Has anyone tried gaming keypads?

[Arcanox]

I was looking for a replacement keyboard because mine seems to be wearing a bit thin with me. Some of the keys have lost their feel and while looking around for a replacement I wasn't able to find any decent half-cap style keyboards. The only one worthwhile was the Razer Lycosa (Tarantula was too big for my desk), but it seems like there are several problems with profiles and keys becoming unresponsive and it needed some surgery on the device to remedy.

I started looking at keypad style devices, and while I might use it for gaming, what I really want to use it for is operating is a couple 3d apps with lots of repetitive, complex keystrokes. I was looking at the Belkin N52te, it apparently has keyboard macros, different binding modes, and it also has a scroll wheel on the device (I hate the intuos touch strip on my tablet).

Link: New n52te SpeedPad from Belkin Improves Your Performance for Tournament Play

Has anyone tried one of these Belkin keypad dealies, or maybe even the very similar predecessor the n52?

 

[DrSupey]

Wow. Looks very cool.

I haven't tried it.

 

[Arcanox]

Shipping took fucking forever but the thing finally came in. First impressions are really good, the thing seems pretty well built, plastic doesn't flex that much and there are several pads to support the thing.

The only problem thats notable with the design is that the 15 key is way too far back to use it for jumping, but you can remove the wrist support and it makes it much easier to get to. I've actually decided to use the button above the Dpad for jumping in FPS's, it's a bit clicky like a mouse button but it's placement feels more natural than a keyboard and seems to make complex maneuvers involving movements and jumping a bit easier to grasp. I can only see it being a problem if you want to manually Ski in Tribes 1 without a jump script, though macro support in the software can probably do it for you. The 15 button seems more ideal for things like switching keymap states, or it's likely that I'll make that into my voice chat binding for most games.

I've used the Dpad a little bit, but it's nothing fantastic. It's a little bit worse than the Xbox Dpad, but it's pretty useful for binding all your weapon keys. It's very nice to have and gives you 8 different bindings per direction, but it's not really a full blown joystick with sensitivity. All other functions seem rock solid, the little mouse wheel on the keyboard is nice considering I use a graphics tablet for doing PC work. All of the keys seem to be responsive and give a good level of feedback.

I still need to play around with the drivers, but they seem pretty good. The gui graphics kinda suck, but they're updating it regularly. It works pretty well and it's not much of a hassle for binding keys.

Though quite early, I'd say it's an 8.5/10, #15 button needs to be adjusted and the Dpad isn't a full blown joystick, but everything else is very comfortable and it seems like it's going to be more comfortable than using a flat keyboard.