Thermaltake eSports Challenger Keyboard Pro

Thermaltake eSports Challenger Keyboard Pro - Performance

Details: Category: Input Devices; Published: Monday, 27 June 2011 18:00

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Performance
The board has an overall oval-shape and is a little thinner than most keyboards, which translates to quite a height difference from my SteelSeries Shift I use regularly. The wrist rest is attached to the board as a whole piece, which combined with a thinner design makes the board very easy to transport to LAN parties or tournaments. The modular USB cable and hidden slack routes under the board only add to the convenience.

The 30mm fan is a unique feature, it's not something I would have to have but I'm sure there are gamers who sweat more than I do. With inputs on either corner of the board, the fan has the potential to keep the WASD fingers cool as well as those on the directional arrows, or perhaps even the mouse. The little guy gets an un-adjustable 6,000RPM which is enough to feel for the left hand, but sometimes hard to notice when positioned otherwise, especially aiming for the mouse hand. We've seen 30mm fans reach 8,000RPM rated at the same decibel level, so giving the fan a little more juice probably wouldn't hurt. That being said, even at 6k RPM the fan has a noticeable hum.

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The keys lay close to the board in almost a laptop fashion, removing any key (made simple with the included tool) reveals a cylindrical plastic housing a membrane switch. Opening the Challenger Pro up allows us to see the entire dome-switch interface, which has a ten million click lifetime.

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The wrist rest does its job well, and the board has feet to elevate the ergonomics of your style even more. While I have been known to be a sucker for the vanity of backlighting, which the Challenger Pro pulls off very well, the giant glowing Tt emblem sticks out almost as much as the multi-colored profile indicator.

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Posts in discussion: Thermaltake eSports Challenger Keyboard Pro

Arxon replied the topic: #16372 30 Jun 2011 01:16

picture of it glowing in a dark room would have been nice.

garfi3ld replied the topic: #16373 30 Jun 2011 01:20

Thanks for the feedback we should be able to get that photo and add it to the review. The only problem with a dark shot is it really doesn't show what the keyboard will look like in person. Normally it will come out over saturated and will make even the dimmest back lighting look bright.

Wingless92 replied the topic: #16374 30 Jun 2011 04:54

Nice write up Adam.

Just wondering though, with the G15 pretty much king of keyboards why would anyone use anything else?

I do like this though. I just think the price is a tad high.

Lersar replied the topic: #16375 30 Jun 2011 07:07

Arxon wrote: picture of it glowing in a dark room would have been nice.

Yes usually photos without flash don't do the product justice, and flash of course defeats the purpose. I'll try to snap one for you though, it does have a nice underglow to it.

Wingless92 wrote: Nice write up Adam.

Just wondering though, with the G15 pretty much king of keyboards why would anyone use anything else?

Thanks! It can be somewhat difficult since keyboards especially are typically very similar in nature. Brand preference comes in to play I'm sure, and the mechanics of the keys are a big thing as well.