Roccat "shift +" alternatives?

Wolv34ine · 26 Jul 2013 at 12:59

Hi

Does anyone know of an alternate manufacturer that does what Roccat do with their “shift +” thingie?:

The “shift” thing, to me at least, seems like a great idea, and is perhaps best utilized when one has a keyboard and mouse, both being Roccat. That way you can “shift” between the two and double up on functionality. Trouble is their keyboards are either not available, lousy to type on, or problematic in other ways. I mailed them directly and sadly it will be the end of the year before their mechanical sees the light of day in the UK.

So, anyone else do this that we know of, or a variant of it?

Many thanks

Stripes · 26 Jul 2013 at 13:13

I don't know if any other manufacturers do, but given that SteelSeries appear to be moving to a unified software suite for their peripherals I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest to see them offer similar functionality in the future.

Wolv34ine · 26 Jul 2013 at 13:19

Lets hope so, and I have to say I cannot see anyone else doing the same thing (which makes me wonder why Roccat are moving at a glacier pace in getting their items out and for sale).

I am surprised that, given the number of mice made that have many additional buttons that you just cannot reach, that others have not thought of this clever workaround. Particularly Logitech.

Stripes · 26 Jul 2013 at 13:48

From what I recall Logitech have always struggled with their software, so getting those sorts of synergies going at a software level probably seems very daunting. Razer *could* do it if they wanted to, but they're more concerned with selling the brand than providing features to consumers.

The interesting thing I find about ROCCAT Talk is that you need a far less complicated mouse to get a lot out of it than most high-end versions, which may hinder their ability to sell the XTD vs the Kone Pure to MMO gamers. Other companies may be looking at that and worrying about the impact on sales of their own uber-button devices like the Naga and G600.

When it comes to SteelSeries, I wonder if they will do a riff on it with Layers (something they added to the Apex designs), which I think are pretty powerful in their own right.

ROCCAT also need to get their act together with Talk FX, which still hasn't been leveraged properly. As disappointed as I am with them however I'm looking forward to seeing what the Ryos mechanicals bring later in the year.

Wolv34ine · 26 Jul 2013 at 15:15

To an extent I think that’s true. I have always bought Logitech, with a brief foray into Razer (never again, ever) and found them to be superb. Trouble is they have not been innovating or watching the competition, otherwise they would have an aswer for this already in hand.

Roccat seem very nice indeed; the hardware is of good quality and it seems they do innovate. They are creeping the way of Razer though, in that their prices are a bit silly, but having said that at least you get sturdy items for the money, not flimsy car-boot stuff like with Razer.

I’m thinking of a either a Func ms-3 or a Rat 7 in the meantime. Lots of buttons and good build quality. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to get your hands on this stuff prior to buying for once rather than taking a 100 quid punt on something so personal? Meh.

esoteric · 29 Jul 2013 at 10:30

I really liked my ROCCAT Kone+, all 3 of them, which I owned in the space of 6 months. I kept getting the mouse wheel failure and after the 3rd time I swapped it for a Corsair M90.

Kone had crap wheels
Kone+ is supposed to fix the issue, it didn't
Kone XTD/Pure both sport the new "Titan wheel" but I have no idea if it works

Absurd failure rate aside, I did really like the Easy-Shift+ and I wanted to buy a ROCCAT keyboard to use Talk but the Isku has a wrist rest that cannot be removed and my desk has a keyboard tray, so it would conceal a large part of the keyboard. I had a look today while making this reply at ROCCAT's site and they have a new keyboard on the way, and it's mechanical. And checking it just now it also has the big Isku style non-removable wrist rest, so it's useless. Their sales blurb even says "Jumbo size"

devonkev · 29 Jul 2013 at 19:57

I've had the Kone+ replaced that with the Rat 7 which was comfortable but lacked a few buttons for my preference.So I took a punt on the Kone xtd & to be honest they've pretty much nailed it. The scroll wheel feels much tougher & is extremely accurate. Easy shift works like a dream & the software so far has worked perfectly. Not cheap but the best mouse I've had so far.