The Zone Control Software Review: A Comprehensive Look at the Z12's Features and Functionality

As I sat down to review the EVGA Z12 gaming keyboard, I couldn't help but feel excited about the prospect of exploring its various features and functionality. The first thing that caught my attention was the software that came bundled with the keyboard - the zone control software. This software is a key component of the Z12's overall experience, and it's clear that EVGA has put a lot of thought into its design.

One of the standout features of the zone control software is the color wheel that it provides. While it does offer a full range of colors and presets, there is one notable exception - yellow. Unfortunately, the Z12 struggles to accurately display colors with a yellow tint, and this can be a bit of an issue in certain situations. On the other hand, the orange key is handled nicely, and even when adjusted for saturation, it looks like a skin tone.

In addition to the color wheel, the zone control software also offers some configuration options for the keyboard's keys. This includes the ability to disable certain keys through a game mode button - a feature that I'll explain in more detail later. The general settings section of the software is also worth noting, as it allows users to customize their key assignments and even assign macros to specific keys.

One area where the zone control software truly shines is in its macro capabilities. This feature allows users to create complex keyboard shortcuts and assign them to a variety of keys - including those that are not normally available through normal typing. There's also a full macro editor, which can be used to create even more advanced macros. What's worth noting is that these macros can be saved into specific profiles, making it easy to switch between different settings depending on the situation.

Now, I know what you're thinking - "But Mike, this is a mechanical keyboard with membrane switches... isn't that a problem?" And yes, it does pose an issue for many enthusiasts who prefer the tactile feedback and responsiveness of mechanical switches. However, I believe that there's a place for membrane switches in the market, especially at the entry-level price point.

In terms of performance, the Z12's membrane switches are quiet and require only a light press to activate. This makes them feel quicker than some other membrane keyboards on the market - although it can also lead to more typos as you adjust to using them. There is a characteristic "mushiness" to these keys that may take some getting used to, but overall, they're perfectly good for the price point.

That being said, there are a few small issues with the Z12's switches - namely, the rattling of cheap stabilizers on larger buttons and the bobble head action found on these same keys. These may not be deal-breakers for everyone, but they can be distracting at times.

So, what does this all mean? In short, the EVGA Z12 is a solid gaming keyboard that offers a lot of value for its price point. While it's not perfect - and may not meet the expectations of some enthusiasts - I believe that it's an excellent option for those who are looking for a reliable and customizable keyboard without breaking the bank.

For the target audience, the Z12 is perfect for those who are looking for a reliable gaming keyboard at a budget-friendly price point. It's also an excellent choice for those who need a spare or backup keyboard - and want one that can keep up with their needs.

