ZOWIE Announces Celeritas Gaming Keyboard

[btarunr]

Being skilled at a game will only get you as far as your equipment allows. At ZOWIE GEAR we try to develop equipment that will push or completely remove these limitations, so the skills of each individual gamer can be expressed freely. Our current range of competitive gaming products includes mouse pads, headsets, mice and peripherals. We are very proud of these products, as we believe they have helped set new standards of quality and performance within the competitive gaming segment. The keyboard is a key factor in different competitive gaming titles, where response-time and the ability to move freely is essential to increase the gamers' performance. It was only a matter of time until we would put our attention on developing a keyboard; with that being said, we are extremely happy with the outcome of our new keyboard for competitive gaming.

Developing competitive gaming gear which satisfies a wide variety of gamers through different types of games such as FPS, RTS and Racing games is a challenge. To overcome the challenges, we teamed up with professional players of Counter-Strike (FPS), Starcraft (RTS) and Kartrider (Racing), in order to develop a keyboard which allows for fast and efficient usage. With special thanks to Abdisamad 'SpawN' Mohamed, Young Ho 'Flash' Lee and Ho Jun 'Ho-Jun' Moon, we introduce to you the ZOWIE CELERITAS.



As a competitive gaming keyboard, the ZOWIE CELERITAS was developed focusing on performance enhancement and functionality. The CELERITAS features 18K gold-plated brown mechanical switches for increased durability and pressure feeling, nylon key caps for a better comfort feeling at the touch of your fingers, and last but not least, a simplified, yet strong black design.

The primary feature of the ZOWIE CELERITAS is the newly developed ZOWIE RTR (Real Time Response) technology which allows the user to define the repeat-response of their presses to be 1x, 2x, 4x or 8x of the normal repeat-response for a keyboard when using the PS/2 connector. RTR allows gamers to gain a higher responsiveness from their keys and thereby increase the pace of movement in FPS and Racing games or possibly even increase the APM in RTS. How fast do you like it to be? We give you the possibility so you can define your most comfortable repeat-response.

With an actual response-time of only 0,2 seconds, the ZOWIE CELERITAS has the fastest response-time of any mechanical keyboard currently on the market. Furthermore it features anti-ghosting, supporting all keys through PS/2 and 6 keys through USB. For your information, the definition of a "normal response-time" for a keyboard is 0,5 seconds.

A lot of gamers are annoyed by the left windows key when playing games. Young Ho 'Flash' Lee reminded us of this, and suggested that we'd make another Ctrl instead of just disabling it. We were able to make it a function, so you can define it as either windows or ctrl. By defining this feature, RTS-gamers are able to perform multi-pressing and increase their reach with an additional 3-4 keys.

"When playing Counter-Strike, the ability to move smoothly is as important as aim", says Abdisamad 'SpawN' Mohamed and continues, "with the ZOWIE CELERITAS I can perform complicated maneuvers such as duckjump without failing. I play with 8x responsiveness and it works very well."

"The keyboard is a vital piece of equipment, especially for Starcraft. It needs to be very durable and responsive, as you need to reach a higher APM in this type of game than any other games", says Young Ho 'Flash' Lee and continues, "I have been using the ZOWIE CELERITAS for about 4 months and the RTR technology has allowed me to improve my APM. I suggested to make the left windows key function as ctrl and I am happy to see that ZOWIE has listened. This will help many gamers to avoid annoying mistakes."

"The keyboard is the most important piece of equipment for KartRider because we need a sensitive keyboard in order to perform swift and precise angle-driving. With the ZOWIE CELERITAS RTR technology I am only limited by my own reactions," says Ho Jun "Ho-Jun" Moon and continues, "after trying the ZOWIE CELERITAS for the first time, I didn't want to change again. It just felt like the perfect keyboard for me, and I won my 6th championship title after only 3 days of practice with the keyboard."

Features of ZOWIE CELERITAS
General functions

• 6 keys Anti-Ghosting through USB
• 18K Gold Plated mechanical switches and USB connectors
• Ability to change the "Windows"-key to "Ctrl"
• Multimedia controls
• Highly durable metal inner chassis
• Ergonomic design saves space and offer full comfort during use
• Connector: USB / PS2 (by USB to PS2 converter)
• Cable Length: 1.8m / 5.8 ft.

