Roccat SOVA Gaming Lapboard USB Keyboard English Layout - for PC, Xbox One, PS4, LED Light (Blue), Mechanical Keys, Built-In Mouse Pad, (Part# ROC-12-181)

Product Information

Is a lapboard the best option for gaming? No. Not by a long shot. But if you’re looking at doing some PC gaming in a dorm room or a small apartment, both the Lapdog and the Sova have a lot going for them. At 16 feet long, the Lapdog’s included cabling is more than enough to get you where you need to go. But with that power supply, it begins to look a little kludgey. Given its rigidity, the cord is also hard to store when not in use.

But the worst part about the pillow is the hump in the middle. It sits right between your legs, which puts the lapboard into a position that’s acceptable for WASD-and-mouse use but very uncomfortable for general typing. I ended up putting it aside almost immediately, and I can report that the Lapdog works just as well without it. Gamer Network Limited, Gateway House, 28 The Quadrant, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1DN, United Kingdom, registered under company number 03882481. The Sova is also a little messy. With three cables potentially in play — one from the Sova to your PC, one for your mouse and one for your headset — you need to rely on good cable routing to keep things tidy. You might consider a wireless gaming mouse or headset to maximise the portability of the setup. Wrapping upI think the layout of the keyboard is particularly well-chosen; it’s compact but still includes all keys sans the number pad, ensuring simulators and other in-depth titles can still be played without issue. And not the anemic little thing with the touchpad from the conference room at work. You need something better. Something bigger.

The Sova is a comfortably expansive device, spanning the width of an average couch cushion. It’s divided into three zones, with an integrated keyboard in the upper left, a palm rest in the lower left and a mouse pad on the right side. The palmrest and mousepad are formed from plastic panels, which can be removed by pushing them up from the bottom. This presumably opens the door to functionally or aesthetically different alternatives, perhaps even made by third-parties or 3D printed at home. Roccat will offer at least two types of keys in when the final product comes out sometime next year.There’s even a little panel included to allow fans of the tenkeyless Corsair K65 to slip that inside instead. The 6-8 battery. It's not a huge qualm, but you would think that with so much additional space on the keyboard Roccat could easily increase the battery's capacity and recharge speed. (It'll take about four hours to go from no- to full-power.)

The keyboard uses a compact 75% size layout, as shown above and as explained below from this guide to keyboard sizes by The Keyboard Company. The Sova is supported by four cushions which clip into the underside of the unit, allowing the unit to lie flat on your lap without discomfort. I got a Switch. Then I tried Stadia because the Switch doesn’t have enough processing power for bigger games. Then Stadia died. The problems seem never-ending: I want to play Call of Duty with a coworker, but he’s on a PlayStation, but I want to play first-person shooters with a keyboard and mouse! But I don’t want to spend even more time holed up in my office. I like playing in my living room, making myself a small nest of nacho crumbs on the sofa, yelling and drinking beer with my spouse. You already own everything you need to get started - all that’s left to add is the Sova. Comfort Tested Gaming A four metre cable connects the Sova to your computer, including the integrated keyboard and two other USB peripherals (e.g. a mouse and headset). Routing options are provided to keep your cables tidy, including a mouse bungee that can be placed along the periphery of the Sova to meet your needs.Credit is provided by Novuna Personal Finance, a trading style of Mitsubishi HC Capital (UK) PLC, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Financial Services Register no. 704348. The register can be accessed through http://www.fca.org.uk The last and most important part of the design are the modular wrist rest and extendable mouse pad units. While no plan is in place to offer different styles of mouse pads or additional cushions, TechRadar was told that 3D-printer schematics would be provided to print your own modules. We liked The mouse bungee was also handy for cable management. However, we ended up removing it so that the mouse and keyboard could be put away separately when the Sova wasn’t in use; having the bungee in place lengthened the put-away and set-up process unnecessarily. Comfort & Usability It is, however, immensely comfy to use for long periods of time. Despite the whole thing being quite cumbersome for someone of my stature, I was able to sit with it on my lap for hours regardless of whether I had both feet planted on the floor or was cosied up in my preferred position of sitting cross-legged. The hard wrist rest did occasionally start rubbing after a while, but that was usually only after several hours of non-stop play and certainly long enough to get a good afternoon's game time in. In the end, while I still love the K70 itself, I have serious issues with the Lapdog. It’s just too big, the pillow is functionally useless, and it uses its cavernous insides to prioritize cable storage over ergonomics.