Thursday, November 18th 2010
Razer Improves The World's Favorite Gaming Keypad
Razer, the world's leading high-end precision gaming and lifestyle peripherals brand, today announced the Razer Nostromo gaming keypad, co-developed with Belkin and designed to give gamers the upper hand with cutting-edge ergonomics, tournament-grade controls, extreme customizability, and maximum comfort.
"A few years ago we had the privilege of working with Belkin to co-develop the highly successful Belkin n52te Speedpad." said Robert "RazerGuy" Krakoff, President, Razer. "The Razer Nostromo is an update to this illustrious gaming keypad to meet today's competitive gaming demands. Building on the Speedpad's proven ergonomic design, the Razer Nostromo incorporates the latest gaming technologies that Razer has developed over the past few years, including a new chipset and software drivers that allow all levels of gamers to program sophisticated command strings to help decimate their opponents."
The Razer Nostromo features a 16-button keypad layout and form factor that is optimally designed for greater intuitive access to critical gaming commands across all game genres. For marathon gaming sessions, a soft-touch rubberized wrist pad cradles the palm and significantly reduces hand fatigue and wrist strain.
The Razer Nostromo gives players amazing key activation accuracy with its 16 fully-programmable Hyperesponse gaming buttons and eight-way directional thumb pad, engineered for rapid key actuation and crisp response. The programmable directional thumb pad can be used either for movement or as modifier keys to access auxiliary commands. In addition, the Razer Nostromo boasts several enhancements over its predecessor including the ability to switch instantly between eight keymaps (up from three), and the flexibility of storing up to twenty gaming profiles from the previous limit of ten.
Gamers can now also take advantage of the new onboard chipset and software driver that puts aside all previous programming limitations, as the new Razer Nostromo enables gamers to effortlessly program sophisticated macros of unlimited length. This all-new configurator software for the Razer Nostromo comes with an improved user-friendly interface that belies its advanced macro programming capabilities, allowing gamers to conveniently customize all the buttons with any game command to open up a massive repertoire of commands and combinations right under their fingertips.
The Razer Nostromo expert gaming keypad is designed to give gamers the upper hand with cutting edge ergonomics for intuitive game control and comfort. With an arsenal of tournament-grade controls including 16 fully programmable Hyperesponse keys, eight keymaps that can be switched between on-the-fly, twenty unique gaming profiles, and an eight-way directional thumb pad all integrated into one dedicated gaming keyboard, gamers will be prepared to take on any challenger.
The Razer Nostromo's all-new configurator software is as easy to use as it is deadly, allowing gamers to conveniently customize all the buttons with any game command or key binding to open up a massive repertoire of killer combinations right under their fingertips.
Razer Nostromo
Price: US $69.99 / €69.99
Availability:
Razerzone.com - Available Now
Worldwide - Available Now
Product Features:
"A few years ago we had the privilege of working with Belkin to co-develop the highly successful Belkin n52te Speedpad." said Robert "RazerGuy" Krakoff, President, Razer. "The Razer Nostromo is an update to this illustrious gaming keypad to meet today's competitive gaming demands. Building on the Speedpad's proven ergonomic design, the Razer Nostromo incorporates the latest gaming technologies that Razer has developed over the past few years, including a new chipset and software drivers that allow all levels of gamers to program sophisticated command strings to help decimate their opponents."
The Razer Nostromo gives players amazing key activation accuracy with its 16 fully-programmable Hyperesponse gaming buttons and eight-way directional thumb pad, engineered for rapid key actuation and crisp response. The programmable directional thumb pad can be used either for movement or as modifier keys to access auxiliary commands. In addition, the Razer Nostromo boasts several enhancements over its predecessor including the ability to switch instantly between eight keymaps (up from three), and the flexibility of storing up to twenty gaming profiles from the previous limit of ten.
Gamers can now also take advantage of the new onboard chipset and software driver that puts aside all previous programming limitations, as the new Razer Nostromo enables gamers to effortlessly program sophisticated macros of unlimited length. This all-new configurator software for the Razer Nostromo comes with an improved user-friendly interface that belies its advanced macro programming capabilities, allowing gamers to conveniently customize all the buttons with any game command to open up a massive repertoire of commands and combinations right under their fingertips.
The Razer Nostromo expert gaming keypad is designed to give gamers the upper hand with cutting edge ergonomics for intuitive game control and comfort. With an arsenal of tournament-grade controls including 16 fully programmable Hyperesponse keys, eight keymaps that can be switched between on-the-fly, twenty unique gaming profiles, and an eight-way directional thumb pad all integrated into one dedicated gaming keyboard, gamers will be prepared to take on any challenger.
