Why You Can Trust CNET Microsoft SideWinder X6 Keyboard review: Microsoft SideWinder X6 Keyboard
The X6 is an excellent gaming keyboard, providing innovation and useful features while keeping things simple.
Design and Features
Microsoft has recently expanded its SideWinder gaming range to incorporate a cut down version of its original SideWinder mouse, the X5, a new version, the X8 (due next year), and a keyboard, the X6. The keyboard inherits the aggressive angular styling of the family, and yet in this case it pays off, creating quite the impression.
Microsoft SideWinder X6 Keyboard
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The first thing of note is the swappable numpad, which can be placed on the right, left, or removed altogether via a strong magnetic system. Along with the dedicated bank of six keys down the left, the numpad can be used for an additional 18 keys within which to store macros that can either be recorded live through the keyboard by pressing the macro record key, created and edited through Microsoft's Intellitype software, or a combination of the two. A shift key below the six macro keys on the left switches them to allow another six macros to be stored, and up to three banks worth of macros can be created and switched between using a button at the top of the keyboard, giving way to a possible 72 macros. Those counting will be thinking "you've gotten that wrong — that should be 90 macros" — but in bank 1 mode, the numpad is always the numpad, even if Microsoft's software allows you to add macros to the unusable keys.
The software also allows you to disable the Windows, Caps Lock and Application key, should they prove to be an annoyance in-game, and can set per application key settings, so when a program is launched, the macro keys change with it — it's not just customisable macros either, as the keys can be used to run commands, or launch applications as well.
Some players will also find the Cruise Control button a boon — by holding down the Cruise Control button, then pressing up to a combination of four buttons and releasing, the keyboard will then act as if those four keys have been held down continuously until the Cruise Control button is pressed again. If, for example, you wanted to continuously run forward in an FPS, you'd hold down the Cruise Control button, press W, then release both, and your character would indefinitely run forward.
The next thing that grabs your attention is that all the quick access are actual buttons. They're not tiny, or capacitive, out of the way or lay flush with the keyboard — they're big things you can mash, and from the multimedia keys to the nicely placed calculator shortcut above the numpad, this is highly appreciated. Two large dials are also present, one for altering the brightness of the backlit keyboard (which glows red for the most part, and orange for the macro keys), the other for adjusting the system volume.
A large and comfortable wrist rest is situated at the bottom of the keyboard, and it connects over USB.
Performance
The X6 was excellent to type on, and proved perfectly fine to speed type on. We didn't manage to hit a key limit when recording our macros, an excellent thing — and the editor included the facility for emulating up to five mouse buttons, altering the delay between key presses, and if you have a SideWinder mouse, switching between the three DPI settings available. It only allowed one DPI switch per key, however — entering more than one DPI switch resulted in the first command being processed, and the rest being ignored.
The X6 is an excellent gaming keyboard, providing innovation and useful features while keeping things simple.