Belkin n52te Tournament Edition SpeedPad Review

I used the original N52 for MMOs, RTS, and FPS games for about 3 years before it started to die. That's when the N52te came out. I got it and have since bought 5 more for my guildmates; they all swear by it.

First off, the Bad. The profile editor is a step down from the n52's. The macro editor was unreliable, and there were fewer 'modes'. And there was the issue of the diagonals on the DPad 'not working'.

Now, the editor wasn't that bad, it just didn't live up to the 'I like my programmable device to play the game for me' that most script-kiddies were looking for. It is intuitive and easy to use. It just fell short of perfection.

The diagonals on the dpad do work, now. The trick is to disable them in the N52te profiles. Counterintuitive, but it works. However, it's not as 'clean' as WASD movement, so for FPS games, there will be a noticable .1s lag when switching from strafe to diagonal movement. For MMOs, not an issue.

So, with all the above.. the N52te is still an outstanding game controller, it just falls short of the perfection it could have been.

The physical feel of the device, though, is perfection. The button press is spot-on, the Dpad is very responsive, the scroll-wheel is comparable to a high-end mouse's, and the device itself is comfortable to use for prolonged gameplay.

Some folks have complained that there aren't enough buttons.. There are 15 'base' keys, and 3 'modes' to play with. However, with creative keybindings and combo-presses, I've worked out how to have over 100 keybindings in just one 'mode'. Granted, this uses combo presses, but compare that to how many keys you have access to with your left hand on a keyboard, and factor in that this is much more ergonomic than trying to run one hand all over a keyboard, and I think the easy-access combo-presses outweigh having more real estate to cover for more keys.

If you would like to see how the N52te can be used with WoW (or an MMO in general), I have a series of how-to videos on YouTube showing how to set up the device, keybindings, and some UI mods so that the N52te is an integral part of play. [...].

Buy it here now!