You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/creative-sxfi-theater-wireless-headphones.1205/

When it comes to audio, I feel no shame in saying I’m not an expert. I’m a person who appreciates music and audio as a whole to the extent of it sounding as it should. I’ve gone through speakers, earphones, earbuds, headsets, all ranging from low-end to midrange. Creative’s SXFI Theater is the first I’ve owned of what I would consider to be a high end audio-centric headset, and it does not disappoint.

The box is fairly unassuming—matte black with a pretty image taking centre stage and the headset tucked away in the corner. It’s odd to me they don’t want to show it off, but that’s branding for you. It’s made to catch your eye and I suppose it does just that. Inside, you can find the headset itself with its 2.4 GHz wireless dongle, as well as a few choice goodies to get you off to a good start. Namely, a USB-C to USB-A charging cable, a 3.5mm cable for wired connections, and a handy USB extension cable if you don’t like having dongles hanging from your PC in the way of harm. It’s everything you need in one package, which is a nice change with choice items being designated as optional in many a modern day product. The headset itself has a suitably premium feel to it, Creative happy to draw attention to the soft protein leather used in the ear cups. One thing I appreciate in its design more than I perhaps should is the large and clearly printed L and R on the inside of each cup. Though you can distinguish between the cups by the buttons on the left, and subsequent lack of buttons on the right, it has helped my tired mind on more than one occasion. It’s worth adding the headset also comes with a detachable microphone for devices supporting it. It fits securely in the left cup and does the job as well as you’d expect from a headset of this calibre. I’m fond of its detachable nature, it being completely out of the way when not in use, but I do fear I’ll lose it.

Designed to be worn for long periods of time, the headset sports a solid 30 hour battery life between charges. Competitors in its price range advertise usage times of around 20 to 25 hours, so while it’s maybe not as impressive as it first sounds, it does appear to be the king in this department, if only by a few hours. Having tested this myself, I can certainly say it’s impressive, having not charged them in over a week of fairly regular usage. I can’t vouch for the 30 hour benchmark specifically, but I can say I’m very happy all the same.

Integral to prolonged usage more so than the battery life is the comfort of the headset itself, and I find myself mixed here. I can’t fault the cups themselves, as Creative so rightfully boasted, they’re delightful to the ear and surrounding regions. Where I feel they slightly neglected however is the band that sits atop your head. With SteelSeries’ Arctis 7, they had an elasticated band to relieve the weight ever so slightly, and it worked well for me. The SXFI Theater don’t really have… Anything? There’s a thin layer of padding, but I do find myself adjusting the headset in extended sessions. Weighing around 350g, it’s the kind of thing that isn’t really noticeable until you feel a slight ache, and tolerance to this kind of thing does vary from person to person. With my minor adjustments, I could continue to use them well enough. The smart advice would be to take a break every so often, but it shouldn’t be a requirement to enjoy a product to the fullest.

When it comes to the audio quality itself, you have two benchmarks to look at, the first of these simply using it out of the box. It’s hard to put into words my first experience. Curiosity drove me to plug the dongle into a USB-C convertor, and in turn into my Switch Lite, and I experienced Pokemon Sword in a completely new light. The environments felt alive. I could hear the Wooloo in the background of the Wild Area, the intricacies I had let slip me by. It added a depth beyond what sounds right; it sounds extraordinary. And this is just out of the box, it goes beyond this.

Where the SXFI Theater are particularly interesting is in their ability to customise the audio to a profile of your ears and facial structure. The mere idea of this is bizarre to me, and in all honesty, I let this feature pass me by for the longest time. Having this headset for just over two weeks, only a few days ago did I decide it was time to try the gimmick for the sake of the review. After all, I had little in the way of negatives from my few weeks of use. As somebody who’s always just wanted audio sounding the way it should, it comes across as meaningless niceties; smoke and mirrors to get people barely curious enough to give it a shot. Much to my surprise, it isn’t.

