Part of a gamer’s arsenal is his ever trusty keyboard. Steelseries took the keyboard and shifted it to a whole new level. The SteelSeries Merc Gaming Keyboard has a unique design dedicated to gamers.
If you’ll notice the isolated area on the left side of the keyboard, this is the gaming terrain which is composed of 34 dedicated gaming keys which is fully customizable. It’s uniquely shaped and angled to prevent gamers from straining their hands for long sessions of gaming. The gaming terrain takes all the frequently used keys in most games, i.e. the W,S,A,D keys, jump, crouch, action keys. It takes a while to get used to the orientation though, but once you do, gaming is a breeze.
Aside from the gaming terrain, of course there is the standard QWERTY arrangement in the middle. Media buttons on top and 3 hotkeys for a certain profile in the Z-engine driver. The SteelSeries Merc is a rubber dome keyboard, although for a rubber dome keyboard, the response is actually good.
The numpad is quite compressed and is combined with the arrow keys. I find this debilitating since I use my numpad when buying in Counter-Strike and other hotkeys for games like League of Legends/DotA. I just spent 3 weeks with this keyboard, and up to the last day, I still find it hard to get used to.
The Z-engine driver and software looks very basic and simple but it’s very useful as you can see there are game presets on the left-hand side. It doesn’t feature any of the newer games but I there is a community dedicated to creating presets for the SteelSeries Merc. You can customize every key on your keyboard according to your liking.
Overall, the SteelSeries Merc is a good keyboard if you get past the getting used to part. You’ll find the gaming terrain a delight to use if it improves your gameplay on any of the games you play. The SteelSeries Merc gaming keyboard is already available with an SRP of Php2,499.
SteelSeries Merc Features:
- Anti-Ghosting ““ Allows for 7 simultaneous keystrokes
- Gaming Terrain ““ Uniquely shaped gaming key area for optimum comfort and convenience
- Rubberized movement keys for enhanced tactile feedback
- Media Controls ““ Quick access to volume, mute and other audio controls.
- Cable: 1,8 m / 6 ft.
- Dimensions: 536 x 201 x 27 mm / 21,1 x 7,9 x 1,1 in
