Alternate Boards, Thoughts

The base package gives you the standard board and the Crossfire, but Ideazon sell plenty of others for various games and applications. However, they don't seem to be readily available anywhere other than the US and Canada, which lessens the Zboard's appeal in other parts of the world.

Their website has the full list. Click here for that.

Thoughts

Despite an excellent basic idea, the Zboard, for me personally, is let down heavily by its ergonomics and build quality. The general keypress feel and overall build quality makes the Zboard, in standard and Crossfire guises at least, appear cheap and nasty.

While the majority of that is pure opinion, I'm confident the majority of people would feel the same way. Keyboard snob or not, there's no getting away from how it feels and operates generally, keypress feel aside.

The Crossfire board is decent, but the non-directional keys are too small and the press action is spongy and overly soft. The malleable nature of the keypress in Crossfire mode is echoed with the standard board.

Great idea, poor execution. In my humble opinion of course. It might be worth tracking one down for a feel or play before you buy, to save you being disappointed. The same applies to all human input devices, keyboards most definitely included.

Subjective Score and Opinion

Pros

Swappable key layouts
Good driver and utility software

Cons

Poor execution of a great idea
Terrible key feel
Low availability of other layouts outside of the US or Canada
Poor build quality
Expensive (just shy of £40) given the above