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| Brand: Belkin
Category: CE
Buy New: Too low to display
New (43) Used (1)
Avg. Customer Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 804
Platform: Mac Os X
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Operating System: Mac OS X
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 4.1 x 8.5 x 9.1
Warranty: Lifetime
MPN: F8GFPC200
Model: F8GFPC200
UPC: 722868643150
EAN: 0722868643150
ASIN: B000WMEHYG
Release Date: March 10, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 AWESOME! November 4, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME! Seriously love this game pad. There was a slight learning curve to get used to it after I'd been using the keyboard for so many years, but witin just a few days, I'm gaming faster and more efficient than ever. Wish I would have made the change years ago!
 Pwnsauce? November 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I look at everything in terms of what it takes to be the best and get to the point quickly.
WHY USE AN N52TE? The primary purpose is so that you can free up your WASD fingers that control movement by using the thumb controlled DPAD instead. This results in having the ability to press more buttons/abilities while moving around. Instead of your pinky finger and thumb being the only ones free while moving, all 4 of your fingers are free and have 14 buttons nearby. There's more to be said about this...
PERKS? Some quick perks about the N52TE are the keystroke pressure feels very good, the comfort is above average, and changing button maps with their software is cake.
A DPAD? Anyway, the most important part of this gamepad is losing the WASD keys for the DPAD, which is the same purpose of all gamepads with DPADs. So the DPAD of any gamepad is going to be the most important aspect. The primary problem with DPADs is this: Try strafing left and right as fast as possible using the WASD keys, it's pretty much instantaneous and 100% controlled, and then doing the same with any DPAD requires your thumb to rock back and forth... time delay with a little bit of unknown.. In FPS games your left and right strafing execution can be extremely important as well as all movement controls. You have to know exactly when you are changing strafe directions to reverse your mouse movement and maintain head shots while strafing. That is a place unacceptable to get sloppy for the sake of pressing more keys while moving.
I've been working on getting good with the N52TE and am having a hard time getting past the slight loss of control. I dont consider this one of the best DPADs and I've tried the joystick extension on and off(a little more accurate w/ the stick popped off). If the DPAD was more impressive and tuneable in different ways this product would be great instead of good.
WHO NEEDS ABSOLUTE ACCURACY? In games such as WoW (T6 warlock here..when it was more of a challenge) where accuracy isn't as important as having a lot of abilities at your fingertips while moving around as in pvp, this can be a godsend for you. I do find there to be a lack of buttons, compared to a WolfKing Warrior that can only be described as button heaven. Most classes and games can get by with 14 quickly accessed primary abilities/functions. The shift/alt/mode changes are all options for secondary type buttons if you wish. I find memorizing buttons overtop buttons tends to be more difficult than memorizing dedicated buttons.
The mouse roller piece rolls well while clicking into place solidly, and is an interesting and functional piece to map it's purpose. The buttons next to the DPAD I would recommend using as out of combat type buttons otherwise it defeats the purpose of the DPAD of moving while using abilities. You definitely cant jump while moving if you think that big bar is a jump button.
If you want to go with WASD instead of a DPAD I recommend the Wolfking Warrior Keypad, otherwise this N52TE is very functional and versatile DPAD gamepad type.
 Sorry Belkin you lose October 18, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought this a month and half ago.Everything works fine EXCEPT the diagonal direction on the D-Pad.I went to Belkin's forum site and they had said they are working on a firmware fix.Then about 2 weeks ago the forums were shut down,saying they are fixing a glitch for the boards!They couldn't take all of the criticism they were getting,so my guess is they just canned it.I do not understand why this item was even released with the D-Pad not working properly.Diagonal direction in most games is rather important to say the least.I will never buy another Belkin product,shoddy craftsmanship,zero support,and don't even have the balls to take the flak.
 Not impressed with the quality. A downgrade from the original... October 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I thought I would give the Belkin n52te a chance and 'upgrade' from the original n52 Nostromo I've been using happily for over 4 years. Well, I wouldn't call this an 'upgrade'. To tell you the truth, I fell like I downgraded my gamepad with this new product.
First, the product I received didn't function properly. When pressing the thumb key (mapped to the Space bar by default), nothing would happen. I tried the device with and without the Belkin drivers to make sure the problem was not software related. In fact there appears to be a mechanical issue with the key pad, which could originate from bad design or poor manufacturing quality.
Second thing I noticed is that the new n52te is much lighter than the original. And if you have large hands, it doesn't lay flat when in use. The keypad would lift up and tilt with just a slight push on the palm rest. This makes it very difficult or impossible to use when gaming since it bounces back and forth.
If you're looking for a good gaming keypad, don't fall for the pretty lights and the sexy look of the n52te. It's all superficial, only skin deep, the quality is lacking. I would recommend the original n52 without hesitation. Belkin seriously dropped the ball with the n52te. I wish I had not purchased this item.
 Very nice, there are a few missing features though October 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Picked up this sweet, sweet controller. One of the things that has always bothered me about MMOs is the sheer number of abilities jobs/classes/whatever the hell you want to call them have, and how practical it is for us as humans to access them when it's vital. We only have so many fingers, ya know? This really comes into play when PvP is introduced, where split-second timing is incredibly important. It doesn't do anybody a lot of good to have spell interruption abilities if you can't find the right Ctrl-Shift+Number key fast enough to use it before your face is melted off with a fiery blast.