What Creative are calling Super X-Fi really did impress me in ways I couldn’t have imagined. The headset already exposed me to sounds and intricacies I never knew were there and pushed an appreciation for even the most idle of background tracks in the Switch games I’m currently getting through, but this is something beyond. It gives the sound an unexpected depth that I can only really describe as three dimensional. Toggling the setting with the button on the left ear cup really hammers home how much of a difference this makes. Voices and instruments alike sound as though they’re bouncing from wall to wall around me, putting me right in the scene regardless of whether I’m listening to a shanty, watching a film, or deep in a game. It’s the first time I’ve ever really found myself appreciating bass. It doesn’t drown anything out, providing a powerful sensation that drives home this sense of immersion I’m just not used to.

Though I wouldn’t necessarily call it a negative, I did find the process of acquiring this personalised audio a little strange. You first download an app on your Android or iOS device and snap a few pictures of your ears. I’d recommend calling in a friend for this, I found it incredibly difficult doing it alone (and ultimately gave up and grabbed a local family member). After this, to transfer the magical configurations, you first plug the USB dongle into a PC. After that, you pair the headset to the dongle, then pair the dongle to your phone via Bluetooth. For some reason, this pairing requires location services to be enabled, though I assume that’s more a quirk of Android than it is Creative’s app design. Once you have that chain of connections sorted, it’ll transfer without issue and you’re set! I struggled a little more than I care to admit, forgetting the dongle had a sync button that needed to be pressed, but rereading the included “READ ME FIRST” leaflet stowed away safely in the SXFI Theater’s box set me back on track.

Compatibility is a large positive for this product. Advertising itself as an all-rounder of headsets for films, music, and games, it needs to be easy to use, and more importantly, easy to use on different devices. Advertised you have wireless support for PC, Mac, PS4, and as previously touched on, Nintendo Switch. Naturally it’s the latter that has me most excited, but transitioning between device is as simple as plugging the dongle into an available port. With the device being synced to the dongle in oppose to the device itself, it works straight away with no additional software or drivers required outside of the companion mobile app for Super X-Fi setup. It’s also worth noting that they worked with my Android tablet by plugging in the dongle, but it’s not the kind of thing that’s feasible for something like a phone. For things like this, you have the included 3.5mm cable, something I probably should have used with the Switch Lite instead of my own funky setup. Though it does work fine, it’s worth noting Super X-Fi isn’t available, nor the on-ear volume rocker. It’s a case of using the wireless dongle where available and having a wired connection there for broader connectivity.

In my time as a writer for GBAtemp, no product has better justified its premium price point as the Creative SXFI Theater have. Where other low latency headsets I’ve used have put forward audio that sounds perfect to what I remember it should, these go beyond. From the clicks the Switch menu makes to elaborate title screen melodies, films, music, it hits every note to an exceptional and engrossing degree. These are headphones for gamers, streamers, audiophiles, film fanatics; they’re an all-round treat for anybody fortunate enough to experience them. If you’re in the market for some new headphones, I urge you to consider these. At £190, they’re worth waiting for, and they’re more than worth saving for. 

You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/ultimate-hacking-keyboard.1204/

Ultimate Gadget Laboratories (UGL) are a brand I don’t expect you to know. Their website featuring a single statement, their purpose is clear: “We are Ultimate Gadget Laboratories. Working on the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard. The keyboard. For professionals.” It’s bold, it’s to the point, and really it’s all you need to know. They’re confident in what they make, and honestly, they’re more than right to be.

Before so much as purchasing your Ultimate Hacking Keyboard (UHK), you have a myriad of options to contemplate to really make it your own. With six switch types, four different keycap types, five case colours, and the choice between ANSI and ISO layout, there are a grand total of 240 UHK variants available to purchase. To give you a quick rundown of my choices, I have in front of me a UHK in a brilliant orange case, sporting an ANSI layout with Windows keycaps and Cherry MX Clear switches. Of the choices available, two things of note are the availability of blank keycaps and the range of switches. For such a customisable keyboard as this, blank keycaps are actually what I would advise. If I were a braver person, I’d have gone for them myself, but jumping to a split keyboard for the first time left me somewhat hesitant. What’s nice here though is the fact I can still go back and order them down the line, which I very well might do. One amusing thing of note is that UGL will be renaming their orange colouring to mustard in the coming future to better reflect how it looks, but you can make up your own mind on the particular shade through the images.