In conclusion, I'm Mike from Hardware Canucks, and this concludes my review of the EVGA Z12 gaming keyboard. I hope you enjoyed this piece of content, and I'll see you all in the next one!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall right everybody well it's mike here with hardware canucks and this is gonna be a fun little one but i want to start on a little bit of a more serious note because of the fact that we've been criticized in the past because a lot of our keyboard reviews might be catering a little bit more to the elitists among you i mean just listen to some of these prices of the keyboards that demetrius covered 250 for 179 149 and 159 129 150 but anyways this one is gonna be a little bit different from all those other keyboard reviews that we've done because it is going to focus on price to performance and i am hellbent from the starting of this year to try to find some of the best bang for buck items that i possibly can in the pc hardware and peripheral spaces so that's why i came across this robert hit me this is the evga zed or z depending on what side of the pond you're on 12. now this thing right now goes for 15 bucks in the us and even here in canada i picked up for 20 bucks at canada computers i'm gonna leave a link down below for exactly where you can buy it and why is this 15 keyboard so important well it's because it's actually a 50 keyboard that has been deeply discounted for a while now to between 15 and 20 bucks and look if you paid that 50 bucks i have to say i'm really sorry but since it used to be priced much much higher the z12 isn't your normal hunk of budget junk there's no gaudy colors or ugly gamery bling we sometimes see on cheap keyboards it's flat black stealthy look would pretty much fit into any setup and no that big evga logo it isn't illuminated thank freaking god build quality is what it is for an all plastic design let's be honest here this isn't a high-end keyboard by any stretch of the imagination that's built like a weapon but for 15 bucks it's actually one of the best built entry level or maybe for this price you'd call it sub entry level keyboards i've come across period oh it's also got an ip32 rating for all those dorito and mountain dew spills that are probably going to be splashed all over this thing but other than that evg has included a couple of really nice features that are actually going to make your life easier so first of all is this long-ass braided usb cable i mean this thing is the perfect length to pretty much reach anywhere you need it to outside of a wireless keyboard the other thing that they included is height adjustable feet and let me tell you that two level angle adjustment is a really nice touch with every single level getting rubberized feet so this thing doesn't go sliding around your desk like a drunk figure skater but if you really want ergonomics go pick up the wrist rest that evga has it'll be a good investment i mean it's 10 bucks right now so why the hell not the all-new hs series from corsair is what your ears have been waiting for the hs55 stereo brings a comfortable super lightweight and awesome sounding headset to your budget gaming station with a fantastic sounding microphone the hs65 surround steps it up a notch with included usb dongle and sound id technology for next level audio while the hs80 rgb usb is probably my new favorite daily driver because of these awesome breathable ear pads a fantastic sounding clear microphone and really powerful high-res drivers check out the full hs series down below the actual typing area is pretty straightforward for a full-size keyboard but with a few key evga extras there's an area with dedicated macro buttons to the left along with a gaming button that disables the window key there's also dedicated media buttons but you have to take into account there's no volume wheel so you'll need to use the function plus f11 or 12 for that meanwhile the top number keys act as a way to switch between the board's nine different profiles the keys what can i say about them well for laser etched abs keycaps they feel okay at first but once you start using the z12 they show finger oil and they get ultra slippery i hate it the shmoo looks terrible look that's pretty much par for the course though with abs but you have to take into account there's a fix for that even though evga uses membrane switches on this thing they also have standard mx key stems that means you can grab a basic higher quality set of say double shot pbt keycaps and customize it to your heart's content i mean sure upgrading the keycaps on a 15 keyboard might seem absolutely positively stupid to you but it really elevates the whole experience here but what i'm gonna do is in the description below i can leave a couple of links for budget pbt keycaps that you can buy and i think you're really gonna appreciate some of those options but there's actually something you need to know about replacing the keycaps on this all right so rory this is like the last shot of the day right all i have to do is like reach in here and pull a keycap off yes okay good so we're rolling rolling okay so replaceable keycap here we go all right it what the the whole thing just pulled right off look at look look right there there's the rest of the the stem look at this wait is it are we getting this are we getting this yes and look at this it pulled right out of the keyboard right from there what the hell yep oh i cannot believe it here check it out guys this broke so what you have to do is you have to be a little bit more careful than i was even though i thought i was being super careful when pulling the key caps off of this because the mx stems are extremely extremely brittle but that aside the switch design actually helps a lot with how even the rgb effect is i mean it's well done around the keys but i do find the text illumination a little bit dim the lighting control on the other hand can be done driverlessly through the arrow keys but you can only change the effects and the brightness so if you want a solid color without a driver installed you'll need to live with red and only red backlighting but look i know what you're saying right now to yourself drivers oh my god you know about iq you know about synapse you know about g-hub about how invasive they are but to be honest with you evga's driver package for this is not bad at all let's just take this keyboard pivot back there and go through the thing so i love simple software that just works and this one is simple and it works we're gonna start with the lighting effect tab right here so you have all your general lighting effects and you have your zone control right down over here the color on the other hand is something that i wanted to talk about very quickly because while you do get a full color wheel and a bunch of presets there's a little bit of an issue with this keyboard when it comes to displaying anything with a yellow in it so for example this is what they call yellow and to me there's a little bit of a green tinge in it meanwhile if we go into for example the orange right here this actually looks like a skin color if we go a little bit more saturated on it this looks like a skin color again so it's the one thing here the oranges and yellows just don't seem to display properly other than that there's a couple of other areas i wanted to touch on in the general settings this is where you can configure a bunch of your keys and also disabling keys through that game mode button that i was talking about a little bit before so everything from your