Great design and craftsmanship will often inspire words such as ‘sleek, beautiful and elegant’, but the Poseidon Z Forged is more than meets the eye.
Product on Review: Tt eSports Poseidon Z Forged
Manufacturer: Tt eSports
Street Price: US: $119.99
Tt eSports promised gamers a ‘gorgeous and sleek’ keyboard and they certainly did deliver! Though it is easy to judge a book by its cover and if we were to do that now, out the box, the Poseidon Z Forged is absolutely stunning in such a way most pictures and images simply do not do it justice. But wait, there is more!
Taking a look under the hood, gamers will be able to get the most out of their macros with the Instant Shift System (I.S.S.) enabling them to instantly swap between profiles using the alt, ctrl or shift keys. Many will be pleased to see the inclusion of a dedicated USB hub and integrated DAC amplifier for headphones for convenience. Finally, having passed an ‘arduous’ testing process, Tt eSports are confident with their product to such an extent that they offer a 5 year warranty. Oh it has LEDs too…
Overview by Tt eSports
The POSEIDON Z Forged – the flawless black brushed aluminum faceplate with cut-edge designed Mechanical keyboard. Easy reachable ports and multimedia keys. The POSEIDON Z Forged features Tt eSPORTS Certified Mechanical switches, rated for 50 million keystrokes, built-in USB ports, sound-card, superlative pre-configured lighting zone combinations & the world’s first 5 Year Warranty on a Mechanical gaming keyboard.
Technical Specifications
Color: Black
No. of Macro Keys: 10 Key X 5 Set
No. of Game Profiles 5
Graphical UI: Yes
Weight: 3.26 Lbs
Gold-Plated USB: Yes
Dimension: 503 x 156.2 x 43 mm
Interface: USB
Type: Tt Certified Mechanical Blue
Anti-Ghosting Keys: 100% Anti-Ghosting with 104 key rollover on USB
On-Board Memory Size: Yes, 64kb
Polling Rate: 1,000 Hz
Back-Light: Yes, Full Blue LED Backlight
Wrist Rest: Yes/detachable
On-Board Audio Jacks: Yes
USB Cable Detachable: Yes
Multimedia Keys: 7
On-Board USB Port: 2
Cable Length: 1.8M
No. of Macro Keys: 10 Key X 5 Set
No. of Game Profiles 5
Graphical UI: Yes
Weight: 3.26 Lbs
Gold-Plated USB: Yes
Dimension: 503 x 156.2 x 43 mm
Interface: USB
Type: Tt Certified Mechanical Blue
Anti-Ghosting Keys: 100% Anti-Ghosting with 104 key rollover on USB
On-Board Memory Size: Yes, 64kb
Polling Rate: 1,000 Hz
Back-Light: Yes, Full Blue LED Backlight
Wrist Rest: Yes/detachable
On-Board Audio Jacks: Yes
USB Cable Detachable: Yes
Multimedia Keys: 7
On-Board USB Port: 2
Cable Length: 1.8M
Packaging & Bundle
The front of the packaging details the most relevant information about the product including the type of switches used, and the aluminium faceplate, though as sleek as the livery tries to be, there is some gaming jargon making its way to your eyes also.
At the back we get a list of features and specifications as well as a diagram of the keyboard detailing the locations of various features.
Inside the box you get a quick start guide, warranty card and a removable braided cable (1.8m long, USB – miniUSB)
Tt eSports also included a magnetic wrist rest, which is welcome as the Poseidon Z Forged is 43mm high.
The Poseidon Z Forged with its beautiful black brushed aluminium faceplate, these photos do it very little justice. Behind the keycaps we find a layer of blue which help the LED backlighting really pop out more.
Closer Look
At the left hand side of the keyboard, we get 5 (T1-5) easy to access macro keys.
A further 5 extra macro keys (T6-10) are accessible on the right hand side.
The F keys act as media keys when used with the Fn button, these include Previous Track, Play/Pause, Next Track, Stop, Mute, Volume Down, Volume Up, Change Profile, Change Lighting Zone and Windows Key lock. Brightness control can be fount on the cursor keys.
The Kailh switches offer good bang for buck and the Poseidon Z Forged is available in Blue or Brown. These switches are made for Tt eSports with a slight modification (not too dissimilar as to what we have seen from Razer) and something worth noting is that the actuation point has been tuned to happen precisely when you hear/feel the click.
The underside offers various cable routing which could be used for your mouse or headset too.
The Poseidon Z Forged has a detachable cable, eventually I want to see this offered as a wired/wireless helping, but in the meantime a detachable cable has some conveniences and inconveniences to it. Considering the size of this keyboard, it is likely to be a static desktop type affair to which a detachable cable is not entirely needed but its not really anything to think twice about.
Being powered by a single USB cable, a dual port USB hub can kinda be confusing, especially as there is no clarity about compatibility or USB iteration in use. The integrated audio DAC is also powered by the same USB cable, though it is admittedly a fairly weak DAC aimed for use in games only, either way, there will be some that would be happy with the inclusion.
The Tt eSports Poseidon Z Forged complete with wrist rest.
Software & Lighting
The software is available to download from the product page and is straight forward to install. The software feels a little slow at times but relatively simple to understand. Each key can be assigned a macro, remapped as a single key or be used to launch an application or program. You can save 5 profiles and you can swap between them by using Fn + F10, with the LED indicator swapping between Red, Blue, Green, Yellow and purple. Should this not be a quick enough way to swap between profiles, you can assign up to 3 profiles using the I.S.S. which means you can swap profiles on the fly using the Alt, Ctrl and Shift keys.
