Today we are un-boxing the newest edition to my gaming rig – this is the Razer Nostromo Expert Gaming Keypad.

I have a bunch of peripherals for my gaming rig, the most advanced of which is my Logitec G700 mouse. I didn’t really use it so far for advance configuration and programming because I found that the most useful applications for me are stuff like going back and forward in the browser, hitting the Home button, stuff like that. The default configuration in the mouse, it does all of those things.

On the other hand, I don’t have a gaming keyboard that is configured to work with special functions in-game or other programs. Because I write a lot, not only my blog, but also I write role-playing games, books, stuff like that. I pick my keyboards based on my typing preferences, and most gaming keyboards I tried didn’t really fit into that role.

So I found this. It’s somewhat of a compromise between having a full-fledged gaming keyboard and having my current keyboard. When I need this stuff that requires the programmability, I can use this, the keypad.
It’s a nice box. I’m not really a guy that finds boxes that exciting, so I don’t really see the need to have this lead which has magnets that close it.

First things first, we look at the USB cord. Like a lot of Razer devices, it’s a threaded USB cord, with gold-plated connectors, not that it matters at all.

The gamepad itself has those 14 keys. It has a wheel, which also has a button below it. There is this button here, which is used, I believe, to change the profiles. This key replaces the space bar, and the directional pad.

The default configuration, as you can see here, is of a thumb stick, but if you remove this piece, you can see that it is a normal directional pad, with eight direction. Some people say it is more convenient to use it without the thumb stick, we’ll test it out later.

The arm rest can be removed, as you can see, then changed if you want it closer or further away from the keys; for your convenience really. People with small hands may want to move it completely, so they get up close and personal with that.

If you don’t understand the concept of a keypad, it essentially replaces other keys you may need for your left arm on the keyboard. It is designed for gaming, but really, people that use a lot of professional software, like video editing and graphic design also use those things because you can configure all those keys for shortcuts to use with those programs, which really makes working with them a lot easier.

You can’t see it right now because it’s not connected, but the whole thing is backlit. You can switch the backlight on and off here. You can see those legs which the device sits on. Unfortunately, you cannot change the angle at which it stands.

The device comes with software by Razer, which lets you fully control everything that this pad does. On the default setting, it will act just as the keys on your keyboard; W, A, S, and D, Caps Lock, Control, everything will be the same. Obviously, you don’t want all the keys to work the same in every game, so you will configure them to work differently. You can store up to 20 profiles, and each profile can have up to 8 different key maps. Overall, you have 160 different configurations for all those keys. I’m not talking just the press keys, but also the directional pad. Each direction can be programmed differently, of course, and the wheel itself can be programmed as well.

That’s really all there is to say about this nice gadget. This device costs around $60. Maybe after I’ve used it for a while, I will come back with a more detailed review.

This is it for this un-boxing and overview.

Thank you for watching.

Goodbye.