Home > Consumer Reviews > Saitek Eclipse II Keyboard (PK02AU)

Highly recommended, and the price on Amazon is more reasonable than many brick & mortar stores too. This keyboard has wonderful keys that are neither too springy nor too soft, great for typing, and great for games too. It's a pretty sturdy piece of kit too, and requires no extra drivers. So, of course it's main 'selling factor' is that it offers three different illumination colors - blue, red, and purple - and these can be dimmed or brightened. Worth noting is that the areas around the keys and the keys themselves are lit, so perfect for a darker environment. I like the blue color best, but that's probably the darkest, but I still find it's illuminated adequately. The purple color really shines though, and there's side strips that light up your desktop too. Very blingin'? Yes, for sure. Overkill? Perhaps, but I don't think this keyboard looks too tacky, in fact I've found it super useful to have a comfortable and durable keyboard for those late night gaming sessions.

I've been typing on various keyboards for 20 years now, and nothing is comparible to the old IBM mainframe keyboards, which had a great feel to them. I've hated every lightweight generic keyboard I've encountered, and this one stays put. On a whim, I purchased this keyboard from another site, at a great price. Well, my only regret is not purchasing another to use at work. The lighting is adequate if you're simply typing to the light of your monitor, like I frequently do at home. I wish it were a little brighter, but overall, I love this keyboard, and when the price is right, I'll get another. I prefer the purple, dislike the red, and can deal with the blue. When the computer is rebooted, it automatically reverts back to blue, which I don't consider an inconvenience whatsoever...

I bought this keyboard over the weekend and think it's great. I had been struggling for awhile to try to type in the dark while my wife is sleeping, so I finally needed to invest in a lighted keyboard.

This one feels great, and fits perfectly on my slide-out keyboard tray. The lighting is really effective and certainly makes it easy to type in the dark or under the light from the monitor.

The only minor flaw I could find (which is why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5) is the fact that while having 3 colors to choose from is really nice, the keyboard always reverts back to blue when the computer is rebooted. Unfortunately for me, I prefer the red color, which causes me to have to switch the color every time I boot up. I think it should have been easy for them to design the keyboard to "remember" which color setting you used last.

Regardless of that, this is an excellent keyboard and I would highly recommend it.

I'm not a gamer, but I benefit from all the things the Saitek offers gamers: fluid keystrokes, solid and weighty base, lighted keys.
Some notes:

-What are the keystrokes like? Not as shallow as a laptop, not as deep as the logitech g15 or the ibm model m. Its a very comfortable medium depth especially if you type on a laptop as well as your desktop, the transition will be refreshing but not disruptive.
Keystrokes and feedback (both tactile and sound) are very fluid; you'll hear a very very low-level 'snip snip snip' as you type; and you'll feel little resistance on the downstroke, followed by a solid stop (there's no doubt that you've pressed the key, therefore), and when you release, the upstroke pushes back on your finger (so there's no doubt that you've released). Not much resistance at all, the dominant experience is the solid stop at the bottom of the (medium-depth) stroke.

-As a non-gamer, I *love* that it has an absolutely standard key layout, with the two alt keys on either side of the space bar, and the two windows keys on either side of that. No suprises whatsoever in the layout. This is helpful also because I have a ton of macros in autohotkey, and I would hate to have to readjust them all.

-The lighted keys are obviously one of the bigger draws here. 1) they are *neat*. Would this keyboard be as special without the lights? Without the lights it would be a weighty-solid keyboard probably great for office work because of the relatively quiet and fluid keystrokes. The lights however push it over the top. Three colors, dimmer, can even turn the the key lighting off.

-How effective is the lighting? Effective enough that if you're not sure where a key is you can glance down and figure it out, even if leaning back in your chair. However when you lean back like that, the topmost row (numerals and symbols, including the backspace key) is NOT visible. You have to bend over the keyboard to see the lighted keys there.
What others have said is true - the purple light is the brightest; also, on startup it always defaults to blue, which is a bummer. It should remember your previous choice. Maybe in the Eclipse III.

-Media and volume keys are handy, if rudimentary.

-Someone mentioned that after a year of use, the keys wore down to the point where additional light was shining thru the center of them and one could no longer make out the alphabet marked on the key. I've decided to head off that potential future problem by buying a roll of "clear vinyl tape" (avail on amazon, few bucks; look for manufacturer JVCC). Take a strip, lay it across a row of letters horizontally, take a small sharp scissors like a sewing scissors, cut the strip to length. Then, snip the length of tape between the keys, and take a pencil eraser and rub/press the tape in between the keys. Repeat for the other 2 rows of keys. Presto, a 2-minute "keycap cover" made of vinyl- durable, cheap and replaceable. I dont know if it was worth doing, but if it means my keyboard will last two years instead of one, then thats fine.

All in all, even non-gamers should buy gaming keyboards - they're better in every way for a writer or anyone who types a lot. The logitech g15 even has built-in macro keys where writers can store their snippets of text or other useful things. I went for the eclipse because my macro needs are taken care of with autohotkey and I just wanted solid normal keyboard that lets me type in the dark or in dim light. This one was absolutely perfect. Love it.

What? Wears well in a little over a month of use? HAHAHAH!

That isn't a sign of wear at all! Try TWO YEARS! I've been using my Eclipse 2 for over two years with games such as BattleField2, Battlefield 2142, Unreal Tournament 2004 and Unreal Tournament3, Quake Wars, etc.

Please don't post that it wears well when you've had the keyboard for less than three months because you've barely used it long enough to even talk about how it wears.

I have seven keys that you can no longer read because the black paint has worn off of them! You can barely read the key letters with the blue light on at the highest setting. Red and "purple" allow for better readability with the "Purple" color being a bit more readable.

Other than the keys wearing out and the poor light transmission through the keys, this has been a great keyboard for me for gaming and other use. It's been over two years and I haven't had a single key malfunction and I use this keyboard a lot. Hours and hours of pretty heavy gaming.

I'll be looking for replacement keys.

I'd recommend this keyboard but I'm a bit disappointed in how the keys paint has worn off.

UPDATE!

I just got off the phone with Saitek customer support. The warranty on this keyboard is 2 years! I called and told them about my seven keys with the paint worn off and they told me as long as I had a receipt they'd completely replace it with a new one! It's an exchange. My receipt says I purchased this keyboard on 1/04/2007 so it's under warranty.

Not only that but they said that when I receive my replacement keyboard the replacement receipt gives me another two years! You can't beat that!

So, just keep your receipt and when something fails or the paint wears off, fill out the form and get a replacement for free! That's what I call good customer service!