Introduction

In the early 60s, a prime-time animated sitcom centered on a futuristic American family, portrayed a utopian world where all the manual labor is performed by automatons and all that is required of humans is to press a single button that initiates the process. They didn’t even have to walk as they were transported by conveyer belt walkways and flying cars everywhere. That kind of convenience sounds good but imagine how much that is going to affect our health with the obesity epidemic already consuming most adults in North America. There are however, plenty of activities that we could simplify and streamline that are not detrimental to our health. Streamlining the process at work frees up extra time we can use to do more and increase our productivity output.

It sounds minute, but imagine how much time you can save in a year if you can combine work that consist of two button presses into one. If you have to press two buttons twice in an hour for 8 hours a day and it takes a second to press each button, by the end of the year you would have spent 3.24 hours in total pressing buttons. If you can combine those two button presses into one, you could cut that total time down to 1.62 hours. Now extend that thought into the rest of your daily keyboarding activities and combine over a dozen key presses into a single stroke, just imagine how much time you’ll save!

In the world of competitive gaming, minimizing latency in between each command is important to a successful match. This is why a lot of peripheral manufacturers equip their gaming keyboard lineup with extra programmable macro keys that can store a series of commands and be recalled when needed in game. This is now a very common feature, found in almost every single gaming keyboard manufactured, so gamers have plenty to choose from. If you are a gamer that requires more than 5 or 10 macro keys, however, the choices are slim. Roccat, a premier European gaming peripheral manufacturer, has a macro oriented gaming keyboard that aims to eclipse all the others in the market.

The Roccat Valo was designed to go beyond the average gaming keyboard. With over 41 macro keys, the Roccat Valo can record and store a massive amount of shortcuts in its 2MB memory. Combined with four switchable layers and five profiles, the Roccat Valo offers maximum customization, not just for in-game macros but for multimedia and productivity, as well. Macros can be recorded live while in-game or through the Roccat Valo driver software. Aside from the macro keys, there are also buttons for volume control, LED lighting control, as well as a Windows key disable button. Since it is made for gamers, the Roccat Valo also comes with audio jacks and a unidirectional microphone accessory that plugs in to the right side, so you can communicate with your teammates when you play online.