Fully programmable
With 10 keys, a throttle wheel, an 8-way directional pad, and three shift states, there's a whole lot of potential functionality in the Speedpad. Fortunately, Belkin's excellent Profile Editor makes mapping keys, setting axes, and creating macros and shift states a breeze.

Control everything from bindings to macros to multiple profiles

Although the Profile Editor makes programming the Speedpad simple, the ability to save multiple profiles makes things much more convenient if you play a bunch of different games with different key mappings. You can even save your profiles and—if you're a total geek—trade them back and forth with friends.

The Loadout Manager keeps track of profiles for your controllers

Belkin's Loadout Manager keeps all your profiles in check by letting you load them manually or associate them with executables so profiles are loaded automatically when you fire a game up. The Loadout manager supports several different Belkin controllers, and should keep you covered no matter how many games or custom profiles you have.

Gaming goodness?
Technically, the n30 and n50 have a lot going for them. They even look pretty badass. To test each controller's mettle in the real world, I subjected myself to hours of everything from Counter-Strike to Medal of Honour to Command and Conquer.

Oh, the things we hardware reviewers subject ourselves to in the name of thorough journalism!

Let's tackle the n30 first, because it's quite a bit different in the wild than the mouse you might be used to. Because of its small size, you end up moving the mouse much more with your fingers than anything else. In fact, during use, my palm doesn't make contact with any part of the mouse.

The n30 is meant to be cradled between your fingers

Controlling the mouse with one's fingers rather than one's entire hand does make things noticably more precise. However, comfort suffers over time. During extended gaming, both my fingers and wrist were more tired than usual, but my sniping accuracy was a little improved.

I could never have been a hand model

Other than the awkward hand position, the n30 was flawless in my testing. The mouse wheel was perfect, and tracking was great as long as the mouse's internals were clean.

During my testing I became a huge fan of Belkin's third mouse button placement at the thumb rather than on the mouse wheel. Since I use my first and middle fingers for mouse1 and mouse2, clicking mouse3 on a normal mouse has always required removing a finger from one of the other buttons. With the n30, mouse3 sits right at your thumb and doesn't sacrifice control over any of the other buttons. That might not seem like a big deal, but my reflexes are slowing in my old age, so I'll take any advantage I can get.

Unlike the n30 Gaming Mouse, which sacrifices comfort for precision, the n50 Speedpad is the most comfortable game controller I've ever used. With the entire surface area of my hand making contact with the Speedpad, gaming for hours was a breeze—no soreness or stiffness at all.

The Speedpad cradles your hand quite comfortably

As odd as it looks, all of the controls just fall into place with the Speedpad. It's remarkably simple and intuitive to use. In fact, through hours of gaming, I don't think I ever really had to move my hand on around the Speedpad. All the controls simply fall directly under your fingertips.

Everything in the right place and well within reach

Simpler games like Quake III Arena don't really take full advantage of the Speedpad's programmability, but more complex shooters like Ghost Recon and Counter-Strike are ripe candidates for tweaked profiles. With simple games, the Speedpad is really more about comfort, and it's a lot more comfortable than any keyboard I've used.