Introduction




At first I want to thank SteelSeries for providing me their 7G Professional Gaming Keyboard for reviewing.





There are lots and lots of gaming keyboard nowadays on the market, with a lot of extra buttons, LEDs, or even back-lit keys; SteelSeries decided to manufacture something different: the 7G preserves a classic look, the build quality is high, its very durable and has a large hand-rest to increase comfort during large gaming sessions or office applications. Because it has a classic layout, the time getting used to it is a matter of minutes.

About SteelSeries :
“From day one, SteelSeries has been focused on making professional gaming gear that provide meaningful benefits to gamers of all skill-level, with the most demanding being those gamers whose lively hood depends on the performance of our products. We believe, as most gamers do, in winning, not trying!
What originally began as a small two-person operation in Copenhagen back in 2001 has become a global leader in professional gaming products. SteelSeries recognized the need for superior, high-quality professional gaming gear that would give players a competitive edge.

Fast-forward to today, and we've come a long way since our first glass mousepad. We have global offices in North America, Europe, and Asia, providing an integrated portfolio of products designed specifically for gaming. Fueling our growth is you, the gamer!
While we are proud of our technology and product innovation, we are even more excited about how these products are developed to meet the needs of gamers. Many companies may claim to develop superior gaming products but few actually do. Instead, they spend countless hours with lab engineers trying to force fit a new technology with bells and whistles and mediocre functionality for the end-user.

At SteelSeries, we develop our products with a small internal team and a vast network of technology partners, channel partners, game publishers, and gaming communities around the globe. We aren't afraid of being challenged and implementing new ideas. Our main goal is to always to listen to the collective feedback of our professional gaming community.

We won't bore you with cheeky slogans, trying to underline our authenticity as gamers. We fully acknowledge that the best professional gamers in the world know more about what they want and what will make them better, than we do. We are proud to be working with our partners, but we can't take credit for their invaluable input and feedback. Instead we tell it like it is: they help us. We want to know what works and what doesn't. For this reason, SteelSeries creates innovative solutions that provide a competitive advantage for all gamers.

Critical to our company's success is also our reinvestment in the gaming communities and the individuals who support them. As a result, our corporate philosophy is to take a substantial portion of our revenue and put it back into the gaming community to help spur industry growth. We support our community in numerous ways, ranging from co-hosting tournaments like Iron Lady and King of the Hill, and supporting gaming competitions of all sizes, to promoting the top and up-and-coming gaming teams/organizations.

Put simply, SteelSeries does not claim to invent or reinvent the gaming industry. Nor do we focus on one specific product, copy other companies or follow the crowd.

Instead we leave it to you, the gamer, our customer/partner/inspiration, to decide if we are deserving of such declarations and accolades. What we do promise, however, is to remain committed to you. We will continue to work with you and the gaming community to make the best products possible and give you that competitive edge. We will continue to do our best to support the growth of the professional gaming industry and give back to the gaming communities. By doing so, we don't just talk a good game, we win!”

Packaging

The 7G Pro Gaming keyboard from SteelSeries comes in a large nice designed cardboard box, with a transparent part, so we can see a part of the actual product even without opening the box; on the frontal part we can also see some icons with explanations which represent the product features:

On the back of the box, we can see a detailed product description in multiple languages, some words describing the SteelSeries brand and the gaming teams that helped developing this product on the bottom:



Also on the back of the box, we can see some keyboard main functions described right on a keyboard photo:



Finally, we can also see 2 photos in the left part, with and without the keyboard hand rest:



The box is fully sealed on both sides, to avoid unauthorized access to the product:



If we get the external box out, we can see that inside there is another black box, further protecting the product during transport:



The top part of the internal box must be removed, to reveal the keyboard with protective foam on both sides, to avoid hits and shocks:



When we first get the keyboard out of the box, we can see that the accessories and the cables are put together in a plastic bag, and the hand rest is preinstalled:



The hand rest is big enough, has the same color as the keyboard and helps during large gaming sessions or office work:



Removing the hand rest is very easy, if we do not need it, the table where we sit the keyboard is too small or we simply want to use the keyboard without it from the start; we only have to lift it up:

A Closer Look

On the keyboard cable we can find a splitter, which divides the thicker cable into more thinner cables; it is very good thing that all the cables are sleeved, a feature that I haven't seen on many other keyboards I have seen or reviewed in the past:



The cables that come out of the splitter are the microphone connector, the speaker/headphone connector, a PS/2 keyboard connector and a USB connector for the integrated USB hub on the keyboard:



When the cable gets out of the keyboards' body, it goes through a plastic ring; this ring also strengthens the cable during use:



If we look at the keyboard with more attention, we can see its two feet; in one of them SteelSeries implemented the USB hub and the microphone, headphone jacks:



Here is a closer look at the feet with the connectors; the 2 USB ports have a little space between them, to avoid 2 devices hitting each other, if both ports are occupied:



On the top right corner of the keyboard, we can see the SteelSeries logo and the Num, Caps, Scroll LEDs, which light up with a bright white color:



On the bottom left part of the keyboard we can find a key with the SteelSeries logo, which is practically a function key (Fn on laptops), to be able to use the multimedia F keys on top:



Here are the multimedia keys, from F1 to F6:



If we turn the keyboard, we can see that its bottom has a very interesting shape:



On each corner of the keyboard, we can see a plastic foot, which helps the keyboard not to move on the table we sit it on, but also to avoid scratching the surface:

Accessories and Extras

Further up, we can see the SteelSeries logo, the fact that the product was designed in Denmark and was manufactured in Taiwan:



Along with the keyboard, we get more accessories in a transparent plastic bag:



The user manual is well written and explains us the installation process with drawings and text:



The purple adapter we get is used to connect the keyboard on a USB port, since the keyboard comes with a PS/2 connector:



In the plastic bag we also get a SteelSeries product catalog:



Finally, in the bag we get a SteelSeries logo stickers:

Conclusive thoughts

At first I would like to say that this is not an ordinary keyboard, with lights and other shiny stuff. This is not a keyboard to take along with you at LAN parties, but to use it at home for playing lots of games and using other applications. SteelSeries have succeeded to manufacture a very solid product with excellent material quality.

The first thing that I was surprised when I have got the sample was that the keys press incredibly easy. The amount of force that we need to use to type something is very little, and this increases the comfort by a big margin.

The keyboard is also very durable; SteelSeries have included a durable metal inner chassis and guarantees 50 million keystrokes. Another thing that this device impresses with is the latency, which is very low; to lower the latency, SteelSeries have used 18K gold-plated connectors. The cables are braided, to increase the overall durability.

Other interesting feature is that this keyboard supports the use of all the keys simultaneously, which is impressive. The keyboard also has a USB hub, in which we can plug in a flash drive and a mouse, for easy access, but here we can also plug in our headset, with the inclusion of both microphone and headphone jacks.

The included hand rest adds even more comfort, but occupies a lot of space on the table. It can be easily removed, just by lifting it off the keyboards' body.

People that appreciate product quality want a solid keyboard with excellent key responsiveness and don't mind the classic look of it would pay a price premium (~$150) and get this keyboard from SteelSeries for years and years of use.

I would like again to thank SteelSeries for making this review possible