Gamepad Z Fang review

Many modern action games require quick reactions, mastery of your character. Playing them from the side looks like a waltz on the keyboard. For those whom God has endowed with outstanding masculine virtues, manufacturers produce special game controllers. I want to talk about one of them Ideazon Z-Fang today.


The dimensions of the gamepad are approximately 25x15x3cm, that is, as an ordinary keyboard in length and height and as a third in width. It has 38 main keys, 7 multimedia keys and 1, which opens special Z Engine software, the disk with which is included. This software is responsible for the correct operation of the device in games. But about the program later, first about Z Fang itself.



Alas, my acquaintance with the gamepad began with a slight disappointment. The device is made of cheap plastic, not so bad that it was unpleasant to hold a hand on it, but tactile sensations do not deliver pleasure. This is especially felt when I put my hand on it with Logitech Comfort Wave . Despite this build quality is good: the gaps are small, nothing rattles, does not sink. It is especially nice that the buttons are pressed very quietly, there is no familiar keyboard knock.


My small hand rests on the gamepad quite comfortably, although you have to raise the brush to reach the top row of numbers. The buttons on the sides are very convenient to press with the thumb and little finger. In general, the layout of the keys and their shape are well thought out. For example, one of the side buttons is round and the other oblong, so as not to confuse, and in the top three keys on the sides of the main one one is made convex for the same purpose. Thanks to the symmetrical design, using the gamepad will be equally convenient for right-handed and left-handed people.

There were no problems connecting. The device immediately worked, the software got up easily (Win 7).

A special Z-Engine program allows you to bind gamepad keys to actions in the game. By default, the program offers settings for several dozen games, the most popular MMORPGs and shooters. You can create your own profile or change the default. Z-Engine does not know how to write and execute complex macros, but can assign a sequence of actions with gaps between them to a single key without problems. The program works in the background, the RAM eats about 10 meters, which allows you to almost forget about it and remember, only if you need to change the profile. However, using Z-Fang without a working program is problematic, for example, button 2 of the gamepad, on which the card opening can be hung, coincides with Caps Lock, which forces you to monitor the enabled register before writing to chat. If the program works,

In World of Warcraft, the gamepad performed well. It allowed to simplify many actions, for example, to open all bags at once by pressing only one key, and not the combination Shift + B. Due to the fact that the keys are located nearby, it’s very convenient to switch targets with your little finger, and take them as an anonymous assistant. I also put control over the pet on separate keys, which allowed me to run at the same time, dodging blows, and set the animal on enemies. It took me a couple of hours to get used to the gamepad and stop glancing at it before pressing the keys. But after that, using an ordinary keyboard was already unusual and less convenient.

I'm not a fan of shooters, so I have not tested the gamepad in this kind of game. But intuitively it seems that playing with him will be very convenient.

Also, I did not configure the device to work in office applications to emulate pressing several keys at once, for example, Ctrl + Shift + U in Photoshop. I think that someone might like these features.

In my opinion, the gamepad justifies its price of 700 rubles ($ 25), it is really more convenient to play the MMORPG with it, especially for those who have not yet mastered all the pa in the waltz on the keyboard.