The World of Warcraft Zboard

After reading the recent review done by our own Richard Duffek on the EQII keyset, I figured the World of Warcraft community might be interested in a version of their own. This is now the third write up on the Zboard product line we have done here at mmorpg.com. You can read Craig McGregor's initial review of the standard $49.99 package here.

I am only going to be covering the aspects of the WoW keyset only and will assume all readers have sufficient knowledge of the Zboard or at least have read Craig's review.

Zboard.com labels the WoW keyset as limited edition and it is available at the modest price of $19.99. If most of you are like me and feel the need to go all out when it comes to your mmorpg fan experience, then you will appreciate this keyset even more. I first picked my Zboard up specifically for the release of WoW. I had been playing the beta test for quite some time on my normal keyboard, so I was a tad worried about the switch. I have to say it was painless. It took a little while to adjust but no more than any other keyboard.

My next "quality assurance test" was really more of an accident; I suggest you take my word for it: spillage resistance. Last night as I prepared the final draft of this review I conveniently spilled about a quarter of a can of Coca Cola on the lower half of the WoW keyset. My first thought was forget it; I will have to buy a new Zboard .

The Zboard itself contains the key matrix, thus it was not the WoW keyset that had me worried. That cleaned up just fine. I sprayed it down with some window cleaner and into the effected keys with a q-tip, air-dried it and it was fine. One of the many pluses of having interchangeable keysets is how easy they are to clean.

The Zboard base though however was another issue. The liquid had gone down into the base and I had to remove the back. The CTRL button was no longer working. What I found was different from most keyboards I have ever spilled into, the key matrix was a double layer and very thin. You could see where the soda has seeped into each nook and cranny. So figuring the board was dead I sprayed that down as well with window cleaner, air-dried, and put the screws back in and crossed my fingers. I am now typing this review without issue. The Zboard is as good as new, very impressive indeed!

Quality score is a 5 of 5.

The board sports well defined main keys with each letter and number in an old style big and bold Celtic font. The WASD keys again are clearly marked with arrows and your Q & E keys are marked with double arrows representing strafe. There is sticker overlay above the 1-0 keys and represent your F-keys and your emotes.

The WoW keyset comes with a special emote button above the Night Elf's head that when pressed you will see an L.E.D. light up on the far right of the keyset, alerting you that emote hotkeys are enabled. You can then press your F keys for 12 of the top emotes such as Kiss, Laugh, Cheer & the famous Chicken.

They labeled all the main keys for the default key bindings. There are also three levels to the keys. The main level with the majority of actions in white type, the next is blue type are activated with the SHIFT key, and the yellow type activated by the CTRL key. Like with all the keysets the board is programmable.

As for typing, it really does not change much at all. I forget that this keyset is in most of the time, and it looks mighty fine too. The split space bar was an issue for me when I first switched over but I soon adapted.

Those that own a Zboard know they keep their products updated. It was not shortly after the release of the keyset that they updated one of the hotkeys to take screenshots, a very handy feature. If the game changes, the folks at Zboard will provide a keyset update immediately.

Appearance score: 5 of 5.

The Zboard and additional keysets are by far one of the best products to hit gaming and should be the model for key definitions. I will never use another keyboard again. At this price at, you cannot go wrong.

Conclusion Score: 5 of 5