Saitek Cyborg Keyboard

Warning: This keyboard may put you in the "Christmas spirit" all year round!

Strengths: A LOT of height/angle adjustment options on front and back. The keys have a nice feel to them. Special plating on heavily-used gaming keys is nice. Backlighting options are superb.

Weakness: Spotty software drivers. Can be expensive. Macro keys feel cheap/flimsy. "Knight Rider/KITT" aesthetic does not appeal to everyone.

I really do like this keyboard. The keys feel solid and do not have a "mushy" feel when pressed. For me, this is a big plus. One of the best features of this keyboard is the backlight options available. There are five backlight colors available, green, olive/lime green, light amber, amber/orange, and red. There are two "modes" that this keyboard can be put in, normal and gaming. In normal mode,...
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I really do like this keyboard. The keys feel solid and do not have a "mushy" feel when pressed. For me, this is a big plus.

One of the best features of this keyboard is the backlight options available. There are five backlight colors available, green, olive/lime green, light amber, amber/orange, and red. There are two "modes" that this keyboard can be put in, normal and gaming. In normal mode, the backlighting of all keys are one color and brightness of your choice. In gaming mode, you can choose the individual brightness and color of 5 predefined sections: macro keys, WASD keys, arrow keys, num pad, and the rest of the keyboard. This is a very cool feature, but the only problem that I have with it is that the color options available makes the keyboard look like a Christmas tree! Don't be surprised if you start singing "Jingle Bells" while pulling off headshots in your favorite FPS.

The other great feature about this keyboard are the chrome plastic-coated keys. They have a distinct feel to them so it's really nice to not worry about whether your fingers are over the WASD keys simply because they do feel different. My eyes can remain on the gaming action.
The final gimmick of this keyboard is a touch-sensitive control pad at the top. Volume controls, media center controls(play/pause, skip back/ahead), Gaming mode toggle, and backlighting controls are all contained here.

Unfortunately, Saitek's drivers for this keyboard are not the most stable. My biggest problem in using the keyboard is that sometimes the drivers do not load on boot. This happens about 1 out of every 10 times. OSes I've used, and had this problem occur on are: XP, XPx64, and Windows 7 beta. When the drivers do not load, the keyboard is backlit but the color/brightness cannot be changed because those controls are in the touchpad, which needs the driver to work. Rebooting the computer usually corrects this problem.

Also, at seemingly random times when I'm not using the keyboard, the drivers just cut out. When this happens, the touchpad does not work and, for some reason, the master volume will mute. You just have to go into the volume controls an unmute it, but this is a really large annoyance. This has happened on all of the OSes listed earlier also. Uninstalling/updating drivers have not had any effect. I've never had these type of driver problems with input devices before.

I got this keyboard when it first came out. I am probably one of the few people who really like the original "Knight Rider" look of this keyboard. Despite the driver flaws, I'd still buy this keyboard, but not for more than $75. (I paid a lot more than that.)

I would have rated this keyboard at least 4 stars if the drivers were stable.

By wyndlpoons - Feb 25, 2009

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Testseek.com has collected 13 expert reviews for Mad Catz / Saitek Cyborg Gaming Keyboard PK17U and the average expert rating is 71 of 100. The average score reflects the expert community’s view on this product. Click below and use Testseek.com to see all ratings, product awards and conclusions.
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