left shift key to a bunch of other things can be disabled then in your key assignments this is really where this software comes into its own here you can assign macros to almost every single key except the ones that are grayed out this is where you would probably also be assigning your macro keys there is also a full macro editor this i'm not going to go into because it's fairly involved but what you need to know is once you apply these macro settings they can all be saved into a certain profile so if you want a certain color a certain macro profile it is all in there and it can be accessed through that function plus the number key buttons so overall software is amazing alright so i guess we have to come to the part of this video where we talk about the switches and i know i know every single one of the mechanical keyboard purists is going to be screaming bloody murder at the screen about the fact that this keyboard has membrane switches but i have to level with all of you guys there's a place for membrane switches whether you like it or not and that is in the entry level keyboard space specifically in the very very entry budget space where the z12 actually plays so let's pivot back here and we'll talk about what these things feel like so overall as you could probably tell the primary buttons like these ones are nice and quiet and they only need a little bit of a light press to hit that activation point and that actually makes the entire experience here feel a lot quicker than some other membrane keyboards on the market on the other hand that will lead to maybe a little bit more typos until you get used to it but there's still that characteristic i guess mushiness is the best word and there isn't much tactile feedback but seriously you'd only recognize that coming from a true mechanical keyboard for gaming and typing it's perfectly good for the price point and literally 99 of the people out there which includes me i guess because i'm actually digging this thing but there's a few small issues that i need to discuss first of all is the characteristic rattling of cheap stabilizers on bigger buttons like this those big buttons also have a little bit of bobble head action going on so here we go bobble bobble bobble bobble so yes they all pretty much wobble around as you press them so other than that this thing is perfectly good okay so look it's obvious the z12 is not your perfect keyboard and yes keyboard enthusiasts will probably all over and they might even all over this review but it's very important to place a 15 keyboard into the right type of context there's a place for everything there's a place for elite keyboards and there's a place for something like the z12 so this is the way i look at it you get decent switches customizable rgb a ton of macro controls very very good build quality for the price of course spill resistance and a three year warranty that's backed by evga of all companies so you know you know you're gonna get great customer support unlike all those other cheap chinese crappy rebrands out there then look this is the way i approach everything in my life there's a place and a price point for everybody so it doesn't matter if this is your primary gaming keyboard and you just wanted to spend the extra money that you saved on something else in your life or in your very close peripheral space or this might even be like a backup keyboard for you then again i know somebody like this if you have a teenager who keeps rage quitting fortnite and they go through gaming keyboards like they go through socks this is another perfect opportunity why because for 15 or even 20 dollars for that matter this is a freaking screaming deal and i dare you i dare you to challenge that in the comment thread below so anyways i'm mike with hardware canucks i hope you enjoyed this little piece of keyboard content from me and i'm gonna see you guys in the next oneall right everybody well it's mike here with hardware canucks and this is gonna be a fun little one but i want to start on a little bit of a more serious note because of the fact that we've been criticized in the past because a lot of our keyboard reviews might be catering a little bit more to the elitists among you i mean just listen to some of these prices of the keyboards that demetrius covered 250 for 179 149 and 159 129 150 but anyways this one is gonna be a little bit different from all those other keyboard reviews that we've done because it is going to focus on price to performance and i am hellbent from the starting of this year to try to find some of the best bang for buck items that i possibly can in the pc hardware and peripheral spaces so that's why i came across this robert hit me this is the evga zed or z depending on what side of the pond you're on 12. now this thing right now goes for 15 bucks in the us and even here in canada i picked up for 20 bucks at canada computers i'm gonna leave a link down below for exactly where you can buy it and why is this 15 keyboard so important well it's because it's actually a 50 keyboard that has been deeply discounted for a while now to between 15 and 20 bucks and look if you paid that 50 bucks i have to say i'm really sorry but since it used to be priced much much higher the z12 isn't your normal hunk of budget junk there's no gaudy colors or ugly gamery bling we sometimes see on cheap keyboards it's flat black stealthy look would pretty much fit into any setup and no that big evga logo it isn't illuminated thank freaking god build quality is what it is for an all plastic design let's be honest here this isn't a high-end keyboard by any stretch of the imagination that's built like a weapon but for 15 bucks it's actually one of the best built entry level or maybe for this price you'd call it sub entry level keyboards i've come across period oh it's also got an ip32 rating for all those dorito and mountain dew spills that are probably going to be splashed all over this thing but other than that evg has included a couple of really nice features that are actually going to make your life easier so first of all is this long-ass braided usb cable i mean this thing is the perfect length to pretty much reach anywhere you need it to outside of a wireless keyboard the other thing that they included is height adjustable feet and let me tell you that two level angle adjustment is a really nice touch with every single level getting rubberized feet so this thing doesn't go sliding around your desk like a drunk figure skater but if you really want ergonomics go pick up the wrist rest that evga has it'll be a good investment i mean it's 10 bucks right now so why the hell not the all-new hs series from corsair is what your ears have been waiting for the hs55 stereo brings a comfortable super lightweight and awesome sounding headset to your budget gaming station with a fantastic sounding microphone the hs65 surround steps it up a notch with included usb dongle and sound id technology for next level audio while the hs80 rgb usb is probably my new favorite daily driver because of these awesome breathable ear pads a fantastic sounding clear microphone and really powerful high-res drivers check out the full hs series down below the actual typing area is pretty straightforward for a full-size keyboard but with a few key evga extras there's an area with dedicated macro buttons to the left along with a gaming button that disables the window key there's also dedicated media buttons but you have to take into account there's no volume wheel so you'll need to use the function plus f11 or 12 