Razer DeathStalker Ultimate Keyboard

NOTE: you can find a picture of how my setup looks with the keyboard under the product images, look for the one that's very blue. my previous review scored this keyboard at a single star. the reasoning was actually quite simple...unlike whatever other troubles various reviewers have encountered with software glitches etc...mine was a straight-up hardware QA problem. my letter key "A" did not work. i don't mean it was stuck or anything, it just didn't respond at all. after that scathing review of mine inciting as far as razer should FIRE the QA'ers of the keyboard...i'd have to say that amazon's replacement keyboard was sent to me in perfect condition...and still works perfectly. by perfect, i mean perfect. i'm usually VERY critical of products, especially so after reading many other scathing commentary on various shortcomings and shortfalls of a product that carries a lot of my interest. this keyboard was especially problematic. given that it's hitting a relatively high price point, i was wary of finding so many people complain about the "endless spinning circle" of doom that awaits users who dared so much as to look at the youtube button wrong....or that some reviewers hit an even better easter-egg that possibly ruined their computers entirely, as their seething anger was not to be calmed by the gentle glow of the blue screen eminating in their face when the device was plugged in. a slightly less annoying complication i've been reading was that people couldn't for the lives of them figure out how to actually make their own, or customize the 10 LCD buttons. i'm here to report that after the initial shock of a keyboard that only worked for typing 25/26 of the time (get it? it was missing a letter? ha...haha...h...ok whatever, be that way)...my keyboard actually does everything razer claimed it would do, except make my morning coffee and light my cigarettes for me (firmware update for this? razer?) 1. key responsiveness: unlike the previous keyboard i owned from razer, the anansi, the chiclet keys on this thing are just sexy. they work when i want them to, not when i don't (on the anasi, the B, V and D keys liked to stick a lot and work themselves to exhaustion). it's not as satisfying of a "click" as a mechanical keyboard, but unlike the chiclet keys on my vaio ultrabook, most importantly, for gamers...the space key is used for a lot of jumping in many games...and this space key does not flop around or titter-totter like on so many other keyboards that i've tried. the depression of the key feels entirely uniform. i can actually FEEL my keystrokes on this key and they DO click. just not loudly. i don't like loud keys, so i had to custom-install rubber rings into my das 2 ultimate keyboard...which was still too loud for me. in the end, this keyboard is now sitting on my desk as my main board. can't live without it. 2. keymapping/macros: like all keyboards/mice of this kind, there's no failure with this unit. it performs as it should, and is an area that i really don't have much to comment on as my macros usually consist of control+up and control+down for master volumn at all times...but it does perform as it should and keep in mind that ALL keys are bindable...so for example, i actually bound my WASD onto the delete/home/end/pagedwn keys for a while when i was playing around on the touchpad. no problems there. 3. backlighting uniformity none of these keyboards, including the logitech ones, have uniform backlighting. it's simply too expensive to have inidvidual LEDs in the keys, i'd think...that you can color on the fly. pay attention to any razer mice or logitech gaming mice and you'll also notice that the backlighting is in general brighter along several keys. however, much like my new favorite gaming mouse, the logitech g600, the lighting is SIGNIFICANTLY more uniform than others i've tried...thanks to a great light-diffuser built into the lettering of each key. so while it may show up uneven if you scanned your keyboard from left to write with your monocle 1/2 inch away from the surface, it should look great when you sit at your desk like a normal person. the most important part of this review is actually the lighting, at least to me. i've tried many many many many many other LED-backlit keyboards and none of them are bright or accurate enough. this is the brightest of the bunch. it's still not as bright as razer's own epic, or logitech's G600 mice...but among KEYBOARDS...this is the most color-accurate and brightest of the bunch. this alone is a win in my book. 4. those expensive LCD-screen keys and touchpad you're paying for. - the LCD screen keys, 10 of them, are also fully bindable to anything you want, including macros etc...and you can EASILY customize what you want on them. the screen is surprisingly sharp and beautiful...i was expecting them to use some cheap LCD screen typically found on chinese ipod nano knock-offs...but no, these key-screens (new word, thanks to razer) are bright as all hell and VERY sharp. it seriously is impressive and i'm a digital artist so i've customzed the keys to my design and i'm constantly mesmerized by how beautiful it all comes together thanks to the beautiful screens in the keys. - the LCD touchscreen can be iffy. it's not a huge deal if you're used to mousing over your tablet screen (ipad/android) but it's not intuitive over an actual mouse. the biggest problem lies in that if you have it mapped on very high sensitivity, EVERY APP that runs there will exhibit extreme, PTSD-like hypersensitivity. for example, without adjusting the sense, the calculator app runs fine. after i knocked up the sense to max, slightly touching the numeric pad on the calculator would cause massive amounts of number-input from that one key. so...i'd suggest that if you're also gaming with another cursor-moving peripheral, leave the sensitivity as normal and get on with it. 5. LCD interface app-attack all the apps i tried worked..gmail, facebook, youtube...etc. however, note that for facebook you'll be led to the OLD facebook mobile interface, not the ones optimized for smartphones. look it up and you should see what it looks like. not a huge issue for me, as i pretty much just pay attention to the red ticks for notifications...but if you're into some serious facebooking during your games (i pray to god that you're doing this on your own time in a solo-campaign and not in a multiplaer), you might want to look elsewhere...or just prop up a tablet next to you when you game. i had previously stated that no matter how good this keyboard was...i won't give it higher than 3 stars because of the horrible QA problem. in retrospect...i was too harsh. QA errors happen everywhere and at least razer was immediate in their response. i'll eat my words and up the rating to a 4.5 (rounded to 5 for amazon's sake...their service is as usual...impeccable). still .5 off for the QA problem but overall, this keyboard literally IS everything i wanted and solved many combinations of problems i had when i as looking around for options. it gave me the best of all the worlds that i wanted and i sacrificed nothing. the design is also beautiful and people, that piece of rubber can easily be wiped clean with a wet cloth or anything that doesn't leave more lint/particles on it. if the rubber pad is such a huge hassle for you to keep clean, i must have to question just exactly what you like doing in front of your computer screen that dirties up your keyboard so often :P