Thread: A smooth sidewinder

Let's get out this out ofthe way right at the beginning: if you're a Star Wars (and Darth Vader) fan, you're going to buy this keyboard, no matter what. One look at the black hunk of plastic with the ominous red glow will be enough to convince you. The pair of big knobs just adds to its appeal.

The Sidewinder X6 is the first gaming keyboard designed by Microsoft. The Sidewinder Reclusa was co-designed by Razer, so it doesn't count. Old school garners will remember the Sidewinder brand, but Microsoft killed it off a few years ago. It has now been resurrected, and the X6 i"s a very good example of a gaming keyboard.

Besides the standard keys, this keyboard has six macro keys on the left hand side, four special keys on the top, and keys to control your media player. The keyboard also has an adjustable back¬light display that illuminates every single key. Standard keys glow red while the keypad and programmable buttons have an amber hue to them.

The knobs control the volume, and the level of backlighting. It has thick rubber feet to make sure it doesn't scoot around your desk during an intensive gaming session. A feature unique to the X6 is the removable number pad. It detaches, and can be attached to either side of the keyboard. It has magnets, so it clicks easily into place, and doesn't move once attached. This is useful, because the number keys are also programmable macro keys, so you can keep them near your left hand during a game, and move it to the right for more mundane tasks. Left-handed people will appreciate this feature as well.



Once the software is installed, you can record macros on the 30 macro keys on the keyboard. These can be saved in one of three save states, so you can, for example, have one set saved up for Photos hop, and another set for Crysis. A button lets your easily switch between three save states. The software lets you assign specific configurations to particular games. These custom layouts will automatically load along with the game they're bound to.

Macros can be created in two ways: You can use the macro editor in the software to create the macro before the game starts, or record a macro on the fly during gameplay. Both methods are simple, but we found recording during gameplay to be the easier of the two.

Cruise control is another nice feature. You can press this button, while keeping upto four keys pressed, and then take your hands off the keyboard, and those buttons will stay active. This is useful for repetitive tasks in RTS games, such as walking around in Oblivion.

Beside gaming, this keyboard is quite good for everyday use. It doesn't have any feet to prop it up at an angle, and the wrist rest cannot be detached, so some might find this a little difficult, but we didn't have much trouble adjusting. Typing on this is nice, since the keys provide a nice bouncy feel, but the space bar is longer than on most other keyboards, so you occasionally end up hitting that instead of the Alt key. Still, we wouldn't recommend this 'board unless you really have a use for the extra features, since it's a little too expensive to be a plain vanilla keyboard. As a gaming keyboard, this gets our vote. We only wish it was cheaper.