On Our Desk - 16

Steelseries Wrath of the Lich King Zboard

Manufacturer: Steelseries
UK Price (as reviewed): £53.66 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): $57.99

For those of you that are unfamiliar with Zboards, here's the low-down on what they’re all about. The keyboard comprises of a base unit, onto which different game-specific key sets can be attached. The ‘Z’ in the product name comes from the fact that the key sets have two hinges which allow them to fold up into a Z-shape for easy storage and transportation. The model we’re looking today is the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Zboard, which comprises of both the base unit and key set. OK?

First things first; this Zboard ships with both the WoW keyset and a regular key set should you require a more familiar array of keys to hammer away at for purposes other than playing WoW.

The first thing you notice about this keyboard is the build quality. Those familiar with Steelseries products will have connotations of premium quality peripherals, but unfortunately the Zboard has a distinctly cheap feel to it. All the keys rattle around if you shake the keyboard and typing on them makes an equally nasty racket, like shaking a bag full of teeth.


More disappointment comes from installing the software required to use the Zboard, which immediately gave us an error message asking us to download a more up-to-date version from the website. The 46.8MB file took an hour and a half to download thanks to a flaky connection, but did install correctly this time round. The software is very self explanatory, if unimaginatively designed, and allows custom macros to be assigned to any of the keys on the Zboard.

The transparent buttons along the top of the keyboard are for media playback and applications. They’re considerably tougher to press than the rackety keys found elsewhere on the Zboard; a characteristic that is likely owed to the fact that they’re hard-wired to the base unit and not part of the removable key set that's the root of the rackety racket.

The number and letter keys are all labelled with their WoW in-game use in addition to their number or letter. For example, the O key is also labelled with ‘Social’ as it opens the social window when you’re in game. If a key has further uses that require the Ctrl or Shift keys to be pressed to activate them then they are also printed onto the key, which makes the whole thing look incredibly intimidating at first glance.


Getting even more complex, all these alternate uses are colour coded on the keys in blue or yellow to coincide with the colour of the label on the Ctrl or Shift keys. While it can look a bit formidable though, in use it's a very nice feature and quickly becomes very intuitive to use when playing the game, ultimately speeding up the process of navigating WoW’s interface.

The game specific buttons on the right hand side of the Zboard take some time to learn and use effectively. Different people will find different ones useful, but on the whole they succeed in making actions much quicker in the game.

The Zboard is undoubtedly an innovative idea and one that really comes into its own in games with complex control systems such as MMOs. If you want a high-quality peripheral for everyday use then this is absolutely not the keyboard you’re looking for. However that’s not to say that it doesn’t have its place if you need function over form.

Verdict: If you’re a WoW player then the likelihood is that you can see some merit in owning this keyboard. Sure, it wont be for more casual WoW-aholics, and anyone that wants it will have to deal with the cheap build quality, but if you like the idea of getting more commands keyed-up then the Zboard is worth considering even despite the shaky construction.