Thermaltake Poseidon Z Plus Smart Keyboard Review

By David Ramsey

Manufacturer: Thermaltake Technology Co., Ltd.
Product Name: Poseidon Z Plus Smart Keyboard
Part Number: KB-PZP-KLBLUS-01
UPC: 8411630230 EAN: 4717964400420
Price As Tested: $99.99 (Thermaltake Store)

Full Disclosure: Thermaltake’s Tt eSPORTS division provided the product sample used in this article.

As the consumer mechanical keyboard resurgence matures, vendors are looking for ways to distinguish their products. Thermaltake’s “Tt eSPORTS” division has a new idea for a feature: a Bluetooth 4.0-enabled smart keyboard that, in conjunction with an iOS or Android applet on your phone or tablet, tracks and compiles statistics on how you use your keyboard (and your enabled mouse, if you have one) for posting to social media. Benchmark Reviews looks at the Poseidon Z Plus Smart Keyboard in this article.

My first article for Benchmark Reviews, back in 2009, was entitled “Professional Mechanical Keyboards”, and at the time such keyboards were not only unusual, but pretty expensive. Now you can get a good mechanical keyboard that will last for many years for not that much money, with prices for basic keyboards as low as $60 or so. This price drop has been fueled by the expiration of the patents of German mechanical key switch maker Cherry, allowing several Chinese companies to introduce lower-cost clones of the famous Cherry switches.

Unlike most other gaming keyboards, the Poseidon Z Smart Keyboard does not support any macro functionality. In fact there are no special drivers you have to install to use this keyboard: just plug it in and go. You will need to install the appropriate iOS or Android application on your tablet or smart phone to make use of its extra features, though.

Features

• Advanced Bluetooth 4.0 technology
• 4-level adjustable backlighting
• Tactile feedback Kailh blue mechanical switches rated at 50 million actuations
• N-key rollover with anti-ghosting
• Multimedia shortcuts + Windows key lockout
• 5-year warranty

Let’s take a look at this keyboard in the next section.