Introduction

I would like to thank Saitek for making this review possible.

Saitek is an established company and has made a name for themselves with their gaming devices. They also offer chess computers and audio solutions.

This is how Saitek describes itself:

Founded in 1979, Saitek entered the gaming market in 1993 and since then has grown to become a major brand in gaming peripherals for the PC. All our products are designed by gamers for gamers, to help them get the best out of their favorite PC games.

Our 2004 range includes many exciting new products, as well as enhancements to our existing product range to improve their performance further. We’ve also refined our manuals and programming guides to make it even easier to install and customize Saitek controllers.

We pride ourselves on the quality of our products. All our controllers are produced in our wholly-owned factory to ensure that they perform to the highest standards today and for many years to come. Saitek PC Gaming – superb design; total control.

We had the pleasure of reviewing the Saitek Pro Gamer Command Unit not to long ago. The Saitek Eclipse II on the test bench now, is the company's current full size gaming keyboard.

Packaging & Contents

The very sturdy, full color box shows the keyboard with the red back-light. The image of the Eclipse II is rather large and should give the potential buyer a good, detailed idea of the device. The back features another picture of the keyboard and some, somewhat less exciting text in multiple languages.


While the outer box is quite sturdy, the keyboard is placed in an inner brown box. It fits firmly and the combination of two cardboard packages should make for trouble free shipping, even without an extra shipping carton.


The Saitek Eclipse II Gaming Keyboard is completely symmetrical, much like normal keyboards. There was no driver CD or fancy extras included with the gaming device - only a manual and a pamphlet with service addresses in case there is anything wrong with your Saitek device. It is good to see that that there are a lot of locations all over the world.

A Closer Look

I placed the Saitek Eclipse II next to a standard keyboard you would receive with any PC. As you can see, it is not much larger than the beige variant. This is great as you will not need to worry about lugging something big and heavy around when going to a LAN Party.


The most prominent feature of the Eclipse II is the variable lighting the user can choose. There are three different colors. The blue color is quite deep but somewhat dark, while red is a bit brighter. The third color - purple - is just a bonus feature. Saitek added this color by combining blue and red. This also means that purple is the brightest of all the choices.


The Saitek Eclipse II also has some very strong lights to the left and right of the keyboard. This is great, as it will shine some light on your mouse and pad during gaming sessions in the dark.


The keyboard comes with a removable wrist pad. It is made of plastic and simply smooths out the drop from the keyboard, so that you do not need to keep your wrists in mid air all the time, while gaming or typing. It can be set to three different distances from the keyboard itself, which should add to the overall comfort of the Eclipse II.


All the multimedia controls are located in the top right corner of the Eclipse II. The large dial controls the brightness of the backlight. The only other button out of the ordinary is located on the bottom right and looks like a half filled circle. This cycles through the four different light stages: off, blue, red and purple. The top middle of the keyboard has the usual three lights found on any keyboard. These light up in blue, no matter what backlight setting is in use.


The keyboard height can also be adjusted. The stand consists of two sizes, so you may chose what works best for you. Using the highest one, will yield the best visibility of keys in dark surroundings, while I found the middle to be the perfect fit for my typing style.


There are four rather large pads to keep the Eclipse II from slipping and the wrist rest also has a few small ones to support the keyboard. It did not move during testing of the keyboard.The performance of the keyboard consists of two parts. First the feel of the keys, the pressure point and responsiveness are the factor that can be compared to other keyboards. Second, there is the subjective opinion. While some like thin, notebook style keys other want they key go travel far, while having a very soft pressure point and recoil. We try to give you an objective look at what to expect of the keyboards tested, no matter what your favorite type of keys are.