Thermaltake Poseidon Z Blue Keyboard Review

The next thing I found to be handy was all the rubbery nubs on the keyboard. There are a total of nine rubber feet on the keyboard, two of which are on the collapsible stands. As a result, I found that the Poseidon Keyboard didn’t budge or slide, no matter the surface.

One thing I found kind of strange are the two rubbery nubs that are on the top of the keyboard. At least to me they seem to have rather limited use since there isn’t much of reason that you’d need the keyboard to have grip with something on that surface. The only possible scenario I could come up with is having some sort of back wall you press the keyboard against, with those two feet preventing the keyboard from moving left and right. However, it’s not like having those rubbery nubs there is detrimental in any way, if anything it probably serves some more specialized purpose that even I can’t think of.

One final useful feature of the Poseidon keyboard is a tiny groove extending both left and right where you could feed the USB cable through. Besides giving you cord management options, the groove could potentially protect the USB cable by preventing it from wiggling from side to side. I do have one complaint with this groove though. It feels like you have to really push the (rather thick) cord down into the groove in order to get it to stay inside, and in the process may end up weakening the connection between the USB cable and the keyboard.

I did find myself missing one thing though, and that was macro buttons. A lot of gaming keyboards lately have been including at least a couple assignable macro keys, and the Poseidon does not. This of course isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since many games barely benefit from a user having macros at their disposal, and are even less useful for people who are just using the keyboard to type. So it boils down to what you plan on using the keyboard for, what sort of games you normally play, and how important having macros would be for you whether this is a problem or not.

PERFORMANCE AND FEEL

Using this keyboard feels fantastic, the keys give you plenty of feedback, they feel sturdy, and the amount of pressure needed to register a keystroke is perfect. The keys also seem to bounce back after being pressed down, almost giving you the feeling of being propelled from key to key, making typing feel much more fluid than it would on other types of keyboards. Of course, the audio feedback (or the clicks and clacks) after pressing each key helps as well by giving you that extra confirmation that a key was pressed and registered. However, it’s also that noise which is often considered one of the downsides to mechanical keyboards, since it can get annoying to constantly hear the loud keystrokes.

But how does it perform during gameplay? Well, the fact that it’s a mechanical keyboard means that you’re able to have multiple keys pressed down simultaneously while having them all register. This can be the saving grace of many gamers, especially in simulator games or even strategy games and massively multiplayer online role playing games. The Poseidon itself allows six to eight keys to be pressed at once, which is more than enough for most gamers or typists. You also aren’t required to depress the key fully, which doesn’t only decrease time between keystrokes, but also prevents finger fatigue.

However, it may be important for some people to have this pointed out to them, while the Poseidon may have “Blue” switches, they aren’t Cherry switches. They are however an imitation designed to feel and act like Cherry switches, and this version was made specifically to offer consumers another option when choosing keyboards. It’s at a lower price, has the same design as it’s Cherry MX counterpart, and while some consumers would argue it’s of lesser quality I would say that it definitely doesn’t feel like it! Nonetheless, it’s worthy to point out so you know what you’re buying and researching.

I had one major qualm with the Poseidon keyboard, which was that the keys all felt really close together. For a full keyboard I was surprised to find my fingers either bumping against each other or sliding against the sides of other keys. Even after using it for a while and getting more used to it’s layout and design I found myself feeling a bit clumsy and cluttered with it.

One thing to note, the Poseidon does not work for Mac. I decided to try it, even though the box mentions only working for windows operating systems, and the only thing that really worked was the backlighting. Keys would sometimes register, but they most had some sort of strange side-effect, or were just completely wrong (for example, the “E” key would not only type an e, but also add a space after it.) Sorry Mac users, you’ll either have to wait for some sort of compatibility update, or look for other options.

CONCLUSION AND FINAL THOUGHTS

The Poseidon Illuminated Keyboard has everything you’d want from a mechanical keyboard. It’s sleek, sturdy, and feels great to use. Every key bounces back and instills a long forgotten sense of flow and momentum as you type. It’s great for both gamers and typists alike, the nature of mechanical keyboards making it hard for your fingers to get tired. However, despite all its upsides, the keyboard has a few quirks. The Poseidon felt rather cramped and I often found myself accidentally pressing other keys, especially when I either increased my typing speed or had to respond quickly. Also, going along with a more simplistic and minimalist design, the Poseidon doesn’t really come with a lot of bells and whistles like other gaming keyboards do, the lack of macro keys being the major feature missing that may dissuade certain gamers from purchasing the keyboard. It does include a few things, namely the media buttons and “Disable windows key button”, that make it stand out from a basic keyboard.

The Poseidon Illuminated Keyboard is priced at $69 USD on Thermaltake’s online store. At that price it falls on the lower spectrum of most mechanical keyboards, which is great for anyone looking for a good deal. However, one thing that wasn’t tested, but surely would add even more value to the keyboard, was its lifespan. Blue switches, which are the method of mechanical input which the Poseidon uses, are not only know for their accuracy and feedback, but also for their long lifespan. Thermaltake advertises that each key has a lifespan of 50 million keystrokes, which is a huge jump from the projected 15 million keystrokes for a membrane keyboard. As mentioned before though, if you truly care about getting top of the line keyboard switches or swear by Cherry switches, it may interest you to take a look at their Poseidon Cherry MX Blue model, which offers Cherry switches instead of their blue ones in the Z edition. They do however work similarly and I couldn’t even tell the difference until later when I realized they were just blue switches. So even if it doesn’t have fancy macro buttons or user profiles, the solid and well built design of the Poseidon puts this keyboard in it for the long run. Anyone who prefers a sturdy keyboard, and wants something that’s fast, fluid and truly dependable should definitely consider taking this god of the sea for a swim.

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