An undeniably cool peripheral that functions as expected, and with three different colors of backlighting there is little to complain about.

Saitek has managed to make quite a name for itself in the PC peripheral market. Considering the company's standard of providing reasonably priced, cool looking, and good quality products, it comes as no surprise that the Eclipse II keyboard does not stray far from the Saitek mold.

Appearance

In the past several years, the appearance of computer peripherals has improved dramatically. While you can still find the boring beige keyboards of yesteryear, the majority of new peripheral products tend to take style into account with their design. With the Eclipse II, Saitek has made aesthetics its main selling point. The angular design of the keyboard is decidedly modern, with a high-tech silver plastic surface surrounding the matte gray laser etched keypad.

In the corners, the oversize feet extend beyond the outside edge of the top surface of the unit, creating a unique, symmetrical, horizontally stretched "x" shaped footprint. The overall style of the Eclipse II is quite attractive, but the true kicker, the defining cool-factor is the remarkable three-color, manually dimming backlighting. By hitting a button at the top right corner of the keyboard, the user can select between red, blue and violet backlighting. A twist of a knob in the multimedia control array can increase or decrease the brightness of the light.