Thermaltake Meka G-Unit Review

Thermaltake Meka G-Unit Keyboard.

We’ve gone gaming mad this past week with a bunch of gaming gear being reviewed and this week seems to fair no less! Today I got my hands on a TteSports Meka G-Unit Mechanical Gaming Keyboard. I must say this will be my first real test run at a mechanical keyboard so it has a fair bit to prove to someone who’s used to good ol’ fashioned keyboards.

Let’s take a look at what Thermaltake claims it can do!

·         Tt. Breakaway Gold-Plated USB Connection Cable (2 Meters in Length) ·         Audio/Microphone Jacks Onboard ·         7 Easy Access Multimedia Keys ·         60 Macro Keys across 3 Profiles ·         Tt Game Mode Option (Disables Windows Key) ·         Authentic Cherry Black Mechanical Key Switches ·         Selective Backlighting ·         Cable Management Slots Located on the Bottom of the Keyboard ·         64KB Onboard Memory ·         1000 Hz Polling Rate Limit ·         Detachable Wrist Rest for Maximum Comfort ·         50 Million Keystroke Lifespan ·         2 Onboard USB Hubs ·         USB to PS2 Adapter included Body dimensions (LxWxH): 430x160x40mm

That’s a fair bit of stuff for a keyboard, but what a keyboard it is! Packaging was in true Thermaltake spirit, sticking with their red and charcoal black colour scheme. The TteSports logo, which looks like a dragon (correct me if I’m wrong on that) is also prominent throughout the design of both, the packaging and the unit itself. Within the packaging you’ll find the keyboard itself, a velour bag with the gold plated and braided USB cable, a Velcro bag for the keyboard and a detachable wrist rest.

The unit is extremely solid piece of engineering. It is the heaviest keyboard I have ever found, and can easily be used as a Melee weapon at your local LAN (Centre Com does not condone violence with a keyboard). It’s about 3kg, for a keyboard, that’s as heavy as most monitors. Be warned, once you plant the keyboard on your desk, that’s it, takes such an effort to move it again. It sits ridiculously firm on the desk which is handy when gaming as you wouldn’t want the keyboard moving around.

The front of the keyboard has USB inputs to connect it to your computer along with 2x extra USB inputs that give you quick access to USB ports, and audio input and outputs. The audio inputs I must say lose a decent amount of quality. As an audiophile I wasn’t impressed with the output and I think Thermaltake could have designed the keyboard without them.

The layout of the keyboard is quite conventional with the addition of 12 Macro keys on the left hand side, profile switches are located above the ESC key, and on the right hand side you have additional volume control keys and media player functions. Important gaming keys have illuminated letters. Keys like W, A, S, D, Space, Arrow Keys, Num Lock and when pressed, Caps Lock, all have their own lighting effect. The lights are bright enough to be noticed in the daylight and strong enough in the dark to provide a solid key light. Overall it works very well and is designed for gamers.

Let’s talk mechanical now. As this is my first time using a mechanical keyboard I think I can give it a good unbiased opinion. First things first, mechanical keyboards are loud. Well not loud, but louder than your normal keyboards when pressing keys. The space bar especially seems to have a decent switch on it being the noisiest. Using the keyboard however was something really unusual, it’s like the transition from ball mouse to laser mouses. You know how it works, you know how to use it, but it feels like something completely different. The responsiveness while typing this review up was quite incredible. At times I would just touch the key and notice I’ve finished spelling the word correctly. It picks up key presses very well. However, this isn’t a keyboard to be typing long essays on. It just looks too cool and funky to be seen under the sweaty palms of a university student trying to push out a 2000 word essay the night before it’s due. It would look way cooler in the hand of a hardcore gamer that looks forward to the weekend so they can enjoy a good 72hours of gaming!

 

Which leads to gaming on the keyboard.  Using the keyboard on MW3 was quite comfortable and fun. I could easily reach all keys and shortcuts, and if you’re really into your gaming, you can program the macro keys to the left to do simple commands. Keys were very responsive and didn’t lag at all and I loved being able to just touch a key to action it. Unlike other keyboards I didn’t have to slam the key down as hard as possible to activate it. It was just smooth and controlling the player was just easy as can be.

The software which comes with the keyboard could have used a better UI. It screams Thermaltake branding but it looks very cluttered and chunky. A more streamlined and simply UI would have been more beneficial. The software allows you to pretty much change whatever you need on your keyboard and assign your macro's.

 

Overall, for what you pay for, you get an unbelievably well-built keyboard that is solid from every key through to the guts of the keyboard. Gamers will joy to the gaming functions and appreciate the attention to gamers Thermaltake have put in. 

By Sahin Selvi
sahin.s@centrecom.com.au

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