A Closer Look

I placed the Saitek Eclipse II next to a standard keyboard you would receive with any PC. As you can see, it is not much larger than the beige variant. This is great as you will not need to worry about lugging something big and heavy around when going to a LAN Party.


The most prominent feature of the Eclipse II is the variable lighting the user can choose. There are three different colors. The blue color is quite deep but somewhat dark, while red is a bit brighter. The third color - purple - is just a bonus feature. Saitek added this color by combining blue and red. This also means that purple is the brightest of all the choices.


The Saitek Eclipse II also has some very strong lights to the left and right of the keyboard. This is great, as it will shine some light on your mouse and pad during gaming sessions in the dark.


The keyboard comes with a removable wrist pad. It is made of plastic and simply smooths out the drop from the keyboard, so that you do not need to keep your wrists in mid air all the time, while gaming or typing. It can be set to three different distances from the keyboard itself, which should add to the overall comfort of the Eclipse II.


All the multimedia controls are located in the top right corner of the Eclipse II. The large dial controls the brightness of the backlight. The only other button out of the ordinary is located on the bottom right and looks like a half filled circle. This cycles through the four different light stages: off, blue, red and purple. The top middle of the keyboard has the usual three lights found on any keyboard. These light up in blue, no matter what backlight setting is in use.


The keyboard height can also be adjusted. The stand consists of two sizes, so you may chose what works best for you. Using the highest one, will yield the best visibility of keys in dark surroundings, while I found the middle to be the perfect fit for my typing style.


There are four rather large pads to keep the Eclipse II from slipping and the wrist rest also has a few small ones to support the keyboard. It did not move during testing of the keyboard.