The good stuff...
Ok, when I first sat down to write this review I realised that all I’d managed to skip over the notable features and for some reason I’d focused solely on the downsides of the Timber Wolf. Could this be that the downers outweigh the uppers so much that my subconscious was screaming for release? I think not as the Timber Wolf, aside from a couple of personal niggles, only really has one downer… so I’ll save that for later and tell you about all the good stuff first.So, it’s a gaming keyboard, that much is obvious from that bloody great gamepad over on the left, which replicates the key presses of the main board. So W does W, A does A so on and so forth. In fact, the masochistic amongst you might even want to try typing with the gamepad using your left hand… and good luck to you if you do as I found my self-taught almost-touch typing was all to cock… so the gamepad really is the reserve of the FPS game.
Click for larger imageThe next thing you’ll notice is the complete lack of a number pad on the right-hand side. This is to keep the keyboard down to a reasonable size… imagine a normal keyboard with an extra 4” strapped on one end and you’ll be left hunting for mousing space, so that number pad had to go.
This does mean that you’re left with a laptop style layout on the main keyboard with the delete, home, end etc keys lined up down the right-hand edge, which can take some getting used to especially if you type a lot on a regular keyboard… but then again, if you typed a lot, would you buy a gaming keyboard? Or, if you gamed a lot, would you be missing a typist’s keyboard?
Click for larger imageArrayed across the top of the Timber Wolf are shortcut keys for the usual stuff like e-mail, your browser etc. though I’ve still yet to figure out why manufacturers put these here. I mean, seriously, I spend all day in front of a PC and all I want across the top of my keyboard are controls for Media Player. I’ve owned a Logitech Elite for two years and I have never used those damn shortcut buttons once… but the media player buttons are great.
But hey, that’s just me… maybe you love your shortcut buttons, for those moments when moving the mouse is just too hard… so I won’t go on about them anymore, no, I’ve got bigger fish to fry.
Click for larger image