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Both keyboards arrived together in the same black and red accented boxes. The artwork is great, its very dramatic and slightly sinister which is exactly what Thermaltake wanted to achieve.
The Challenger box opens up in a very stylish manner to showcase the various technologies incorporated as well as putting the CD in the center position for easy access.
The keyboard is beautifully finished and we like the red Tt logo which is in the center at the bottom of the board. When this is plugged into a USB port it glows red.
One of the more unusual decisions is the fan storage port top left. Yes, in case you didn't already know, both keyboards on review today have a tiny fan which can be plugged into the keyboard to keep your gaming hands cool. Say what?
The fan slips out from the rear of the chassis and a little rubber ‘bung' is removed on the keyboard to allow this fan to be connected and therefore powered.
You can attach this fan to either the top left of the keyboard, or the top right, whichever works best for you. This is one of the most unique features I think I have even seen on a keyboard and while its rather interesting, after a little while of using it, I found my hands getting cold, rather than chilled. Then again, im not an ace high octane clan gamer either, so perhaps on the right hands it would work wonders.
The Keyboard is relatively thin and it almost looks like the futuristic shell of some Alien entity. Yes, perhaps ive been playing Starcraft 2 too much lately!
The keyboard is supplied with risers on both sides of the rear, for angled typed positions. This is a rather standard feature now, but we would be lost without it. There is also a single USB 2.0 connector to allow easy connectivity of another device, such as a mouse or memory card reader.
There is a pouch supplied with the keyboard which is home to a replacement rubber housing for the Fan connector, in case one is lost. There are also two replacement keys for the Windows Key positions which can be replaced by the supplied key remover tool.
The keyboard is connected to a braided gold plated USB cable.
The Braiding is high quality and ive taken a shot with a high intensity flash to show you the ridged appearance. It will be extremely durable even under heavy, long term use. The cable ends in a rather funky looking Thermaltake branded header plug, which is gold plated for longevity.
Above the Tt logo on the keyboard glowing red, under two different lighting environments.
Very interesting review thanks Zardon. looking forward to seeing the prices.
my brother would love the lit keyboard, that looks quite wicked. not my thing though 🙂
Good review thanks,
Very good review, quite funny in parts also, thanks for your hard work.
interesting to see Tt take a new direction
Some of that photography was great in this review, not often I say that.
I like the ordinary board more, all those lights irritate me, but I guess gamers at night might like them. I never look at the keyboard when gaming however!
On my new ipad here and the site is perfect on it good job !
Oh yes the keyboards. They look good, but not for me personally. I am not a hardcore enough gamer to need a hand fan, I would love to know how many people buy this just for the fan to try it out? 20%? anyone else?
Hahah, a hand fan, seriously Thermaltake, WTF!
Its inventive thats for sure, all we need now is a cup holder and a pizza cutter and we are ready to frag!
Well those are interesting. loved the testing page, gave me a right ole chuckle 😉
Without pricing info its hard to nkow if they are good value, but if the lit board is 60 quid and as good as zardon says, seems a good buy
Very good review, nice pictures and text was well written as always.
Im interested to know why Thermaltake are suddently releasing so many great products, they were never so good in the past? Company management changeover?
very good looking products from thermaltake, nice to see more competition emerging in this sector. I think we will start to see more like these from Thermaltake in the future. The company has been very active in trying to appeal to a much more educated audience lately which we like.
I agree zardon, its always good to see more competition arising in markets like this. its a problem with the graphics card sector, with only two big players, its not as well priced as it could be.
Great keyboards, great review! However, on the bottom of page 4, it looks like the black ‘up arrow’ key is broken in the pic with the red ‘down arrow’ and the red ‘left arrow’ key changed to red . . . what’s up with that?
ooooops – I meant to say “right arrow” instead of “left arrow” – I’ve had couple beers, so sue me! LOL
One thing not mentioned was whether the keyboards were audibly clicky if so how loud?