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,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Belkin n52te Tournament Edition SpeedPad
Customer Review: Fixed all the problems I had with the original
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been using the original n52 for a few years now and the only gripes I had with the original was the thumbpad was stiff and the keys had a generic feel to them... but evidently the thing was bulletproof (abused the crap out of it for years and it still works).
The n53te took everything about the old one and made it better. I was really happy they added the little extension to the Dpad because it makes it so much easier on the thumb. It looks a lot better, the buttons have a better feel to them when pressed. I've always bound shift to the bottom left key so it doubles the amount of keys I have (I play WoW). I was really impressed. It's plug and play. I tried using the software when I first got it but found it unneeded, most games let you bind the keys you want so it's just as simple as plugging it in then going to your game and deciding what keys you want where.
I guess the only con would be some of the keys. The ones around the thumbpad aren't the most useful. They seem to be at an odd position so I use them for mundane/unimportant tasks like view map and open bags; I don't want to have to stop moving to do something important. I would like an extra row of keys -- I just bought the logitech g13 to try that out (more keys) but it hasn't arrived yet so I can't compare them.
I've recommended this to everyone I play with, even lend it to them when I take brakes from the game hoping they see how much it helps. After my last break I gave mine away and now I literally can't play without it. It makes things so much more convenient and cuts down your reaction time. The way I describe it to people is Super Mario Brothers on the NES. Compare playing Mario Brothers with the Nintendo controller to playing it on a keyboard... it's frustrating and annoying.
Customer Review: Jumped me from 1600 to 2k in WoW on BG9
Summary: 5 Stars
This game pad comes with easy to use software, can run macros if you want, and has a perfect set up for the computer gamer.
My review will look at this gamepad from a World of Warcraft perspective. I am an average-skill arena player sitting at 2k mmr in 3's and fives since I bought this product.
The look and feel of the pad is presentable and even welcome on my desk: a sleek black case with blue back lighting.
It holds three sets of keybinds that can be swapped between quickly.
I use the left most row for shift and control modifiers, with the far left corner being tab, and this results in 11 keys, mw up, mw down, and middle button presses on the top of the pad. I use the thumb for my alt bind, which modifies and serves as my ptt. In skype, I free it up for an important in-game cooldown. The D-pad can be bound *very* creatively, and I have up bound as pet attack (shift up pet recall), down bound as fear (shift is deathcoil, control is howl of terror) and this is one of my faves. It is very natural-feeling. Left is strafe left, right is strafe right, and playing with a MX 1100 mouse, I have a few more binds. The dpad actually has 8 binds, but i have the corner binds disabled.
In my opinion, this product is more suited to WoW than a standard keyboard, far more comfortable, good looking, and responsive. It took me a mere two days to learn on it, and I was able to log onto other characters and immediately know which binds were which. I have 9 80's, and this a relief when I realized that my hand "knew" what to hit on other toons.
Great Product. If you're looking for a keyboard alternative, buy it.
Customer Review: Well constructed but software/drivers are the worst
Summary: 1 Stars
Right from the start I was very impressed with the construction of the N52TE, felt good on the wrist, the buttons had a good feel to them and the thumbpad-button area was a nice feature. That's where the praise ends. I installed the latest drivers and software from Belkin as instructed on the orange card and at first everything went well. I liked the three profiles that could be loaded onto the device, the game play seemed easier on my left wrist (I was using the factory keyboard w/my HP) all was well. The only beef so far was the profile editor was very tiny and hard to read, I have a 22" widescreen monitor and it was still tiny. I went to use it again about 3 days later on the profile indicator light was off and the N52 did not work. I unplugged and plugged in the device with no hope. I rebooted the computer and it still didn't work. I contacted Belkin support and was on the phone with them for about an hour and after manually deleting drivers and software about 4 times, it finally worked. About 2 hours later the buttons began "sticking" with the N52TE doing constant keystrokes, VERY frustrating when playing FPS, and the onboard memory kept failing. I unplugged and plugged again and rebooted and the drivers disappeared once again.
The next thing I did was start the refund process with Amazon. I purchased a Logitech G15 in its place and I cannot be more pleased with it and highly recommend it.
The product may not have been to blame but with quirky drivers and/or software it was never going to anything but an annoyance.
I am running Vista and that may or may not be the problem so XP faithful may have better luck.
Customer Review: razor messed it up BAD!!!
Summary: 1 Stars
The game pad is no improvement over the n52, some will think it's cool, some won't.
BUT... THE SOFT WEAR IS SO SUBSTANDARD (I want to use harsher language)
The software packaged with the n52te is so much LESS than what you could do with the n52 its amazing it sells at all.
The only reason I own it is because there is no driver or software support for the n52 for win xp64.
With the n52 when you created a MACRO you could edit the MACRO button hold and pause any where from 0 micro seconds to as large a pause as you needed.
With the new razor software you only have the choice to set it 50, 100, 150 or 200 micro seconds. So when I need a 2.03 second pause between button selections I tried to insert 10 ea 200 micro seconds in the MACRO and the program would not save it.
On a high resolution screen you can't read the program.
The bottoms don't identify themselves correctly in two ways, if you have ever used the n52 you would know how much better the n52 software identifies the bottoms. For instance if you move your mouse over the button on your screen or if you press the button on the n52 it lights up not only the pad diagram, it also lights up the key slot corresponding to that key.
BIG STUPID ERROR on the joy stick in the program the up or north direction is actually the forward direction on the game pad.
All in all the software is a undeveloped, worse than the original, piece of DOO DOO.
Unless you have win xp64 save your money and get a better product, the n52.
Customer Review: N52te a letdown
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought a Belkin N52 about 2 yrs ago and loved it. I used it quite a bit and when I felt like it was getting a bit long in the tooth I looked for a replacement, but the N52 was no longer being produced. I bought the N52TE expecting the same product with some cosmetic differences and perhaps some minor improvements.
What I didn't know was Belkin had been bought out in between products, and new designers took over the project. And boy did they botch it. The software was different and inferior. For those that enjoyed multiple key states...well, you get one less. The D-pad has issues, and macro functionality has been reduced. Basically their next generation product took a giant step backwards.
I will say the product hardware is improved. Ergonomically it feels great, and slightly better than the older N52. But banking on style over substance wasn't what I had in mind when I bought one.
I'd recommend anyone seriously considering buying an N52TE head over to Belkin's community forums. The forums for the N52TE are a graveyard of unanswered posts asking about (previously promised) driver updates and requests to have old functionality reinstated. There are more reviews of alternative game pads than responses from Belkin. It's probably a bad sign when a product's message boards basically serve as an advertisement for competitors.
If you just want basic, basic functions this may suit your needs. But if you're looking for an upgrade/replacement for an N52 I'd suggest scouring eBay to try to pick up an original instead.