Tt eSPORTS Challenger Pro keyboard review
Testing
Upon plugging the keyboard into one of my computer's USB ports it immediately powered up with an impressive red glow. The backlight is one of the things I really like about this keyboard, it's a very nice color and it looks exquisite in the dark.
To enable the keyboard's special features you need to install the driver from the CD (or download it from Tt eSPORTS' website). The software is very straight-forward, each of the four profile has its own tab and easily enables you to define up to 40 macros. When defining a macro, you press record and start hitting the keys. The macro is recorded exactly as you insert it, including key delay times, but you can adjust these if you wish to slow down or speed up the macro. One downside though is that it's hard to see which profile you're using. The keyboard uses a multi-color LED to indicate which of the four profiles is loaded, but it's hard to remember which color correspondents with which profile. The LED indicators are also very dim, they're hard to see in daylight.
Besides assigning macros, the software also lets you assign other commands to the T-keys such as "cut", "paste", "launch", "new", "undo", "save", etc. Once finished, you can upload the profiles to your keyboard. The software also lets you import/export profiles from/to your hard disk.
The keyboard's backlight can be controlled via the keyboard's light switch as well as via the software, but the Tt eSPORTS logo can only be deactivated via the software panel. The only extra feature in the software is a timer that lets you keep a track record of total gaming duration, other than that there's no extra functionality. Some gaming keyboard software lets you disable the Windows keys to prevent accidental keystrokes during gaming but that's not the case with this model, instead Tt eSPORTS opted for a hardware approach by including two dummy Windows keys.
During testing, I found the keyboard to be very comfortable and very responsive. The small travel distance between the keys takes a little time to get used to but after about an hour I no longer had a problem with this.
Conclusion
Tt eSPORTS made a nice entry into the gaming keyboard market. The Challenger Pro isn't perfect but makes quite an impression with its exquisite backlight and its rich set of features. The keyboard provides good comfort but the fan seems of little use to me, and some areas could use a little improvement; the keyboard has four different profiles for the ten macros keys but it's hard to see which profile you're using. What also puts me off a little is the lack of flair, I can't really put my finger on it but despite the solid build quality, the keyboard looks and feels a little cheap compared to some other gaming keyboards. Other than that, the Challenger Pro is an excellent keyboard and I feel we'll be seeing a lot of other great gaming peripherals from this firm! The MSRP is $69.99.
The Good Stuff
The Bad Stuff
DV Hardware awards the Tt eSPORTS Challenger Pro gaming keyboard with a 8/10 and our Seal of Approval.
Thanks go out to Caseking for making this review possible.
Added: April 18th 2011
Product reviewed: Tt eSPORTS Challenger Pro keyboard
Reviewer: Thomas De Maesschalck
Score: 8/10
Page: 3/3