A keyboard is an important part of a good computer system and as such it has gained immense importance in the recent times.
We have seen more and more companies taking interest in this niche and coming up with new products.
Today we have one such products in our lab..
Presenting the Thermaltake Tt eSPORTS MEKA G1.
lets see if the product is worth the hype..shall we?
First lets take a look at the specification.
the MEKA G1 Illuminated offers a military grade cable that comes out of the back that offers the keyboard USB connection, but also a second one to connect the two port USB 2.0 hub on the back of the keyboard. On top of that there are also two 3.5mm jacks in the back of the keyboard for audio, and the cable has jacks to plug directly into the rear I/O or a sound card that is 1.5 meters long.The keyboard has no fan (who needs them anyway?). If you look at the chart, I think the guys making X’s and O’s were a bit confused or sleepy when making the charts.
Now to the keyboard itself
the box and the front has not much to write about…we should be more interested in whats inside…isnt it?
The keyboard is a two piece frame with the rubberized key caps encased in between.Under each and every keycap you will find a Cherry MX black switch, and that each switch has an individual LED attached to it for illumination.
the MEKA G1 Illuminated offers a military grade cable that comes out of the back that offers the keyboard USB connection, but also a second one to connect the two port USB 2.0 hub on the back of the keyboard. On top of that there are also two 3.5mm jacks in the back of the keyboard for audio, and the cable has jacks to plug directly into the rear I/O or a sound card that is 1.5 meters long.The keyboard has no fan (who needs them anyway?).
Whats with all the keys?
Nearly all keyboards sold bundled with computers or at retail stores use rubber domes under their keys. This is the same technology they use in TV remotes. They’re made to be as cheap as possible to manufacture in order to make more profits.
now mechanical keys are real, physical switches underneath the keys to decide when the user has pushed a key to register the input.So the user doesn’t bottoms out which in turn causes less fatigue.
here’s a list off all the cherry MX keys and a few more info about them.
| Cherry MX switch type |
Feedback | Actuation force |
Bottom-out force |
| Red | Linear | 45 g | 60 g |
| Brown | Tactile | 45 g | 60 g |
| Blue | Tactile | 50 g | 65 g |
| Black | Linear | 60 g | 80 g |
| Green | Tactile | 80 g | 105 g |
Among all these five types Black is considered the best for gaming and as such is used in high end gaming keyboards.
i have used the keyboard for the past one week now and i must say am impressed. the keyboard needs a bit of time to getting used too and as the keys start to loosed up i see lesser effort to kill the keyboards.
Now with that aside lets dive into the last words..shall we?
The keyboard is typist’s delight and an FPS players dream;that aside the more hardcore gamers like RTS or MMO players might find the lack of macro disturbing,so that’s a downer.
Apart from the while the only Red back lighting while aesthetically matches the keyboard restrains the user from having any variety. Coming from a near 10K keyboard i expect more.
Apart from that the USB port works fine..have enough juice to power my mouse and a USB hub.The audio port also works but mind you the audio is going to be as good as the on board sound is.
So all in all a decent keyboard which needs a few tweaks and addition to make it a perfect “gamers” keyboard..as of now it caters mainly to FPS crowd.
overall an 7.5/10 from me. A perfect keyboard for anyone who looks for typing pleasure and FPS gaming and marvelous design. It just need a few tweaks to make it perfect.
A big thanks to Tirupati Enterprise for helping me out with the sample.