Belkin Nostromo Speedpad n52 review:4 stars (Excellent macroing, good ergonomics, sticky keys) - I've used this controller in several games now, including first-person shooters, real-time strategy, and third-person MMOGs, and while it offers some excellent features for each, it's not without its drawbacks.

The first thing you'll likely notice is the key actions; they're much stiffer than on most keyboards, and require a bit more effort to trigger than you might be used to. Unless you're on a rock steady surface (i.e. not your lap), this can lead to the pad registering a 'double tap', often problematic. Even with the handrest adjustment, there's limited access to multiple keys at once. The thumb bar, in particular, makes you move your hand in such a way that the other keys are difficult to get to. It definitely takes getting used to; it'll probably take you an hour or so of tweaking to find a key setup you like, and another few hours to get used to it such that its as second nature as your keyboard is.

So that's the bad. Here's the good. Once you have a good key setup and get used to the stiffness of the keys, it's definitely a large step above a normal keyboard, both in speed and ergonomic. You have everything right at your fingertips, and never have to glance away from the screen to see where that key you need is. The setup program for defining bindings is extremely user-friendly and intuitive, and makes swapping between different sets of bindings very quick and painless.

And then there's the macros. Oh yes. This is where the gamepad really has a leg up on everything else. Using the same quick and easy binding editor, you can set up a huge list of commands to be fired off with a single button press. Timings can be established (i.e. press C, wait 2.2 seconds, press D, wait 0.05 seconds, press E), and I have yet to hit a functional limit to the length of a macro you can record. Plus, while the macro is firing, you can be doing something else. It's insanely handy, especially for RTS and MMO games, and becomes more and more useful the more you play with it. If you're a competetive player, you might not want to use it for the simple reason that it's easy to become dependent on it. It's a hardware advantage, not a skill one, so ethically maybe a little fuzzy also.

Bottom line: a bit of setup time required to define keybindings, and a bit of a learning curve for basic use, but once you get past that, it's an excellent controller.5 stars (Nostromo n52) - This is my third Speedpad (an n50 and a 1st n52). I use them for 1st person shooter games. An excellent device.5 stars (Love it! Despite the size...) - Now the actual unit itself is nicely compact. On a pretty small keyboard tray I've got a Microsoft Wireless media keyboard and mouse combo (pretty hefty in size) and it fits quite snugly.

But for the girl gamers out there with small hands - It's pretty rough to get a good fit. I've already felt some strain trying to use the D-Pad in conjuction with the top left buttons (poor pinky!). And the 15th button under the thumb? Ya, I don't even try to hit it without taking the rest of my fingers away from the keypad. To help, I've removed the handrest completely from this unit. Looks a little funny but feels better overall.

Playing a various amount of MMO's pretty regularly, this immediately caught my eye. And after playing WoW on a PvP server, it was almost a neccesity. Having already preset my keys to my keyboard, it was pretty frustrating to get used to the changes, but even fumbling through my keys I could tell the huge improvement of difference. It's gonna take some time to fully adjust, but that should be expected when you completely change you're set up mid game.

The unit is sturdy, versatile, and compact. The keys don't stick with me, they feel great. The alt key is wonderful to have, altho nearly impossible to use with certain keys in tough situations (which can be remedied by a simple reprogramming of the keys). The thumb key is pratically useless to me. It's really just not meant for small hands. But I deal with it because I fear the girly version would be released in a pink and flower theme. No thanks.

I recommend it for MMOs hands down - can't wait to use it in FPS.
Belkin Nostromo Speedpad n52 Features:
Game Controllers (Controller, Gamepad, Gamepads, Game Pad, Pads)
More tools for customizing your game than ever
Designed with an intuitive nature and stylish versatility
Captures all the advantages of the critically acclaimed n50
Cranks up the juice with advanced options to dominate your game
Combines keyboard and gamepad into one small, easy-to-use device

Belkin Nostromo Speedpad n52 is the Electronics version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around 27.99USD.