The Razer Nostromo's all-new configurator software is as easy to use as it is deadly, allowing gamers to conveniently customize all the buttons with any game command or key binding to open up a massive repertoire of killer combinations right under their fingertips.
Razer Nostromo
Price: US $69.99 / €69.99
Availability:
Razerzone.com - Available Now
Worldwide - Available Now
Product Features:
- Ergonomic form factor and tournament-grade layout
- 16 fully programmable Hyperesponse keys
- Programmable 8-way directional thumb pad and scroll wheel
- Instantaneous switching between 8 key maps
- Unlimited macro lengths
- Stores up to 20 different game profiles
- Adjustable soft-touch wrist pad for exceptional comfort
- Backlit keypad and scroll wheel for total control even in dark conditions
- Enhanced Razer configurator software
33 Comments on Razer Improves The World's Favorite Gaming Keypad
I use the thumbpad for movement, then the keys for whatever I need.
Honestly, I tried the n52te, but brought it back once I discovered the software was different. No problem, was just lazy and didn't want to re-enter my profiles. Bought a NOS n52 on ebay and will continue to use it until the drivers go out of date
Edit: Firingsquad sucks with the sharing of their images!
Granted it failed at being a decent FPS tool, but that was only because of the games i like to play and the style i like to play them in.
I look forward to playing with the Razer Nostromo in the near future. I just hope its availability is not like the Razer Tron series.
it took me all of an hour to get used it, now i can't even understand how people can play current games requiring fifteen plus binds, on standard keyboard!+the 13? how so?
Nostromo is the brand name that Belkin originally released the n50 and n52 under. When they worked with Razer on the n52te, they dropped the Nostromo brand name, but that's what the 'n' in n52te stands for.
I've used the original n52 till it died just in time to upgrade to the n52te. I've used it for several MMORPGs, FPS, and even RTS, and it's been far and away an improvement over trying to game on a keyboard. Keyboards were designed for typing. Gaming keyboards are like Enduro family vans.
While on face value it appears the Nostromo only has a few buttons, consider.
1. The n52te had 3 color modes, so 3x as many buttons to bind to.
2. Most games you can use modifiers like shift, ctrl, and alt.. bind those onto the Nostromo, and you can easily get 60+ keybinds off one mode using combos. You can also combine these modifiers with the scrollwheel, the dpad, or even your mousebuttons for additional keybinds..
3. As long as you can rebind the game's hotkeys, you can lay out your game's commands however YOU like on this. For instance, in StarCraft2, using Grid hotkeys, you can directly map the command panel (5x3 grid) to the Nostromo.
@nienor
The new Nostromo has an entirely upgraded internals - chipset, dpad, macro support, 5 more color modes, and an improved profile editor. In theory, all those 90% solutions that the n52te had just got bumped to 110%.
@f22a4bandit
I use a MS optical thumb ball for all my gaming. Before that, the Logitech trackman thumbball. Coupled with the Nostromo, it's parallel to console gaming with dual thumbsticks. Quite rocking.
@Bjorn_Of_Iceland
First, you can edit the Nostromo's keys. I move Jump to one of my mouse buttons and use the lower thumb button as an "OJEEBUS!" button; some ability that I can only use rarely, never want to use by accident, but when I want it I'll know EXACTLY where it is.
@Vancha
See above about having enough buttons for an MMO. ~100 keybinds just on one color mode enough for ya? So far, I've played EverQuest, World of Warcraft, Lego Universe, WarHammer, StarCraft (1 and 2), teh Halos, Day of Defeat, HalfLife2, and many more with the N52te. While I suck at most of the games, the N52te was a champ.
Shameless plug - If you'd like to see examples of how to setup and use the N52te/Nostromo with World of Warcraft or StarCraft2, check out my YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/grendalsh. I'll have a review of the new Nostromo up as soon as I can get my hands on one.
I do see how it could be used with MMOs though. Thanks.
Then, 15 buttons (don't forget the lower thumb button), 3 values on the scroll wheel (up, down, click), 4 values on the dpad, for 22 'keys'. This is purposefully not including the upper thumb button, as I use that for Escape, which doesn't combo well. (though now I think about it.. I'll have to doublecheck this)
So, 5 modes x 22 keys = 110 keybindings. And thats just on one mode.
Assuming I used the number row as my base 12 bindings on one mode, I could use the numpad on another mode for another set of combo values.
That's not including using the modifiers against your mousebuttons. For instance, I have a 5 button mouse (including scrollhweel).. So 2 mousebuttons plus scrollwheel for 5 values. 5 modes x 5 values = another 25 bindings.
Of course, this only works for games that let you set custom hotkeys. StarCraft2, for instance, has preset keymaps, so you can only use what it allows. But for MMOs, it's more than plenty :D