VisionTek peripheral review

If you remember we reviewed the VisionTek X1950Pro a while ago. We were quite surprised by the quality of the whole package, so expectations were high for the XG6 gaming mouse, the MediaXchange keyboard and the LanPad. To be fair we did anticipate that the XG6 would be pushing the novelty factor just a bit too far, but as it turns out it is quite a good product overall.

XG6 Gaming mouse

There is no denying it; the XG6 is an odd one. What would otherwise be a normal 5-button optical mouse is transformed into the ultimate gaming device with the help of 3 separate 2-axis sticks. One is conveniently located right next to the mouse wheel, while the other two reside on the sides of the mouse, one just under the thumb area and the other where you normally put the little finger. As you can clearly see from the pictures the mouse is intended only for right-handed usage, so keep that in mind when considering a purchase.

The XG6 is a very big mouse, easily one of the biggest I have ever seen. While I personally appreciated this as I have very big hands, the mouse might turn out to be a bit overwhelming for people with smaller hands. The locations of two of the three extra sticks are somewhat problematic as well. The middle stick would generally be perfectly placed, but its position forced the designers to move the scroll wheel a bit higher than we are used to. The right stick is even more problematic, as using it is extremely inaccurate, both due to the fact that its location leaves things to be desired and the general stiffness of the sticks. The later thankfully doesn’t impact the two other sticks, as their location allows the user to accurately move them in the desired direction. Other than the dodgy quality of the sticks we have no other complaints about the hardware, as the quality of the mouse is top notch, and the ability to attach a wrist stand makes using the mouse even more comfortable. During our week of testing the mouse presented no issues whatsoever concerning accuracy or sliding. The 2000dpi optical sensor is also of the highest quality, so no complaints there (other than it might take you a while to get used to how sensitive a mouse is at 2000dpi).

The software that comes with the mouse isn’t exactly intuitive, but it gets the job done. The driver doesn’t add any real functionality and you have to rely on the provided software package to set anything up. The application lets you bind key combinations to the 4 directions on each stick, as well as additional commands for when the side sticks point in opposing directions. The application doesn’t support app sensing unfortunately, so you have to manually select profiles beforehand. There is also a Google Earth plug-in provided, so you can use the mouse with it as well.

Before starting up a game it is advised that the user familiarizes himself with the mouse, which can be done via a 3d application that is part of the package. The application is nothing fancy and it basically allows you to move a cube around with the help of the three sticks. Although the application is clearly very basic, it does show the potential of the mouse.

So how does the XG6 perform in games? We first tested it out with the most obvious genre – first person shooters. We fired up Half Life 2: Episode 1 (for which the software already had a profile) and gave it a whirl. The first few minutes (where there was hardly any action) were not so bad, but we did constantly want to start using the keyboard for controlling the movements. Things got out of control (no pun intended) when enemies started showing up. We were having severe trouble in overcoming our “instincts” and not using the keyboard, but even when we managed to get over that, things didn’t improve by much. Perhaps it’s partially our fault, but we just weren’t able to cope with controlling all the movement with just one hand.

Intimidated we decided to leave first person shooters alone, and focus on less reflex demanding games. Here the mouse performed much better and we were actually able to appreciate the extra buttons. By using custom profiles we were able to play Supreme Commander exclusively with the mouse, splitting the screen up and homing up on the various groups just by using the mouse. Role-playing games were also well fitted for the extra buttons (inventory, character sheets, etc.). Being able to switch the optical sensor resolution on the fly by using the side buttons with a nice voice telling us which resolution we were currently using was a nice feature as well.

So who would we recommend the XG6 to? People with big hands come to mind, as well as gamers who want to have extra bind-able buttons on the mouse. As long as you avoid using it to control all the movements in game you should be fine regardless of the genre you use the mouse in. The mouse has some shortcomings though: the quality of the sticks is not as high as we would have hoped for and the position of the scroll wheel is hardly ideal. Overall a good mouse that gamers will be able to appreciate.

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MediaXchange DCS Keyboard

The MediaXchange is a normal keyboard (especially when compared to more extravagant hardware like the XG6 mouse) that can also act as a dock station. When no attachments are installed the keyboard is just a regular media keyboard with a hidden USB mini-A connector located in the middle of the multimedia keys. The connector would be pretty useless if it wasn’t connected to the computer somehow, so the keyboard has two USB cables sticking out, one for the keyboard itself and the other for the attachments which use the afore-mentioned USB mini connector.

Inside the package there are two attachments – the iPod dock and a card reader attachment. The first acts just like any other iPod dock and it uses the same driver as well. The card reader has a separate driver, but our Windows XP installation recognized the reader just fine all by itself. The whole idea may seem gimmicky at first, but having a card reader at hand at all times is actually quite handy, especially for digital photographers or people who rely on various memory sticks. The reader supports the following standards:

• Compact Flash™ Type-I • Compact Flash™ Type-II • Microdrive ™ • Magicstor™ • MultiMediaCard™ • MultiMediaCard™ (MMC4.0) • Secure Digital™ • Secure Digital™ high speed

• Memory Stick™ • Memory Stick PRO™ • Memory Stick PRO™ MagicGate • Memory Stick ™ MagicGate • Memory Stick™ Select • Memory Stick Rom™ • Smart Media™ • Plus more

The MediaXchange is otherwise a typical US layout multimedia keyboard. The keys give solid feedback when they are pressed, but are otherwise unremarkable. The media buttons are well placed and don’t interfere with normal keyboard usage. The design of the keyboard is quite attractive with the prevalent black and some well placed silver color. It has a distinct plastic look, but at least it doesn’t attract fingerprints.

The MediaXchange DCS keyboard was a welcome addition to our already overfilled desk. Not only did it allow us to tuck away the old card reader, but it also looked great against some of the other hardware. Make no mistake; it’s not the most high quality keyboard product we have ever seen. In fact, if you think away the card reader and the nice design it is a pretty average keyboard. Still, we’d recommend it to anyone who fancies a good looking keyboard and either owns an iPod or uses memory sticks daily.

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