Gaming keyboards have become popular over the past couple of years with multiple manufacturers working to outdo the other with their features and of course performance. The market has become big enough that we have even seen the return of the mechanical switch (something that many were glad to see go away). However, as with many high-end products the demand for these in the general market is not enough to overcome the higher prices. Manufacturers are looking to still offer compelling features and performance, but at a more reasonable price. One of the keyboards in this range is the Thermaltake Tt eSPORTS Challenger Pro Gaming Keyboard. It has many of the features that gamers are looking for (backlighting, multiple profiles, USB hub, replicable keys, etc.) without the high price. So let’s get this $66 gaming keyboard up on the bench and see how it performs.
Performance - We put the Tt eSPORTS Challenger Pro through about 10 hours of gaming. This was with a variety of games from Alan Wake to Mass Effect 3 and through some older (but no less fun) games like Bioshock 2 and HalfLife 2. We also spent an extended amount of time using for every-day tasks. Unfortunately (as we mentioned above) the keys felt a little mushy during gaming and also in our normal day-to-day tasks. It was a little disappointing to be honest.
During gaming we found that the mushy feel of the keys hindered our gaming (especially after using the mechanical keyboards) as did the lack of n-key rollover. There were multiple points where the keyboard felt like it was not responding to our input and it turned out to be because of multiple key presses. As you can imagine this was rather frustrating and is not something we would expect to see from any keyboard labeled as a gaming keyboard.
The hand fan, as we stated in the video was pretty much useless. We turned up the temperature in the lab to make things a little warmer than usual and during extended gaming we did not even feel the air from the fan on our fingers. It was something of a let down to be sure. Maybe if the fan was a little larger or closer it might make a difference, but where it sits now it is a gimmick that does not work out.
