In use as a keyboard, the Merc Stealth offers the same functions as any standard QWERTY keyboard. The rounded, almost sloping nature of the board – as seen by using the space bar – just goes easy on the fingertips. The buttons have a flexible feel, but they and the whole keyboard are just a hair smaller than most. So for typing you may occasionally hit the apostrophe instead of the semicolon, but that will work itself out. It’s really no big deal, but a tiny problem that may pop up from time to time. So other than being more compact, the basic keys are all the same as any board.
My only problem with the keyboard part of this keyboard is that the arrow keys are meshed in with the num pad. I have two keyboards with arrow keys that are in their own cluster, but for some odd reason, even though the arrow keys on the Merc Stealth are the same distance as a normal board, the buttons around the arrows tend to throw me. If you don’t use the arrows, no big deal, but I imagine most users run into this problem.
The Delete, End, and Home keys are oddly placed in the num pad as well, but those are slightly easier to get used to. These three keys require the num lock to be off, so you will usually have to choose between a num pad and these three functions – so the num pad will most likely get the axe.
There are three ways to use the Merc Stealth in combat; really four, but that fourth way is if you just use this keyboard like any other, which defeats the purpose altogether. After you install the software, you can use the pre-set Ideazon settings to a wide selection of games, but other than a few multiplayer games you probably won’t use many of these. You can check for updates to the software online to see if any of the latest games are added. However, some of the choices for default mods you will not use, but luckily you can change them around.
Editing pre-set mods requires an awareness of the art. Oddly, most of the key sequences by default do not correspond to the correct key on the game pad they claim. The problem can be fixed through updates, but you should make sure every “key sequence” at the bottom in the edit mode will correspond to the actual key on the keyboard. It’s a bit tedious, but this way you can make the gaming pad on the Merc Stealth work with your game.
