As if in answer to our prayers, Zboard has now launched the Fang. The Fang is, essentially, the customizable gaming keys from the MERC detached from the full keyboard and now a stand-alone USB peripheral. This new arrangement maintains everything we liked about the MERC while dramatically improving the ergonomic appeal. The removal of the full keyboard allows users to continue typing on whatever style of clicky or soft touching keyboard they are accustomed to while still enjoying Zboard's unique button layout, which is great. We also appreciated the fact that the Fang is much easier to position than the MERC, as it's much smaller footprint allows the Fang to be situated at a comfortable angle to one's wrist and seating position. Best of all, the Fang includes a nice sloping wrist rest that makes it much more comfortable over long gaming sessions.
Like the MERC that preceded it, the Fang's butterfly direction keys and variety of buttons offer an attractive alternative to the traditional W,A,S,D assignments on traditional keyboards. Especially convenient for modern FPS and MMORPGs, the butterfly direction keys are large and nicely arranged, while the masses of surrounding keys allow for easy and accurate weapon selection or spell casting without the necessity of taking a hand off the direction keys. The ambidextrous design will make lefties happy, and the layout of keys is well thought through. The six oblong buttons below the direction keys are situated so that they can be easily depressed while moving so as to allow for quick crouching or running, and the jump buttons are nicely positioned for thumb access on either side of the Fang.
The masses of extra buttons wouldn't be much more than a big headache if they required manual configuration. Fortunately, Zboard's Z-Engine software presently has pre-made layouts for more than 109 games covering all the obvious targets in FPS, MMORPG, and general action games. The software will automatically check for new profiles as they are made available by Zboard, and selection of a profile is as simple as launching the Z-Engine either from the System Tray or with a press of the Z button on the upper left-hand corner of the Fang, selecting a genre and game, and giving a double-click to the profile. A nice layout screen for each profile helps users learn unfamiliar layouts, and Zboard expects to be able to allow user alteration and customization of the layouts with a software update scheduled for July.
In use, the Fang was a marked improvement over even my rather nice Logitech G15 keyboard in terms of my ability to switch weapons and easily transition from running to crouching to prone in Battle Field 2. I also found that it improved my general game in Unreal Tournament and Quake 4 for similar reasons. The Fang supports up to 7 simultaneous key presses, which means you can a lot done at once, like changing weapons, crouching, and strafing at the same time. Jessica has been using the Fang while engrossed in Guild Wars: Factions for the past few weeks and reports that she has been consistently pleased with both the comfort the Fang provides and the ease of target selection and inventory access it allows.
Conclusion
The Fang is a solid peripheral for any gamer looking for an alternative to standard W,A,S,D keyboard configurations. The variety of buttons allow players to get much more done without taking a hand away from the movement keys, and a smart arrangement of convex and concave surfaces prevent fingers from getting lost while reaching for a specific key.