Saitek Eclipse Keyboard

I was looking for a new keyboard — my old cramped Vaio keyboard was the munged-up leftover from a long-gone computer — specifically one with a full-sized keyboard that can stand up to fast and furious typing. I type approximately 110 words per minute, and banging on many keyboards, such as the current Macintosh keyboards (an issue for me at work), means a frustrating slowdown, and even typos.

The Saitek Eclipse Keyboard is the sort of solid keyboard I was looking for, with a heavy weight overall, good “key feel,” home keys that can be identified by touch and includes a limited set of additional features. I don’t need a dozen extra buttons to do what I can already do with software. (I know how to start iTunes and Thunderbird just fine as-is, thanks.) The only additional buttons on the Eclipse keyboard are a row of four small buttons over the number pad: Volume up, volume down, mute and cycling the lit keyboard from bright to dim to off.

As for the lighting — and this was certainly one of the deciding factors in buying this keyboard — for day-to-day use in a lit environment, the glowing keys will likely be hard to notice. For gaming in a dim or totally dark room (I play World of Warcraft, among other games), the keys are bright without being overwhelmingly so.

This was an excellent purchase for me, although I know people who like additional features on their keyboards might want to get one of Saitek’s higher-end keyboards above the Eclipse. But for people whose desired feature set resembles mine, I’d say this keyboard is a must-buy.

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