Belkin n52te Tournament Edition SpeedPad
by Belkin Components
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List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Belkin n52te Tournament Edition SpeedPad
Customer Review: Sooo close to perfect..
Summary: 4 Stars
I used the original N52 for MMOs, RTS, and FPS games for about 3 years before it started to die. That's when the N52te came out. I got it and have since bought 5 more for my guildmates; they all swear by it.
First off, the Bad. The profile editor is a step down from the n52's. The macro editor was unreliable, and there were fewer 'modes'. And there was the issue of the diagonals on the DPad 'not working'.
Now, the editor wasn't that bad, it just didn't live up to the 'I like my programmable device to play the game for me' that most script-kiddies were looking for. It is intuitive and easy to use. It just fell short of perfection.
The diagonals on the dpad do work, now. The trick is to disable them in the N52te profiles. Counterintuitive, but it works. However, it's not as 'clean' as WASD movement, so for FPS games, there will be a noticable .1s lag when switching from strafe to diagonal movement. For MMOs, not an issue.
So, with all the above.. the N52te is still an outstanding game controller, it just falls short of the perfection it could have been.
The physical feel of the device, though, is perfection. The button press is spot-on, the Dpad is very responsive, the scroll-wheel is comparable to a high-end mouse's, and the device itself is comfortable to use for prolonged gameplay.
Some folks have complained that there aren't enough buttons.. There are 15 'base' keys, and 3 'modes' to play with. However, with creative keybindings and combo-presses, I've worked out how to have over 100 keybindings in just one 'mode'. Granted, this uses combo presses, but compare that to how many keys you have access to with your left hand on a keyboard, and factor in that this is much more ergonomic than trying to run one hand all over a keyboard, and I think the easy-access combo-presses outweigh having more real estate to cover for more keys.
If you would like to see how the N52te can be used with WoW (or an MMO in general), I have a series of how-to videos on YouTube showing how to set up the device, keybindings, and some UI mods so that the N52te is an integral part of play. [...].
Customer Review: For my intent and purpose (World of Warcraft)... fantastic!
Summary: 5 Stars
I first want to preface this review by saying that I have NEVER owned anything like this. I am not some kind of strange Belkin fanboy, nor have I ever owned any other kind of gaming keyboard or any other product in this line. I am used to using the mouse and keyboard that came with my computer to play my game of choice, which is World or Warcraft.
My keybindings were becoming to plentiful to map comfortably to my keyboard so I found this device and decided to give it a try. From what I can see with the reviews here, some people really like their N52 (non-TE) and while I can't comment because I have never used it, I would think that once you get used to the layout of a gadget like this, any change will be for the worse.
I have good sized hands, they have no problem with reaching the keys, I had to actually move the hand rest back to get comfortable... but once I did, it was PERFECT. I have so much more dexterity in my ability to reach more buttons than ever before. I had no idea my thumb could accomplish so much...
Unless you have tiny hands like my wife (who can't reach most of the keys) you will LOVE this thing... It does have a learning curve, I got used to it with my 42 Warrior and it took a few hours of playing for it to become second nature, now once I get on my 70, because I am already completely used to the device, I will have ZERO problem getting all those extra abilities mapped correctly.
The program it comes with is CAKE to use. It doesn't matter what you map the keys to do, I mapped every key to a random keyboard key it doesn't matter, I just mapped a couple of them to a function modifier key (Shift, ALT, TAB) and re-did my bindings IN GAME to get it all straight, took altogether 3 minutes.
Great product, great looking, EXTREMELY comfortable in every regard, and gives me more buttons for comfortable binding then I ever thought possible.
I don't see what there is to dislike about this thing, I was a little skeptical at first, but I have grown to LOVE it in the 4 days since i got it.
PHENOMENAL!
Customer Review: Ignore the hype, both the peg and the pos
Summary: 4 Stars
First off, this product will not make your game play better. If you thought it would, [you know the rest]. This device is, indeed for upper lvl gamers, as well as any macro programming device a person may need. So after I reviewed a few of the other posts, I'm ready to deliver my verdict:
A) It only has 3 different programs/formats that can be programmed-BAD, because you could do 4 on it's parent.
B) It's backlit for visable keys in case of dark rooms (which is normal for late night MMO gamers)-GOOD.