PS/2 functions

• Full Anti-Ghosting with PS/2
• ZOWIE RTR technology provides 4 levels of repeat-response (normal, 2x, 4x, 8x) - PS/2

Availability: Beginning of December 2010.
MSRP: 119,90 EUR

[RejZoR]

Looks very average and i hate high keys (i prefer the flat ones now). But some want full mechanical that is focused on gaming...

[Breathless]

looks like a regular crappy keyboard with an F9 key that has an LED on it

[JATownes]

No Backlighting = FAIL.

[newfellow]

at 90s this might of sure beat the keytronic, but damn this one looks bad with high keys.

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

I've never heard of the brand called ZOWIE, is this a name brand in Europe.

[Vancha]

This hardly seems like a gamers keyboard to me. More of a general use keyboard with some game-friendly features on the side.

[fenurch]

About Zowie - It's a gaming peripheral company such as Steelseries or Razer except it's quite new and it's owned or run (not quite sure) by HeatoN and SpawN is somehow related into it all as well.

The problem about this keyboard is that it costs the same (if not more) than the Razer's BlackWidow Ultimate and Steelseries 7G. It would be okay for Razer to set a price this high because someone will buy it but cmon, Zowie have been around for like a year. Nobody knows them so why would people get some 'unknown' brand over Razer or Steelseries considering that the keyboards cost the same? I'm sure someone will take the leap of faith but I would say if you asked 100 average gamers to pick a keyboard out of these 3 then about 80 - 90% of the gamers would either go for Steelseries or Razer.

[TheLostSwede]

PS/2, really? So they somehow claim that should be better/faster than USB and have less ghosting, that makes no sense at all...

Oh and they also have a really fugly headset, that's where I remembered the name from...

[SabreWulf69]

Yeah, will be personally getting the Razer BlackWidow Ultimate :-) Still very happy with my decision.

[Kenshai]

Originally Posted by TheLostSwede

PS/2, really? So they somehow claim that should be better/faster than USB and have less ghosting, that makes no sense at all...

Oh and they also have a really fugly headset, that's where I remembered the name from...

USB can't send more than 6 keys at once, ps2 can send every key at once.

Originally Posted by SabreWulf69

Yeah, will be personally getting the Razer BlackWidow Ultimate :-) Still very happy with my decision.

I'm looking into that as well, waiting for release and first reviews to see if there are any controller issues with it.

[Haytch]

I like the fact that this keyboard can handle more key presses at once compared to your every day Razer or Ideazon. This is becoming more and more an issue in half decent games these days and being limited to 6 kinda sucks (unless your playing 4 directional games like counter strike lol).
Other then that feature, i have to admit that i would rather a 1982 version, atleast its beige and would make me feel oldschool. The LED on the F button would annoy me and shows how little effort this company put into the lighting concept on this keyboard.
High keys equal more finger work equals buy another keyboard.
I wouldn't even bother testing this keyboard, its utterly useless for me.

Maybe it suits someone i don't know. One of my mates has an ugly 1980's keyboard that he swears by and when he saw this keyboard he was turned off. haha

[Wile E]

Originally Posted by Breathless

looks like a regular crappy keyboard with an F9 key that has an LED on it

Which is infinitely better than the huge, blingy, LCD laden, adolescent targeted typical garbage we tend to see listed as "gamer" keyboards. You can have all that flashy crap, I'll take function over form, tyvm.

Originally Posted by TheLostSwede

PS/2, really? So they somehow claim that should be better/faster than USB and have less ghosting, that makes no sense at all...

Oh and they also have a really fugly headset, that's where I remembered the name from...

PS/2 DOES have less ghosting, and more simultaneous key presses than USB.


By saying "18K gold-plated brown mechanical switches", I assume they mean Cherry MX Browns, or a clone thereof? So Tactile, non-clicky? And are there any higher res pictures of the boards?