Merc Stealth Gaming Keyboard
This is a very good keyboard for gaming and m/media work. PNP makes it easy to use. I completely recommend it.

Excellent keyboard

Excellent overall if you're a gamer. You can program almost every key on the keyboard for single or multiple (macro) keystrokes.

Actually, it's pretty good for non-gaming as well. The programmability of the extra keys could be used to automate all kinds of functions in Windows and/or applications if you're clever about programming the keys.

The interface software for the keyboard (for programming keys) is pretty easy to use and understand.

I like the multi-colored backlighting.

The two USB ports are conveniently located.

The only "con" I can think of is that the Delete key is an unusual place (relatively) and takes some getting used to. (Although you can program other keys to to perform a the delete function to mitigate that problem.)

Amazon great, product defective!
Amazon did their job, shipping on time and with a good price. Unfortunately, the product was defective out of box. The return process was simple, period !

Anytime I got a product that is a failure out of Box, I return and switch to something else(unless its a sole source I must have) In this day and age, products should work out of the box ! This one did not. Case closed. I bought another brand from Amazon.

Good, but not Great
I bought my first one of these keyboards, and the gamepad WASD keys would lock every few minutes, so my character would just run forward or sideways until I hit a wall. Not fun. Makes you really look like a noob. I had to bang on it or unplug it to make it work again.

I brought it back and got a new one, which didn't have that problem. Instead after a few days the lighting got screwed up and it won't change blue or violet anymore. I press the color button and I get either red, off, or red again. I don't even like red that much. The weird thing is that sometimes it will change color for a few minutes, and then blink back to red. So it's not completely broken, it just has attitude...

Also as one reviewer said, the paint or whatever lets the light come through the keys does rub off. Not easily though. My WASD keys on the gamepad are starting to blur, probably because of finger sweat, but it's hardly noticeable.

The best thing about this keyboard is the built in gamepad. There are no other keyboards that I have seen with both the gamepad and the backlighting. The built in feature is great, as I have a separate gamepad which is a real pain with some games because you have to export a profile, remap all the keys, etc. I originally got a gaming keyboard to play WoW, which it is GREAT for. Now I play Half Life 2 and Portal which it also works well for with a few minor key remaps (like suit zoom, last weapon, flashlight, etc.)

The USB, headphone and microphone jacks built into the keyboard are convienient too.

So buy this. But be sure to keep your receipt.

Just because it looks cool
Doesn't mean it is.

I was, on first impression, OMG this rocks! You can change the colors to match your mood. The side gaming pad was wonderful; everything was at your fingertips, fantastic for PVP, and the extra USB ports I found very helpful.

I tried to use it as a normal keyboard for word processing. /sigh don't bother. It would be better to have a back up keyboard that you can switch to if you need to do any type of that work.

After one month of use, the key paint started to rub off, now after four months of use I am sad to say the home keys are now only glowing dots of color, and 10 key pad is no longer functioning. This leaves me in the market for a new keyboard and about $100 USD down the tube. Thumbs down with a slice of /fail from this WoW player.