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Microsoft SideWinder X4 keyboard lets gamers press 26 keys at once

by Parm Mann on 1 February 2010, 17:12

Tags: SideWinder X4, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

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Remember when Microsoft tried its hand at the gaming keyboard market with the launch of the SideWinder X6 back in 2008?

Well, almost a year and a half later, it's backing up that high-end ambition with its second gaming keyboard - the SideWinder X4.

Microsoft's latest - pictured above - isn't as extreme-looking as the $80 SideWinder X6, but it is comfortably cheaper, with the SideWinder X4 set to arrive in stores this March priced at $59.99.

Gamers can look forward to what Microsoft calls "the industry's most advanced anti-ghosting technology" - developed for gamers by the company's Applied Sciences Group no less - and the consequent ability to press up to 26 keys at once.

We're not convinced anyone will actually need to press 26 keys at once, but there are a handful of other useful gamer-orientated features, too - including macro recording, a new macro repetition function, an adjustable backlight and both mode and profile switching.

Nifty-looking bit of kit, but now you're faced with that impossible question; should you spend another $20 and go for the all-singing, all-dancing SideWinder X6 with the switchable keypad and volume and backlight dials? You're on your own on that one.



HEXUS Forums :: 14 Comments

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This might be a dumb question, but what is “anti-ghosting technology”?
I used to enjoy overloading the keyboard buffer with an accidental keyboard smush during an intense deathmatch… taptaptapBEEP.
Yes, because need to press 26 keys at the same time using all 10 of my fingers while playing some l33t game
TWENTY SIX KEYS ?!!?

Wow, i can finally play left4dead with an entire team, and only need one keyboard.

If only we could have 4 independent mice now..

mikemikemi
This might be a dumb question, but what is “anti-ghosting technology”?
Its just something in “decent” keyboards, that means you can press more than 3 keys at a time, without your computer (no matter how powerful) spazzing out, because you have filled the keyboards send buffer, as Steve said above.

Crouch walking diagonally while reloading (q + c + (a or d) + r) for example, in counter strike, or maybe in a driving game, accelerating, while turning into a handbrake turn
I'm sorry, but I don't have enough digits to press 26 keys at once.

…and more to the point, I can't think of any circumstance where I'd need to, not even playing an all singing, all dancing flight sim.

Neat… but ultimately pointless.