and use it correctly, please remove yourself. I'm sure you can find plenty of low-quality "liberal millenials are ruining everything" places to spout your nonsensical drivel (try InfoWars or anything under the label of Fox News) and please stop slandering a site that actually engages in high-quality reviews and writing with a long history of excellent and truthful reporting.Ryan Smith - Sunday, September 9, 2018 - link
"Sad how badly Ian Cutress has run this once great publication into the ground."Hey, credit where credit is due. I'm the editor-in-chief, I am the one who's running it into the ground! =P
But in all seriousness, if you have specific concerns about the site I'm more than happy to hear them.
However as far as keyboard reviews go, I am very satisfied with them and intend to continue. They are a nice way to mix things up in terms of content, and they draw reasonable traffic and reader interest.
Ian Cutress - Monday, September 10, 2018 - link
What's been irrelevant and boring recently? Lots of investigative work and new launches, as well as extensive show coverage in the past few weekskaesden - Monday, September 10, 2018 - link
Translation: You're reviewing products he doesnt care about and apparently thinks everyoen caters to him.speculatrix - Monday, May 13, 2019 - link
Sarah terra, you're clearly far too intelligent for this website and its readers who enjoy keyboard reviews, I suggest your find somewhere where your opinion and wisdom will be appreciated./s
m16 - Sunday, September 9, 2018 - link
For the price it's not a bad offering, but I would rather go with the Masterkeys MK750 if I wanted a smaller keyboard with numkey attached. It's a bit more expensive ($140 ish the brown switch model, the others range from $150 to $160). The magnetic key rest and the incredibly comfortable keys are a mega plus, and it's very silent even with blue keys compared to other offerings.But then again, I've yet to find one that is as nice as the old Vengeance K70 ( Corsair's new one is odd and not as good), although that was one noisy keyboard.
dishayu - Sunday, September 9, 2018 - link
Set apart by software, how exactly? What does is do that any of the other 3 significant players in the space (Razer, Logi, Corsair) don't? If anything it's far less functional.bug77 - Tuesday, September 11, 2018 - link
"SteelSeries's Engine software is practically the main feature of this keyboard." - aka nothing special here if you're not using Windows :DApparently if not on Windows, you won't even be able to switch profiles (not that switching profiles works any better on my G.Skill keyboard with dedicated keys for that purpose).
numberlen - Wednesday, September 12, 2018 - link
The software really isn't anything special especially when compared to the level of customization that actual programmable keyboards (via qmk) have. The ability to map a single key to multiple functions via layers or tap dancing is unmatched by most offerings, since there's no tradeoff of losing your normal key functions while adding extra macro functions, without the need for extra macro keys.I'd like to see a review of the Tada68 or other similar fully programmable products, if possible.
discordaudio - Saturday, July 18, 2020 - link
<a href="https://thakoni.com/discord-audio-cutting-out/&quo... audio keeps cutting</a>discordaudio - Saturday, July 18, 2020 - link
https://thakoni.com/discord-audio-cutting-out/