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One side-effect of having a replaceable keyset mechanism is the sheer thickness of the Shift. This makes it a little uncomfortable to use without the included wrist rest. But when the wrist-rest is attached, the keyboard feels much better and we would recommend using it all the time.
On the underside of the keyboard there are adjustable rubber feet which allow for three different height settings in total. These let you set the keyboard up to your preferred angle for comfortable typing.
The keys themselves have a slightly cushioned action as a result of the rubber-dome switches that SteelSeries have used. We found that they provide an ideal level of resistance for gaming and are very responsive on the whole. The only slight issue that we have with the keys is the broken space bar. This isn’t a huge issue but we occasionally found ourselves hitting the gap and activating each side at the same time. We can’t really say that the Shift is ideally suited to typing long essays as the key action seems a little imprecise but this is true of many gaming keyboards on the market.
Inside the box there is a small leaflet which directs us to the SteelSeries website to download the configuration utility. This is only around 11Mb in size so doesn’t take too long to download and install.
The ‘SteelSeries Engine’ software lets us set up the Shift however we like. We can assign custom macros to every key and set up multiple profiles for switching configurations quickly. There is also a ‘Stats’ option which lets us monitor keyboard activity to see which keys we use the most.