C) It's a Belkin product, grandaddy of the macro pads-GOOD.
D) Thumb button feels like squishing a wet cracker-BAD.
E) Thumb/direction pad feels a bit squishy too-kind of BAD.
OVERALL: It does what it's intended for. Folks will get used to the soft keys and I'm sure there's people who acutally like it anyway. As for other comments:
A) If you press a key it interupts the current running macro: Really? No crap? Pressing a key on the same device that the macro is running from will interupt it? I guess my question is, how long you been useing macro programable devices and found one that IS uninteruptable, for under $100?
B) It feels uncomfortable: First game pad?
C) New GUI/UI [or any other number of frustrations with it, enter here]: Of course it's new... Ummm, new [or improved] product is my guess. As a little extra info for the non-gamers; the UI was/is based on the Razer keyboard software/UI which, I'll admit is confusing to use, but I also haven't given it a fair amount of time to figure out either. Keep in mind also that this is the 2nd gen n52 in a few years...they're going to make some large leaps in difference and perceived improvment.
It's a good product and reliable replacement for it's predecessor. See if you can find a deal on it though 'cause it is a couple of $$'s too much.
Feel free to read my other reviews about computer software and hardware.
JACK MASTERSON
Customer Review: My N52te experiences
Summary: 4 Stars
I like almost everything about this keypad. It does everything that is advertised about it. I realy like the adjustability of the hand rest although I would have liked more adjustability than was provided. I have small hands so I cant reach the keys that are set up for WASD without moving my hand off of the hand rest. However, it was an easy task to reprogram other keys that I can reach easily into the WASD setup. One thing I don't like, is the directional pad. I had purchased this item because I thought I would be able to move my character arround with the D-pad in games like Team Fortress 2. Technically speaking I can make the character move foreward, backward, left, right, etc. But you really have to be precice with your thumb movements to make that actually happen, and in the "heat of battle" that just does'nt work well at all. To make the D-pad work I had to set up Macros for it. Perhaps I just dont know how to make very good macros, but character movement is jerky, and sometimes I have to hit the direction I want to go twice to make it happen. The D-pad does do other things well, just not the main thing that I wanted it to do. Having said all that about the D-pad, Macros in general work prety good. I have seen other people complain about the macros on this thing, perhaps they are attempting more dificult ones than I have attempted, but I have not had any problems other than getting the D-pad to work smoothly. The software was easy to understand. I have never used software like this, but it didnt take long to figure it out. I really like the fact that you can create multiple profiles. You can create as many as you like but it only "remembers" three at a time. the rest are saved on your computer ready to be uploaded to the keypad memory whenever you need them. So far I have never needed any more than those three at any given time. I would recomend this product to anyone looking for a keypad.Customer Review: This Gaming Pad is Full of Awesome
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been a fan of the n52 lineup since its inception back in 2005. I picked up two n52te a few years back and I still use them to this day. Since it is 2010 and this product is a bit old now, here are some things you should know about the n52te before you buy
- Works with Windows 7 32/64-bit (I have both versions, software on Belkin website installs just fine)
- Fully programmable macro buttons, including D-pad.
- Works with any game on the PC market. Especially useful for MMO games like World of Warcraft and is endorsed by PvP pro-gamers of it like Swifty and Arena Junkies.
- Profiles save onto the pad, so it is tournament ready for any computer you hook it up to. Windows 7 will recognize the controller even if the software has not been installed on a tournament computer.
Here are some cons of it, after using it for several years
- Macro speed is limited to .50 milliseconds. Some people complain about this, but it doesn't affect the fact the button is pressed faster than a human can smash a key on a keyboard.
- Space key feels flat on one of my n52te.
- Keypad has a tendency to "slip up" via the frontside. Had to tape down one controller to keep it form doing this. I play heavy-handed though.
- Will not recognize more than 3 macro presses simultaneously. However you can bypass this by adding simple button combinations.
- Advanced scripting is not supported.
After 3 years of using this product, I can say this was well worth the $[...] I spent on it. I can't tell you how much this pad has saved my hide in PvP games. I even bought the Logitech G13 when it came out, but I still use this one for its ease of programmability and button layout. Too bad Belkin customer support is non-existent. They should really try to support the products which have a huge fan-base such as this.