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 - Saitek Eclipse II - Rock solid keyboard...Originally I just wanted a keyboard with back lighted keys. The Eclipse II model is a major improvement, unlike the Eclipse I, this keyboard had a solid construction. A heavier weight paired with rubber anti-slip pads insures the keyboard will not move under use. The keys are another nice feature, they have a good tactile feel and response. I highly recommend this keyboard for gamers. Rating:  - Decent but room for improvementI bought the Saitek Eclipse II after quite a bit of research into illuminated keyboards and have discovered personally that most of the reviews here and elsewhere are accurate. The good: Yes, it's a glowing keyboard. All keys are visible in low or no light. There are three color choices available. There are a variety of quick keys such as A/V volume, play, mute, etc. It's a reasonably ergonmic keyboard and fairly comfortable for typing or gaming. The bad: The brilliance of the lighting leaves much to be desired. Blue is probably the most brilliant of the three color choices and even at the max setting it's far from "bright." In fact, the other colors (purple and red) are barely visible. Many common quick keys are nonexistent such as browser navigation, power control, and calculator. Te ugly: No, that's not a typo. The "h" key routinely sticks. Further, the space bar uses a single central spring support rather than the traditional (and much more reliable) double spring, making "spacing" an exercise of precision, requiring re-learning your basic keyboarding to press the space key precisely in the middle. This is a surmountable obsticle, though on a $70 plus keyboard, it should be a complete non-issue. I have not had the keyboard long enough to experience the fading keys that others have experienced, though I don't doubt the veracity of that claim given the other issues I've run into. Bottom line: Yes, this is an illuminated keyboard. However, it is far from a GOOD keyboard, or even a good illuminated keyboard. For the money, buyers rightfully should expect much more than is delivered. Wait until the Eclipse III comes out, or look for one of the very few other illuminated keyboards out there. Rating:  - Excellent keyboard in general - lights are bonusI needed a new keyboard, and went to BestBuy to physically try out a few to see how the tactile responses were. I ended up liking the feel of the keys on the Eclipse II. It has a soft, quiet touch, and decent springy-ness to the keys. The backlit LEDs were a nice bonus, and are helpful at night. I live in SoCal, and it gets quite hot in the summer if I have the lights on in the room, so I often use the PC in the dark. The back lit keys look nice, but are functional too, giving the surrounding desk a nice dim glow to it. The paint on the keyboard and keys itself is gorgeous. It is a very nice glossy black finish, that makes me want to dust my desk everytime I look at it because I can see all the dust accumulating on the keyboard. The downsides have been mentioned before in other reviews here. A little pricy for a standard keyboard with no extra macro buttons. Would have been nice if it could remember which color you had set it to last, instead it resets to blue after each reboot of the machine. Other than those 2 small things, it is an excellent keyboard. Some people have reported that the volume/media keys do not function correctly in Windows XP. [...] That registry change fix worked for me. I've been using it for over a month, and am glad I purchased it. Rating: - GReaT kEYBOARDThis is a great keyboard. I tried the Razor Lycosa and sent it back because the backlit keys were very hard to read. This keyboard has very large, easy to read backlit keys. Great Keyboard! Rating: - Great Key BoardKey board works great. Just plugged it in and it worked like a charm. The back light works great and looks cool. The keyboard has a great feel.
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