# Saitek Eclipse keyboard



## RT (Aug 20, 2000)

Most people probably take their keyboards for granted, and use what ever comes with their system - generally cheap stuff that seems to ship with computer systems these days, and equally cheap replacements can be bought for ~$20 or less. When I wanted to change keyboards I did a little looking around, just though I'd quickly  share my thoughts about it.

The Saitek Eclipse USB keyboard, is what I bought, finally.









HERE is the Saitek link, with other reviews.

It lights up! Cool.
There are two brightness levels or you can turn the backlight off. Also cool.
Blue LED as the source of backlight, (they made a special edition with red LED at the time I was looking around). 
Built in volume controls, quite handy.

I thought this excellent LED glow would be great for late-night gaming. Hmmm...Unless the screen is really dark I don't see much advantage there. Gaming via keyboard, I mean.

I've had this keyboard since mid-November 2005 and I have to say there is more to this besides it's unique look and the lights. It has a feel that's different from the cheaper keyboards. I guess that's referred to as tactile response, and it makes a difference I can tell you, let's your fingers do the walking, sort of thing.

I'm not a typist in the classical sense, I have to look at the keyboard but I use more than 2 fingers , which is why I really didn't care for Microsoft's Natural keyboard that many folks use, I suppose it's ergonomic but I could never could get past the hump-split design. And no doubt that's a fine keyboard (much as I hate to admit it, Microsoft does seem to make decent mice, standard keyboards and stuff, IMHO,, or they used to).

Bottom line :
The Eclipse is a fine keyboard in it's own right. Excellent feel.
The backlit design is very well done, but not really that useful. For full effect you must be directly facing the board (pretty much looking straight down on it) for the backlight to work well, even on the dim setting. 
Most folks will have the glow of their monitor to illuminate the keyboard anyway. It's a bit distracting with ambient light (till you turn it off, the keyboard light I mean). 
The LEDs tend to "bleed" through the keys if you are not looking straight on, giving a sort of unfocused effect.

The wrist rest is rather flimsy, cheapest part of the package.

Without the backlighting, in normal light, the characters are very easy to see, as they appear dark on a metallic silver key, even at night with a desk lamp, or monitor glow.

For the finger feel alone I would recommend this.
The lights look cool, and are occasionally useful, but not really needed, however cool it may look. 

I'd be glad to take and post photos of my keyboard to illustrate, if anyone really cares 

I really thought that a new keyboard would improve my spelling, but I haven't found one that does that yet


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## halcour (Mar 2, 2005)

I bought a KeyPro keyboard about 8 yrs ago. It has 12 programmable keys on the side and they're a breeze to program. Very useful. I've always loved this keyboard. A couple months ago a friend spilled an entire glass of tea right on it and it started going wacky. I put it in the dishwasher, let it dry for 2 wks, and it's working fine again!

Harold


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## RT (Aug 20, 2000)

An update that mirrors halcour's experience

I just spilled a drinjk straight on the board...


30 min after w/paper towels, my hands are sill wet but it s till o works goo

.


:up:


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## jack8 (Feb 6, 2005)

I've been using the Saitek Eclipse keyboard for about a year and it is very good. Much better than the one that came with my sytem.


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## halcour (Mar 2, 2005)

This is my next keyboard. I'll probably get it in a couple of wks. Has 18 programmable keys (w/3 modes, so you can have 54 macros), backlit, multimedia functions. All the reviews on Newegg rave about it.

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=2166,CONTENTID=10717

Harold


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## jack8 (Feb 6, 2005)

That look's great . I may get that one next .


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## RT (Aug 20, 2000)

jack8 said:


> I've been using the Saitek Eclipse keyboard for about a year and it is very good. Much better than the one that came with my sytem.


One word of caution about the Eclipse...

Windows Update wants to offer you new drivers, but sees it as the Gamer's Keyboard (presumably the one halcour posted), and I can tell you they will NOT work with the Eclipse.
Well, didn't work for me anyway. 

It still lit up, but if you can live without keys like Enter, Backspace, Alt, Shift, NumLock, etc.


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## jack8 (Feb 6, 2005)

Can't say I've had this problem.


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