Wolfking Warrior XXtreme Gaming Keyboard

Usage – Gaming

Well since this is a gaming keyboard, I’ll start by reporting on how it copes in a game environment. I tested the Warrior XXtreme in Counterstrike Source and Unreal Tournament.

The first thing I found was how comfortable my hand felt on the keyboard. It seemed to fit very nicely. It really is amazing when using the keyboard to have all of your buttons within easy reach, and also to never have to look where you are reaching, as most of the buttons are big enough to press, without hitting others as well. I say most of them, as I feel that perhaps the buttons pressed by your little finger could have been slightly larger, as these were the only ones I had problems with, and after extended use began to find using these keys uncomfortable.

The vertical space bar is fantastic, and I particularly like the placement of the O and B keys, which I ended up binding to throw grenades, as I felt they were wasted when being used only to access the buy menu.

The keys themselves are quiet, and soft to press, yet still feel robust. You can tell a lot of thought has gone into the design of these keys, and rightly so, since they are obviously the most important part of the product.

I expect this keyboard would also be extremely useful in RPG’s, because although the action may not be as fast paced, these games often have binds for most letters on a keyboard, and having access to all of these with 1 hand would be very useful.

So overall, for gaming the Warrior XXtreme would definitely be a good investment for a serious gamer, especially those who find themselves looking down at the keyboard when pressing certain keys, or have to move their hand away from WASD to perform certain tasks.

 
Usage – Typing

When I first saw this keyboard I was extremely interested to see how I would cope when I was forced to type on it. I would love to say that I’ve written this whole review on it, and although it looks daunting, it’s actually quite easy to master…however this is just not true.

I think that 1 handed typing would be brilliant, but there are a few problems which prohibit the Warrior XXtreme from allowing this to happen.

Firstly, I had no idea where each key was. Even though it follows a basic QWERTY pattern (as mentioned earlier, the right hand side of a QWERTY keyboard is on the bottom of the left hand side here), I still could not master typing quickly and efficiently, and was reminded of how painful it is watching my Dad type, as he raises a solitary finger above the keyboard and circles it looking for that oh so elusive P key.

I am sure that with time, somebody could learn to master 1 hand typing with this keyboard, however I neither had the time nor patience, and I doubt that many of you will either. The keyboard also lacks many buttons such as page up/down, scroll lock, insert, print screen, home and end, and while these may not be the most vital keys, you can’t help but feel you are missing out on something for your money.

Another major problem however, is the lack of a shift key on the right hand disc. It cannot be truly 1 handed typing if you have to reach over every time you wish to insert a capital letter. There is a caps lock key at the top of the right disc, but that isnt ideal, and there isn’t even a caps lock light.

Like many gamers, I often proceed things I say with a smiley face :). I found that when typing with the Warrior XXtreme, I had to press shift on the left disc, the colon is on the right disc, and the close bracket symbol is back on the left disc. It certainly wasn’t an easy task to carry out.

The right disc could probably be used for simple IM messages without much trouble, but there is absolutely no way that this keyboard could be used for any sort of serious typing outside of a game.

My other qualm with the Warrior XXtreme is that it lacks any media buttons, or any macro buttons. Almost every other “gaming” keyboard available has programmable macro keys, and I think that it is a must for a serious gamer. Although the absence of these functions means that the keyboard requires no extra drivers, I’m sure a lot of users would like to see these features included. Personally I think using the right half of the keyboard for this, would have been a better option than the alternative set of keys.