3. Saitek Eclipse II Keyboard

The Saitek Eclipse II in red, with gobs of sidelight

I have been using the original Saitek Eclipse for almost two years. The Saitek Eclipse II, with a very similar tactile feel, has a dial to adjust brightness continuously. The original Eclipse only had two brightness levels and one color. The Eclipse II sports four wide-rubber feet at the extended corners of the weighted base and two collapsible height tabs at the top underside. The keys are in a standard 104-key configuration, but the function keys are half the standard height. I prefer the L shaped enter key, but this one is the standard elongated style. Unlike the original Eclipse, Eclipse II has bright sidelights that pour light around the sides of the keyboard in a darkened room. This may either be a bane or a curse, depending on what you are trying to do. There are four media rocker switch controls surrounding the brightness dial, and none of them are etched to allow backlighting. One of them also changes the backlight color. There is a somewhat flimsy plastic wrist rest that attaches to the bottom of the keyboard. Like most, I prefer to leave that off.

Unlike the original Eclipse, the keys are now black, but the trim accent on the keyboard surround is silver. The colors were reversed on the original Saitek Eclipse. I much prefer the higher contrast of the Eclipse II with the black against the backlit keys. On the original Eclipse, some of the keys weren’t very visible in a darkened room. The upper characters on the number and the greater than, less than, comma and period keys were particularly hard to discern. The lighting is still a little uneven, as it particularly shows up on the oddly fat space bar, but overall it is easier to read and more even with the Eclipse II. In the Eclipses, the keys are either spaced a very little further apart, or are just slightly smaller to allow backlighting to seep between the keys. It looks cool, but makes non-touch typing a little harder.

The Saitek Eclipse II in original blue, but brighter

In the Eclipse II, there are three backlit colors from which to choose: the original blue, a very deep red-orange, ruby like and a light, bright mid-purple. The color choice resets between computer reboots.

The Saitek Eclipse II in bright purple

The good keyboard action is excellent for general typing, and I wrote this entire review on the Eclipse II. My purpose for writing this review was not gaming, but to see if I could modify the keyboard to emit brighter and whiter light. The fact that this keyboard is a good general purpose keyboard and feels sturdy is a big plus. Except for the corner extensions, the keyboard is fairly compact. It may be good for astronomical observing, since non-backlit keyboard visibility in a dark sky is nil. I don’t know how much the sidelights would interfere, but these could easily be taped over.

The Eclipse II is sturdy; I accidentally dropped the keyboard on its edge from a height of about four and a half feet during testing. Only the space bar came off, and that was easy to snap back on, once I aligned a collapsible bar common to most keyboard large keys.

The keyboard was much easier to take apart, and especially, to put together compared to the Merc. Even better, Saitek appears to use more standard LEDs, though they are tightly soldered to the strip that runs around the outside. There are six of these spaced along the bottom of keyboard, which explains why the between key lighting of the function keys isn’t as strong. There must also be one I missed below the brightness dial on the top left. Like the Merc, the keyboard is built in layers. A clear plastic sheet with traces on it is what conducts the keyboard press. Above the clear layer is a silicone dome that creates the key resistance. Below the clear layer is a black mask. On the bottom is another plastic or silicone layer, presumably for the keys, or maybe also acting as a “light pipe.” In general, reassembly was easier than the Merc, partly because there were no partial or half-sized sheets. During reassembly, I found that I had snapped off one of the middle screw’s sockets.

The Ideazon Merc Stealth and Saitek Eclipse II size compared in daylight