So with that in mind I went on a quest to find a controller that would meet my needs. I wanted something that I could rapidly mash buttons on in a way that wouldn't require me to have to hunt them down visually, so being able to place my fingers strategically on the device was a must. It would also have to fit on the smallish slide-out keyboard tray that my desk has, and easily share the space with my mouse, which also sits on the keyboard tray. It would have to have enough buttons to make the most useful abilities my class has a button-push away. I had originally thought that a device which mimicked MMO ability bars would be perfect (something like 2 or 3 rows of very large buttons that you could smack, mounted above a keyboard.) However, that wouldn't be practical for a lot of MMO games which rely heavily on abilities, WAR being one of them. So I dropped that idea (such an accessory doesn't exist anyway) and moved on to browsing through pages of controllers.
I examined gaming keyboards as well as gaming mice. I decided to get a new mouse, as the one I had was just a standard 3 button mouse, and picked up a Razor DeathAdder. Great mouse, extremely sensitive, good feel, but holy crap I was in the usersettings.xml changing the mouse sensitivity faster than a grasshopper jumping off a hot skillet. Even the slightest mouse movement caused my screen to whip around so fast I almost fell out of my chair. I digress, however. One of the top rated controllers was the n52te. I read the feedback from users on this one, as well as other highly rated controllers, and the n52te, while disappointing to people who owned the original n52, had good reviews from people who had never owned the older version. I took a chance and bought it, because it looked like it might meet my needs.
A couple of days later it was in my hands; yesterday, as a matter of fact. Plugged it in, went to the website and downloaded the latest drivers, and away I went. Placing my hand on it I knew that ergonomically it was fairly well thought out with the placement of the various buttons, as well as the thumb hat switch. There are a few buttons that are just not practical, depending on how you use the controller. The way I use it is the thumb hat switch controls movement, and the buttons laid out on the top row are for the most commonly used abilities. The second row is for debuffs, and the third row (which is pretty awkward to use, requiring the user to have to curl their fingers up to reach) is morale abilities since they're used infrequently. The mouse is used for camera panning, and the mouse wheel is used for jumping. The right mouse button is held in almost all of the time to facilitate camera panning. The middle button is assigned to jumping, and the easiest to use side button cycles through enemies, while the button next to it targets the nearest enemy.
It took a bit to get used to moving around with my thumb instead of WASD keyboard input, and getting a feel for where the buttons are for abilities is something I'm still getting comfortable with. However, the potential for rapidly and intuitively selecting abilities is really obvious. Once this controller becomes second nature to operate, woe be unto Order!
Now for the cons.
- The buttons directly above and below the thumb hat switch are next to useless when using the thumb switch to move your character around. When you're running an enemy down, you certainly aren't going to take your thumb off the direction controls to try to press one, otherwise the enemy will be out of range or worse, strafing around you pwning your face. As a result, they're assigned to really infrequent tasks. Namely bringing up the map, and I don't think I even have the bottom button assigned to anything at all.
- The hat switch doesn't depress to act like another button. This is such a HUGE miss on Belkin's part. Why? Because the controller has the capacity to operate in 3 different modes, each one mapping to different sets of keys. This means that all of the character abilities that could be accessed with regular number keys, ctrl+number keys, and alt+number keys could have been selected if a hat switch button was present to cycle through the different modes. As a matter of fact, as far as I know, there's no way to cycle through the different modes using the controller! I could be wrong (and probably am), but looking through the documentation it never mentioned how to map a key to cycle through modes. The point is, being able to cycle through different abilities using a hat switch button would enable the user to continue moving around while selecting upwards of 42 abilities! As it stands, the controller relegates its users to only 14, which is still really REALLY freakin' nice, but I can't help but think about how awesome it would be to have access to 42.
- The controller's key mapping editor. It's HORRIBLE. Apparently they thought it would be a good idea to use some fancy graphics which doesn't scale at all on large resolution displays. So, if you're like me and run at a high resolution, good luck trying to read all that tiny text. The way the help is integrated into the editor is also horrible. HORRIBLE! It has these bizarre slide-outs that allow a user to interact with the index and subjects. You just have to see it to understand how bad it is. Couple it with high resolutions and it's made of pure fail. Also, the fact that you can only map a SINGLE key, as opposed to key combinations, to a button is retarded. I'm sure if you delve into making a macro you can use key combos, but why the hell can't I just do it in an easy fashion? Overall, the editor is clunky, ugly, and incredibly counter-intuitive.
- The rows of buttons aren't spaced far enough away from one another. I think it would have made people a lot happier if the buttons were a bit smaller so the spacing between them would be distinctive enough to know which button is which when feeling for a selection. As it stands there's not enough room to really know which buttons your fingers are aligned with without having to glance if you've moved your fingers for whatever reason. It would also help if the buttons were more concave, to really give a user good tactile feedback that their fingers are centered on them.
That's about it. Overall it's a great controller, and if and when they fix that god-awful editor it will be a hell of a lot better. That missing hat switch button is truly a huge oversight on their part though, and one that can't be fixed without a new revision of the device itself, unfortunately.
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