Testing

Methodology

Keyboards and other peripherals fall into an interesting category for testing, as your opinion on them tends to be very personal, as the mat, mouse or board has to be right for you, beyond having the specifications to do what you want with it. Therefore these reviews can be highly subjective so as always, please make sure to test a peripheral for yourself before you buy it.

However with that said, our testing methods involve using the keyboard over prolonged gaming and general usage periods to test its gaming and typing ability and comfort.

The games used for testing were as follows:

• Crysis Warhead
• Pirates of the Burning Sea
• Dawn of War II

Results

General Usage

This is a really nice keyboard to type on. Even without the tactile feedback of some keyboards, these Cherry Black switches are beautifuly to tap away at. They’re very springy and seem to jump back after you press them, which keeps you typing at your maximum potential. There’s also a very satisfying click clack as you peck away at the keys; its no type writer, but the audio feedback from the keys is very pleasant.

The weight of this thing also feels like it comes into play while typing. Combined with the rubber feet on the underside, there is no way that the 6Gvs is ever going anywhere no matter how hard you type.

Media usage was also pretty damn easy. They’re all within reach of people with small hands like mine and its easily enabled by tapping the key where the left windows one should be.

One weird thing to note that is taking some getting used to is the placement of the # and ~ key. They’re the same one, just one is shifted. For some reason its to right left of right shift, with the question mark pushed along one key. Not sure why, but that’s what they did.

Gaming

Trackmania

While there isn’t a massive ammount of key pressing going on in Trackmania, the little “tap, tap” that you have to do to get round some corners, does bring the 6Gv2 into play as the reaction time is that bit quicker. I can’t say whether I noticed the milisecond difference between this and a normal keyboard or if it was a placebo, but it certainly felt nice and responsive.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

Now here’s where the 6Gv2 should come into play. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is a fast paced run and gun game as are all the CoD games. While I don’t – as a mediocre FPS player at best – I really pushed this mechanical board to its max, I didn’t run into any problems and did infact play a bit better than normal. I also did my best to hit as many keys as I could in one go to test Steelseries’ claims that you can press as many keys as you want; well turns out they’re right.

Comfort

While I would have liked some sort of wrist rest (perhaps a detachable one like the 7G has) it’s not massively necessary. Keyboards like this arn’t for relaxing with, they’re for ass kicking. You need to hold your own wrists up or rest them on the desktop.

Ultimately no this isn’t as comfortable as ones that consider the weight of your wrists as an important comfort factor, but the keys are lovely to type on which makes a difference from many a cheaper board.

Cost

While you can spend up to £100 on it if you buy from the wrong place, the 6Gv2 can be found for aorund £70.