Speedlink Parthica Review

Keyboards purposely designed for gaming are sometimes overlooked by consumers, especially those on a budget. Gamers tend to prioritize the "mouse department", sometimes forgetting how important a nice keyboard is when it comes to quick and reliable presses. Those special features that you see splattered all over the packages of gaming keyboards actually matter, no, I'm not talking about the LED lights, I'm talking about profiles, macros, anti-ghosting and a few others.

With those gamers on a budget in mind, today we are reviewing the Speedlink Parthica, a membrane gaming keyboard that offers some of the most important features a keyboard designed for gaming can have, while keeping the retail price relatively accessible to everyone.

The Parthica comes packaged in a strong and sturdy cardboard box that does a good job when it comes to protecting it, important information if you're thinking about ordering yours online.

Speedlink's typical red and black color scheme is present here, along with some pictures of the product and a bunch of really important and not so important features listed both on the front and back of the box.

Opening the package immediately reveals a quick installation manual and a cd with some drivers that you should probably download from Speedlink's website anyway. Aside from that, there's the keyboard itself and not much else. Price is a very important factor here, so it's a smart move by Speedlink to keep unnecessary accessories out, so that the final retail price does not suffer from it.

I found the Parthica to be a good looking keyboard even when not plugged in, while you can certainly "feel" the gaming vibe oozing from it, the actual design is very elegant.

One thing that immediately surprised me was the construction quality, with most gaming keyboards on a budget, the plastic feels a bit flimsy and even cheap at times, not here. The Parthica feels and looks very solid, there's little to no flex in its structure and the rubberized finish feels really great. I actually wish more companies would give their keyboards this kind of coating as it makes them a lot more comfortable to use.

In terms of visual design and construction quality there were a couple of problems related to the LED's, they're very inconsistent in terms of brightness and even color.

As an example of too much brightness, I would say that the decorative cuts at the bottom of the keyboard are a bit too intense, you can adjust the brightness, yes, but then the rest of the keyboard feels a bit underwhelming in terms of intensity.

The other problem I found was related to the color of the Caps-lock, Num-lock and Scroll-lock lights, they are always blue no matter the color you choose for the rest of the keyboard (purple, blue, red). This means that if you like to keep things consistent in terms of colors, you better choose blue or else you're not gonna make it. It's a small issue indeed but worth pointing out nonetheless.

A thing that surprised us in terms of functionality was the ability to freely configure most of the keys on the keyboard, according to Speedlink's website, there's exactly 93 configurable keys and 15 programmable buttons. This gives you a lot of options when setting up the 5 available profiles, each of the profiles can be partnered up with a specific game or application, what this means is that when you boot up your favorite game, you can have a specific keyboard profile load with it. Certainly useful.

Aside from that, you have all the other necessary and vital features such as anti-ghosting, 6-key rollover, 1000Hz polling rate and internal memory to have all your settings available on the go.

A final note to mention that the software used to properly configure all of these settings is really accessible and easy to use, just as they should be.

Final thoughts

Speedlink did a fine job indeed, there's really nothing particularly wrong with the Parthica, it actually stands out, especially when compared to its competitors within the same price range, as a membrane keyboard, this one has everything you probably want.

Functionality-wise, the Parthica also has most of the necessary features and functions that a gaming peripheral, particularly a keyboard, should have.

Because of all this, I can't recommend it enough, if you're looking for an affordable membrane gaming keyboard, then the Speedlink Parthica might just suit your needs.

The Good

+Rubber coating

+Comfort

+Customization software

+Sturdy construction

+Price/Quality ratio
+Anti-ghosting and 6-key rollover

The Bad
-LED inconsistencies
-Lots of competition within price range

Thanks to Speedlink for providing the review sample