Ahoy fellow gamers and geeks!  I’m in the middle of a system upgrade with a few new toys starting to spread across my desk.  I’d like to show off… erhm share with you one of those.  The Microsoft Sidewinder X6.  No, it’s not a joystick, lol.  Who uses joysticks anymore anyways… besides maybe a few uber flight sim. fans.  Anyway this is a great keyboard, I’ve been putting it to work, with some intense gaming sessions.

Allow me to go right ahead and stick this into a few categories…  This is a great upgrade for any FPS, MMO or RTS gamer as well as graphic designers.  I shouldn’t have to go into specifics; you should just trust me, I’m ‘deadly’ serious.  The Sidewinder X6 will not only improve your game, but has some slick capabilities to get rid of several annoyances that plague keyboard controls.

Aesthetics & Functions
Microsoft’s Sidewinder X6 was well thought out.  It looks like someone over at m$ actually made a few prototypes, hacked those up, threw out a lot of trash, then rehired someone to think beyond typical keyboard layouts.  A lot of companies are pushing flashy lights, macros, volume controls, and some LCD panels.  Yeah, if you’ve read something about this sidewinder you’re saying so does this keyboard.  It’s true, aside from the LCD screen.

The SW X6 has the lights, the macros and easy access UI controls.  These are all great but it’s how they come to work for you without being over the top.  I can’t say whether the LCD keyboard is worth 2-shits as I havn’t used a keyboard with one.  Although, I can tell you when I’m killing bitchs, stompin nubs, I don’t even glance at the keyboard to hit keys or look for an ammo HUD layout.

The lights are a nice touch when typing endlessly into the night commenting on iheartdestroy.com or slaying dragons with 30 quick access macros.  Macros I say?… 30 of them!  That’s more than enough for any game I can think of.  The Sidewinder has 6 macros on the left, always there when you need them, not a burden when you don’t.  Beneath those 6 is a small non-protruding button that says “1|2″.  Hit that switch and get your macro on!  Changing to “2″ makes those 6 macro keys into a new set of 6 macros and transforms your numpad into 17 more available macros.

If the numspad is to far away for your freakishly small hands, no worries, detach it and move it to the left side of your keyboard.  This is a really easy swap too.  The pad slides right into either side of the keyboard with the assistance of magnetism!  Beyond these features the Sidewinder X6 carries the usual line up of UI controls.

Along the top (from left to right) is ‘Sidewinder button’, ‘Running man button’, ‘Record button’, ‘Macro switch (1-3)’,  Media control keys – ‘Play/Pause’, ‘Back’, ‘Forward’, ‘Mute’.  Followed up with a break away from that pattern are 2 LARGE dials.  The left dial controls back-light dimming.  The right dial is volume control.  I really like the volume control as a dial.  My last keyboard was an Eclipse II, not a bad keyboard, albeit not a gamer keyboard.  Why I enjoy this sidewinder over my previous keyboard is all the standard UI controls were buttons.  The most frusterating of which were the backlight-color change button and volume control button.  Volume control in button form… sucks.  I struggled with turning down my volume a little bit to appease the screaming beasts that roam my house.  One click would turn it down 1/4 of the way toward mute.  Most of the time it just muted the sound completely and I eventually quit using that button.  The large volume and backlight dials on the SW X6 are sensitive, you can turn down lighting and volume 1-point-at-a-time.  Maybe I’m a little happier than I should be about such a small feature.

Lemme quickly cover some of those other functions I mentioned.

Sidewinder button: Opens macro control application.  Program each macro individually for 3 different loadout settings!  Easy as clicking the button label in the menu and hitting the button you want to save as that macro.  Even better, you can save button combos!!! w00t havn’t found a great use for this yet, but I will be looking   Street fighter roms on the PC maybe lol  (insta-hadouken anyone?)

Running man button: I just call it that cause the icon is a lil’ guy doin’ the running-man.  It’s really cruise control.  No more will you be playing piano concerto’s across the keyboard looking for which key does auto-run in your new game.

Record button: Need to quickly reset or make a new macro.  Click the record button and record large sequences of keys to any button.  Even chat messages so you can spam.  (spamming with the sidewinder will not protect you from flaming private messages telling you to STFU or from being banned in such a case)

Macro switch: This button allows you to change your saved set of macros up to 3 saved load outs.  Personally I like this one when jumping between my design applications.  I kinda got use to using my Wacom Intuos4 macros to quickly swap tools and saved actions within Photoshop and Flash.  When I have the desk space, the two peripherals make a formidable duo of macro-keys.

Let’s talk about you…

the FPS gamer:
The Sidewinder X6 plays well for FPS’s in that any key can be turned off.  Now if you’re a real FPS gamer you immediately know why this is great.  Now, instead of taking a pen, coin or card to start popping out the windows, alt, shift, or caps keys, you just disable them!  The nice black finish and back-light w/dimmer keep your eyes from wandering in distraction.

the MMOer
I don’t really feel like I should have to say anything else to the MMO crowd that hasn’t already been said above.  Ill say it again!  30 macros.  Save key combos.  Auto-run, disable keys, spam chat messages.  Now start re-programming all the stupid letter keys every MMO uses for loot bags, character sheets, talent sheets, spell books, I could go on for about an hour… but I wont.  Those menus are much easier to use when you put them on keys you don’t use for common chat and movement.

RTS?
RTS is a kind of hybrid of these two groups.  The real-time strategy games can take full advantage from what I’ve mention in FPS and MMOs.

So, what are the cons?
I hate to sound like a fanboy, cause I’m not.  M$ has there share of products I dislike, the Sidewinder is not one.
I can say if you’re desk is too tall or angled and you need those kick-stand feet… too bad Sidewinder has no feet!  I kinda don’t mind this all that much it has a slight tilt naturally and feels fine at my desk’s height.  If you like to rage-quit… no worries about giving your keyboard a good slam.  It has no fragile feet for you to break under the weight of your temper-tantrum.  Another con which is merely preference is, if you don’t like red, too bad you’re stuck with the red backlight unless you turn it off.  The macro keys get a splash of yellow with that red, making a yellowish-red.  I’m not wild about the color but it only lights up 6 keys, and the numspad when it’s set to macro mode.

With all that I’ve said, my hopes are I covered everything you all care about in your I/O devices.  This is a great buy at $70.  I would gladly pay the extra $20 over the eclipse I previously used.  No offense Saitek, your keyboards are pretty and will find a great home in front of my girlfriends computer… hello hand-me down.

Microsoft Sidewinder X6 — 9.5/10

Keep a look out for my next review, Sidewinder X8 Wireless Mouse!!!  –  It’s en-route to my house now, hopefully it lives up to its companion the X6.