Author Topic: Turtle Beach Impact 500  (Read 2028 times)

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Turtle Beach Impact 500
« on: Wed, 29 April 2015, 07:46:40 »
The Turtle Beach Impact 500 is a mechanical tenkeyless keyboard with MX blue switches. It is maketed as a gaming keyboard, bu is really just a mechanical keyboard. It has a very simple minimalist design that won't clash in an office, except maybe for the font (see further about that).

I purchased it a couple months ago to use at work. I am a developer so I spend most of my work day on the computer, typing a lot. I don't game a all on this keyboard.

The main reason for the choice of this board was default. I live in Switzerland and the choice of boards with the Swiss layout is really limited. Really. No Filco, Leopold, or Das for example. So 2 years ago I ended up ordering a WASD despite the horrendous shipping costs because, it was the only board with MX Browns with Swiss layout I could get my hands on. But the Turtle Beach Impact 500 (and 700) are available in retail here in Switzerland and with the Swiss layout. I wanted to try MX blues and a tenkeyless, so it was an obvious choice.

The price was relatively reasonable, about 105 francs, so about the same in dollars. The WASD including shipping cost me more than double that if I recall well! And it's not like there are many cheaper options here anyway.

The board is really well made. Sturdy, heavy, stable. Big gums under it, sturdy foldable feet. The layout is standard (as far as I can say). The keyboard is quite compact, which is expected from a tenkeyless. I like the MX blues so far (maybe my co-worker less :). I'm not a great keyboard geek, only points of comparison is an old model WASD and Model M and an old Dell board. Overall the 500 feels very similar to the WASD.

The only real con I can think of is the font they used and the layout of some of the keys (I mean how the text is layed out inside the key itself when there is mote than 1 symbol). Since it is a "gaming" keyboard they chose a "futuristic" font that just is not so legible and quite bold. And most of the special symbols (+"*ç%&/() etc are just not in the same font as the rest so it doesn't look very good.

However it's great that they didn't make the keyboard look like a spaceship from hell.

Not much in term of extra features, but it just works : windows key locking (since I use it mostly on a Mac and for work, I don't use that), and volume control (that one is nice).

The cable is braided and thick, and removable which is nice. But the cable canals under the keyboard are a bit narrow so the cable keeps getting out. Not a big deal though.

So, TLDR :

Pros :
- build quality and strurdiness
- simple design
- removable USB cable
- volume control
(- available in Switzerland with Swiss layout ! reasonable price)

Cons :
- Font used on the keys

As a keyboard in general I'd give it 4 out of 5. As a Swiss Layout keyboard, available in retails in Switzerland, I give it 5 :)
Model M, WASD v1, Dell AT102W