Belkin SPEEDPAD NOSTROMO N52 14BTN WHEEL DPAD (Belkin-F8GFPC100)

Reviewed by: ItTechy

Duration of ownership: 2 Months

Strengths: None unless your left handed!

Weaknesses: See Strengths It is primarily designed for left handed players!

Overall: I am at a total loss! How or rather is your hand orientation supposed to be? I can only figure that this design was intended for left handed individuals? If you are ambidextrous it might be a great controller, but being right handed I am at a total loss of how this controller is supposed to be so great! If use my mouse right handed and keyboard to play games, how in the world is primarily left handed controller an advantage? If you are left handed, go for it! It will probably be the best money you spend for gaming, if you are right handed, you may want to go to a store that sells this and look it over before buying it. I think Belkin wasn't thinking this design out too well before releasing it.

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Strengths: MacrosThe 4 shifts are badass. . . gives you 4 different key sets that you can quickly change betweencomfortable as all hell

Weaknesses: Not wireless.

Overall: ZOMFG, I couldn't live without it.I mostly play City of Heroes. I love the macro funtionality because I can set up an individual keypress to activate power up powers and combat sequences. I can even invite my favorite players. example:shift set one: Travel powers and invites for friendsshift set 2: normal movement and power up buttonsshift set 3: offensive attack macrosshift set 4: afk macros (I can set my toon to follow another and use kinetics to power up group, or lend a hand with attacks. . . macros can be looped)

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Strengths: It's functionality is good with good form and feel.

Weaknesses: Unfortunately the driver is 3+ years old and has some major hang ups whether using the device for games or a multifunction keypad. Belking has not created a Mac Universal.

Overall: When Tiger 10.4.6 came out and its associated security updates the OLD Belkin drivers have a number of hang ups and problems. Belkin has no schedule for a Mac Universal driver and their website shows only Wintel stuff. It is evident that they are not concern with supporting the Mac platform and do not want to help Mac Users.I will be going back to the 15 key and throwing the Belkin product away. I will not be purchasing Belikn products unless they are the only choice left.

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Strengths: great to use when working

Weaknesses: no current drivers for the mac pro intel chipsets

Overall: the n52 worked great on my old quad G5, but with my recent upgrade to the new mac pro the device will not work. Belkin has no support for the new macs yet either, but hopefully in time I can use my investment again and start winning at my games again.

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Strengths: This truly is the most ergonomic controller for gaming. Easy learning curve, great software, makes keyboard control very intuitive and fast.

Weaknesses: Build quality is poor.

Overall: I received my N52 after just two business days - very fast shipping. I played about 5 hours of BF2 today and this controller has already helped me double my performance in my favorite FPS because it increases efficiency so much. No more looking for keys in the heat of battles.Thing is, the mouse wheel already stopped working! The quality of this device is very suspect. At first it feels decent, but the buttons may not last long with normal wear. At $20 you get what you pay for. As effective as this device is, I'd have paid $50 for high quality workmanship. It's too bad they went the cheap routs but I guess they wanted to sell in volume.I'm only giving this 4 stars because I would indeed buy this again because it's so affordable and I bet I will have to in a couple months! Really it deserves 3 stars for poor quality however.

Reviewed by: jgladieux

Strengths: Layout of keys and scroll wheel are satisfactory for my hands (size 9 to 10 glove size),over all size is better than the N50 I previously had, palm rest feels better.

Weaknesses: They could have made it more heavier I tend to move it around in all the excitement of gaming...LOL but velcro does the trick. It does have more weight then the N50.

Overall: This is a big improvement over the N50 which I had previously owned, I broke the D pad on my N50 so It gave me an excuse to by this one and I have never been more happier. Belkin replaced my N50 with their life time warranty no problems and it now sits in my gaming closet as a backup to the N52 but so far I have not needed to use it. I would love to see them come out with a model with illuminated keys like the Saitek Pro Gamer Command Pad http://www.saitek.com/uk/prod/progamer.htm and depending on reviews of that product, it might be the only thing I replace the N52 with. Time will tell, but for now there is nothing out there better for me than the N52. In closing I also wanted to mention that the buttons will loosen up with use, even the orange one above the D pad.