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In terms of aesthetics, the 6G V2 looks pretty much identical to the existing 7G. In fact, except from a few minor tweaks of the keyboard layout, you would be hard pressed to tell them apart. It has a very traditional design that wouldn't have looked much out of place ten years ago. But we think it has a classic style about it which will appeal to a wide audience.
At a glance it looks like SteelSeries have used matte plastic exclusively in the construction of the 6G V2. But the keys are actually mounted on an integral metal plate which gives the keyboard a very good quality feel. It also makes the 6G V2 extremely robust, meaning you can bash it in frustration as many times as you like without it breaking!
Unlike the Razer BlackWidow Ultimate that we recently reviewed, the SteelSeries 6G V2 doesn't have backlit keys. But considering the price difference between the two, this isn't surprising. We feel that it lacks some features that we've come to expect all keyboards to have. For example, there are no dedicated multimedia buttons on the keyboard. There are a few multimedia buttons configured as secondary functions on the F1-F6 buttons, which are a bit of a pain to use and are much more cumbersome than the dedicated buttons we've seen on some other, cheaper keyboards. They are activated by the SteelSeries key which is located where the Windows key would usually be.
As we mentioned earlier, one of the main differences between the existing 7G keyboard and the 6G V2 is the lack of a braided shielding on the cable. This doesn't detract from the quality feel of the keyboard too much and isn't important as the cable isn't going to attract as much wear as a mouse cable or a headset cable, which would be moved around a lot more. The cable terminates in a silver-plated USB connector.