for that meanwhile the top number keys act as a way to switch between the board's nine different profiles the keys what can i say about them well for laser etched abs keycaps they feel okay at first but once you start using the z12 they show finger oil and they get ultra slippery i hate it the shmoo looks terrible look that's pretty much par for the course though with abs but you have to take into account there's a fix for that even though evga uses membrane switches on this thing they also have standard mx key stems that means you can grab a basic higher quality set of say double shot pbt keycaps and customize it to your heart's content i mean sure upgrading the keycaps on a 15 keyboard might seem absolutely positively stupid to you but it really elevates the whole experience here but what i'm gonna do is in the description below i can leave a couple of links for budget pbt keycaps that you can buy and i think you're really gonna appreciate some of those options but there's actually something you need to know about replacing the keycaps on this all right so rory this is like the last shot of the day right all i have to do is like reach in here and pull a keycap off yes okay good so we're rolling rolling okay so replaceable keycap here we go all right it what the the whole thing just pulled right off look at look look right there there's the rest of the the stem look at this wait is it are we getting this are we getting this yes and look at this it pulled right out of the keyboard right from there what the hell yep oh i cannot believe it here check it out guys this broke so what you have to do is you have to be a little bit more careful than i was even though i thought i was being super careful when pulling the key caps off of this because the mx stems are extremely extremely brittle but that aside the switch design actually helps a lot with how even the rgb effect is i mean it's well done around the keys but i do find the text illumination a little bit dim the lighting control on the other hand can be done driverlessly through the arrow keys but you can only change the effects and the brightness so if you want a solid color without a driver installed you'll need to live with red and only red backlighting but look i know what you're saying right now to yourself drivers oh my god you know about iq you know about synapse you know about g-hub about how invasive they are but to be honest with you evga's driver package for this is not bad at all let's just take this keyboard pivot back there and go through the thing so i love simple software that just works and this one is simple and it works we're gonna start with the lighting effect tab right here so you have all your general lighting effects and you have your zone control right down over here the color on the other hand is something that i wanted to talk about very quickly because while you do get a full color wheel and a bunch of presets there's a little bit of an issue with this keyboard when it comes to displaying anything with a yellow in it so for example this is what they call yellow and to me there's a little bit of a green tinge in it meanwhile if we go into for example the orange right here this actually looks like a skin color if we go a little bit more saturated on it this looks like a skin color again so it's the one thing here the oranges and yellows just don't seem to display properly other than that there's a couple of other areas i wanted to touch on in the general settings this is where you can configure a bunch of your keys and also disabling keys through that game mode button that i was talking about a little bit before so everything from your left shift key to a bunch of other things can be disabled then in your key assignments this is really where this software comes into its own here you can assign macros to almost every single key except the ones that are grayed out this is where you would probably also be assigning your macro keys there is also a full macro editor this i'm not going to go into because it's fairly involved but what you need to know is once you apply these macro settings they can all be saved into a certain profile so if you want a certain color a certain macro profile it is all in there and it can be accessed through that function plus the number key buttons so overall software is amazing alright so i guess we have to come to the part of this video where we talk about the switches and i know i know every single one of the mechanical keyboard purists is going to be screaming bloody murder at the screen about the fact that this keyboard has membrane switches but i have to level with all of you guys there's a place for membrane switches whether you like it or not and that is in the entry level keyboard space specifically in the very very entry budget space where the z12 actually plays so let's pivot back here and we'll talk about what these things feel like so overall as you could probably tell the primary buttons like these ones are nice and quiet and they only need a little bit of a light press to hit that activation point and that actually makes the entire experience here feel a lot quicker than some other membrane keyboards on the market on the other hand that will lead to maybe a little bit more typos until you get used to it but there's still that characteristic i guess mushiness is the best word and there isn't much tactile feedback but seriously you'd only recognize that coming from a true mechanical keyboard for gaming and typing it's perfectly good for the price point and literally 99 of the people out there which includes me i guess because i'm actually digging this thing but there's a few small issues that i need to discuss first of all is the characteristic rattling of cheap stabilizers on bigger buttons like this those big buttons also have a little bit of bobble head action going on so here we go bobble bobble bobble bobble so yes they all pretty much wobble around as you press them so other than that this thing is perfectly good okay so look it's obvious the z12 is not your perfect keyboard and yes keyboard enthusiasts will probably all over and they might even all over this review but it's very important to place a 15 keyboard into the right type of context there's a place for everything there's a place for elite keyboards and there's a place for something like the z12 so this is the way i look at it you get decent switches customizable rgb a ton of macro controls very very good build quality for the price of course spill resistance and a three year warranty that's backed by evga of all companies so you know you know you're gonna get great customer support unlike all those other cheap chinese crappy rebrands out there then look this is the way i approach everything in my life there's a place and a price point for everybody so it doesn't matter if this is your primary gaming keyboard and you just wanted to spend the extra money that you saved on something else in your life or in your very close peripheral space or this might even be like a backup keyboard for you then again i know somebody like this if you have a teenager who keeps rage quitting fortnite and they go through gaming keyboards like they go through socks this is another perfect opportunity why because for 15 or even 20 dollars for that matter this is a freaking screaming deal and i dare you i dare you to challenge that in the comment thread below so anyways i'm mike with hardware canucks i hope you enjoyed this little piece of keyboard content from me and i'm gonna see you guys in the next one\n"