As far as interesting lighting goes, the Poseidon Z Forged is fairly limited with only 5 present modes available. This is unfortunately counter intuitive for those that like to custom map their macros with lighting. The preset modes are: Fully lit, Fully lit (minus num pad), FPS (WASD,1-6), MOBA (QWERDF, 1-6), and WASD with full top row of number keys. The lighting is bright and has been complimented by the blue background. There are 5 stages of brightness, not including off, or pulse.
Performance Testing
Setting up and installing the Poseidon Z Forged was mostly straight forward, but you may fight a little to attach the cable as there is only a small gap which you need to put the connector in, then slide into the port. This can be fiddly considering the multi-dimensional nature of USB connectors but isn’t a major issue, however considering the type of keyboard, this experience firmly suggests that a hardlined cable would have been the better option. Without a wrist rest, the keyboard feels a little tall and may strain your wrists, fortunately Tt eSports have included a magnetic wrist rest which attaches to the keyboard simply by aligning it. Unfortunately the wrist rest is a little narrow and when my hand is in a natural WASD position, the rest crosses under the base of my thumb knuckle and half down my palm. Despite this, it was fairly comfortable and did reduce strain on the wrist, but it is not ideal either.
In general use, due to the extra macros on either side, the Poseidon Z Forged is also around 50mm wider than a standard full size keyboard, taking up more desk real estate and widening your WASD to Mouse spacing (this is a thing right?). On top of that, I kept finding myself with the incorrect hand position when trying to find WASD as I often slide my pinky down to Ctrl to calibrate my position, those extra macros kept throwing that off, though this is more my own issue than to any fault of the keyboard as this would be something one would become accustomed to with regular use.
The Poseidon Z Forged we are looking at is equipped with Kailh blue switches, which sound and feel very similar to Cherry MX Blue. The actuation point proved to be located when the switch clicks, this in real world use didn’t become any real benefit or hindrance. As far as modern gaming keyboards go, most process many keys simultaneously and are labelled as anti-ghosting 6-KRO, 10-KRO or NKRO (meaning 6 keys, 10 keys or 100%/all keys), the Poseidon Z Forged joins the NKRO crew ensuring that each keystroke is registered, even if you grew another pair of hands. Lock keys will have no LED backlighting when switched off, and will display when turned on, including the Windows lock key/gaming mode.
Testing the keyboard with some typing, once getting used to the aforementioned position error I kept making, I could happily type my average word per minute without problems and didn’t encounter any serious flaw. To put it through its final testing, several bouts on CS:GO and DOTA2, we found that the Poseidon Z Forged proved itself to be reliable, feeling just as good as it looks.
Conclusion
In all of our testing with the Poseidon Z Forged, the initial judgement deserves to be stressed once again. This is a top quality and truly beautiful keyboard. It would have been nice to see the Tt eSports tone down their logo from the red colour to a more neutral white and while we are at it, white LED backlighting too (rather than Red/Blue). Though this keyboard is not just about looks. Gamers get a whole host of macro options and it features full NKRO too.
There are some questionable choices made in regards to the Poseidon Z Forged’s design though it all stems from the same place, the root and origin of its ails, the detachable cable.
A detachable cable is something that often appears on keyboards that are LAN/sporting orientated for convenience and portability. I often advocate for modularity in regards to cables though it seems a little pointless with the Poseidon Z Forged due to its size and weight. So what’s the consequence to having a detachable cable? Well, it makes it difficult to implement an audio and USB pass-through which would likely cost less than say, adding in a USB hub as well as a low power DAC for headphone and microphone. Logically, this seems to show a limitation of the design rather than having ‘awesome extra features’. Considering the reasonable street price of $119 (No UK pricing or availability, at least for now) it would beg the question of ‘What was sacrificed by the addition of the USB hub and DAC?’. The answer is likely to do with the lighting. One would expect a recently released keyboard to have at least ‘per-key customisation’ in regards to the illumination, however the Poseidon Z Forged only has a selection of preset modes. Yes, there are many other wallet friendly illuminated keyboards that also run with a selection of preset lighting modes and rarely do we see them paired with USB/audio connectors too. Though do not forget that the MSRP of the Poseidon Z Forged is $139, placing it above a substantial amount of lower priced models.
It is because of these reasons, the Poseidon Z Forged misses out on becoming something quite extraordinary. Ultimately, rather than thinking about what could have been and focusing on what IS, the Poseidon Z Forged is one mechanical keyboard gamers will love and is deserving of your attention should it fall in your price range.
The Poseidon Z Forged merges beauty and top craftsmanship that is backed by a 5 year warranty, creating a reliable yet stunning keyboard gamers will love.
Pros.
+ Beautiful
+ High quality construction
+ Loads of macro options for gamers
+ Integrated USB hub and DAC
+ Reasonable pricing
+ 5 year warranty
+ Available with Blue or Brown switches
Cons.
– Lack of customisable lighting
– Wrist rest could be a little larger
+ Beautiful
+ High quality construction
+ Loads of macro options for gamers
+ Integrated USB hub and DAC
+ Reasonable pricing
+ 5 year warranty
+ Available with Blue or Brown switches
Cons.
– Lack of customisable lighting
– Wrist rest could be a little larger
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
