Closer Look
Even though it’s true that the design of the box isn’t as important as the quality of the product, it never hurts to be greeted by some nice-looking images. This box contains a rather lovely rendering of a warrior princess (I’m assuming) facing a giant blue alien/monster/demon (again I’m assuming) followed by the keyboard surrounded by a heavenly aura. Props to the art team for sure.
Upon the grand unveiling, I saw that the inside is mostly a barebones deal with the keyboard and cardboard compartments for the spare keys and keypuller.
It just about matches the usual expectations of such a device. Backlit keys, layout distinguishable from your standard office keyboard, and extra features. Well, for the most part. While the G265 does have some neat specs, it’s probably one of the skimpier gaming keyboards on the market which is appropriate as you’ll soon find out.
On the back are two USB 2.0 ports for easy and convenient access for flashdrives, card readers, or if you’re so inclined, you can just daisy-chain your mouse to the keyboard itself and save a motherboard or case port.
Now let’s talk about the LIGHTS!!!! Oh yes, the lights!
When I say lights, I mean it has lights on the keyboard and not a diverse color spectrum for each section. That’s ok, because I still really enjoy the azul color and seeing all the keys so well lit in the odd hours of the night when there’s little else to aid me in entering my passwords. The G265 comes with the obvious top-row keys for volume control, media buttons, and a light switch just in case you prefer the regular look, which to me is kind of strange, but it’s up to you. My only wish is that these buttons were also lit instead of resorting to indentifying stickers.
You’ll also have eight swappable keys for the WASD and arrow key sections which are, I believe, meant to be a metallic color, although it reminds me more of graphite than any precious metals I’m aware of. Still, for variety’s sake, they’re nice to have. Not to mention, they come in handy if you ever need replacements.
Oh yeah, a couple more things, you’ll probably find out extraordinarily fast on your own, but you should know the backspace key has been reduced to the same size of the number/character keys, and the backslash key has been sandwiched in between the equals-sign and backspace key itself. I won’t say it’s a terrible configuration, just know that it may take some getting used to; I’ve had the keyboard in my possession for roughly five weeks and still make the occassional slip-up, so make sure you get plenty of practice before going into virtual combat or Microsoft Office. Also, the volume control buttons are your typical speaker and plus or minus symbols; it’s fairly intuitive. There’s just one minor thing. They’re swapped. The original setup of “- and +” is now “+ and -” for some reason. Maybe some like this better, but, again, it would be best to practice on it before listening to loud music or playing a game so as to avoid muting when you want loud rock or blasting your ears if you need to hear someone talking.
