If anyone have not noticed it yet, professional gaming brand SteelSeries has added a new range of keyboards in their products page, which includes the Zboard, Fang, Merc, and the Merc Stealth – check it out at http://www.steelseries.com/int/products/keyboards

Thanks to SteelSeries, I’ve gotten my hands on the Steelseries Merc Stealth keyboard. As far as I know this product isn’t for sale on the Malaysian market yet. Heck, even on the SteelSeries website the price listed there is “Coming Soon”. So I guess that a first hand review on this keyboard would help a lot of gamers out there to have a taste of the Merc Stealth.

Quoted from the SteelSeries website:
SteelSeries Merc Stealth Highlights:
- SteelSeries Z Engine enables programmability of all keys
- Pre-defined profiles for more than 150 games
- 3 color illumination options: blue, purple and red
- Internal hub with 2 USB ports
- Anti-ghosting capability: Up to 7 simultaneous keystrokes
- Special gaming key area
- Rubberized movement keys for enhanced tactile feedback

As soon as I got my hands on the keyboard itself, I can’t help but to realize the weight of the keyboard itself. IT IS HEAVY. I love heavy keyboards just because they plant themselves onto my computer desk firmly and with the help of the rubberized grip, the keyboard won’t slip or move even during intense gaming sessions (competitive Counterstrike games, you know).

Gold plated USB jacks are a norm in gaming hardware these days, so it goes without saying that Merc Stealth uses the same.

After plugging in the USB, the backlights of the keyboard came into life. As dim as they look in broad daylight (or rather, the florescent light in my room), they look REALLY AWESOME with the lights closed. The following photos cannot convey the least bit of gorgeousness the Merc Stealth actually look like. I apologize for the quality of the photos as it was taken on my Nokia E66’s 3.2MP phone camera. But you get the idea.

With a press of the color changing button, the backlights can be color switched between blue, purple, and red. I chose to use blue because it just fits my CPU blue lights. There’s another button to switch of the backlights though I don’t see why anyone would want them off, for any reason at all.Following the aesthetics of the keyboard, I continued on to use the keyboard normally without installing the Z-engine for normal everyday usage including chatting and typing word documents for a day.

The feeling of the keys itself is one of the main concerns of consumers when looking to purchase a keyboard. Instead of having a very mechanical feel like the SteelSeries 7G, the Merc Stealth gives a very grainy and textured feeling during keystrokes. This characteristic may favor those who like a silent and less clicky keyboard.