When it comes to switches, UGL have largely deviated from the Cherry-heavy market, instead opting for Kailh alternatives where available. These are for blues, browns, reds, and blacks. The switches Kailh don’t offer, clears and greens, are Cherry’s own. Having tried variants of blues, browns, and reds in the past, I was eager to give something new a go in the clears, but I fear I missed a chance to critique their choice of Cherry competitor. Alas, the clears met my needs tidily. I was after a quiet switch that wasn’t too trigger-happy, in blunt terms. My experience with reds in the past has shown them unsuitable for me when resting my fingers on the keys, the weight of my hands triggering them where unwanted. Clears are put simply browns with a bit more weight to them, with 65 cN actuation force in oppose to the brown’s 60 cN. With the aim of this keyboard in my mind being to keep my hands rooted on the keyboard, the additional required force seemed appealing in avoiding the mishitting of keys.

Unboxing and Initial Thoughts

Arriving at my door well-packed in a suitably-sized and weighty box, I excitedly unwrapped my new split keyboard lifestyle. The keyboard and optional palm rest packaged in separate boxes, both looked clean and professional, matching the premium and quality image UGL appear to pride themselves on. Inside each box you find the products themselves, the keyboard and palm rest, along with their relevant screws, cables, and feet. You see, in their strive for customisability and choice, UGL let you decide how best to use your keyboard. The palm rest installation guide the box directs you to gives you a rundown of your three choices: positive tilt, negative tilt, and a tented setup. Positive tilt is likely what you’re used to if you’re coming from a standard keyboard, the back of the keyboard raised. Negative tilt is the opposite, with the front of the keyboard raised, and tented is something you can only really achieve with a split keyboard, the middle raised. Wanting to embrace everything a split keyboard has to offer, I went all in and set things up for the tented layout. There are a few things of note here. First, this process is incredibly simple and easy. It’s a case of screwing a few feet into place, with no decision being final. You can change your mind whenever, so long as you’re willing to unscrew the feet and put them in a different position. Second, and perhaps more dauntingly, a tented layout all but dooms you do a split life. With the keyboard centrally raised, joining the two parts is ill advised, the keyboard rocking from side to side as you type. It left me more eager so to learn the ins and outs of the split design, but I understand some will prefer the idea of joining the halves from time to time.

The overall quality and design really left me with little to complain about. The optional, though highly recommended, wrist rest screws securely into the UHK and provides great support. It also surprised me just how nice the beech wood looked next to the block-orange shell of the keyboard itself. Though plastic, the shell feels sturdy and well-made, with no noticeable imperfections. The keyboard halves are joined together using a coiled wire that takes me back to the landline phones of days gone by. I can best describe the connector as a smaller ethernet, clipping into place similarly. It expands and retracts well and I’ve had no issues with it managing to unclip itself through any force of nature. When it comes to the overall design, the only real critique I have is that the cable connecting the keyboard to the PC goes into the right half of the device. This means you have the option to use the right half alone, both halves joined using the wire, or both halves joined as a “full” keyboard. It feels as though they missed a trick here in not having the option to use the left half alone, this half favourable for gaming, potentially allowing the device to double as a gaming keypad. I understand this may not be the demographic UGL are trying to appeal to, but in their strive for options and customisation, I remain surprised all the same you can’t use the left half standalone as you can the right. Minor critique aside however, first impressions are overwhelmingly positive.

Adjusting to Change

Coming from using standard keyboards for what is most of my life, I’m not going to pretend the UHK is something I could instantly get into. The box sending you to a start page, you’re given a rundown of the ins and outs, but after this you’re on your own. Though these short activities were handy, you can only really adjust to something like this through experience. Committed to this idea, I went all-in. One of the UHK’s main selling points is its four layers of key mappings. You have the base layer, a mod layer, a function layer, and a mouse layer. Combining these together efficiently, the aim is for your hands to be able to do everything from one position. This means there’s no arrow keys, instead you’re pressing Mod with your left thumb and hitting IJKL with your right hand for the respective up, left, down, and right arrows. It sounds bizarrely unintuitive at first, but the more you do it, the more natural it feels. Similarly, to control the mouse from the keyboard, you hold the Mouse key where you’d usually find Caps Lock, and again use IJKL to manoeuvre. After two weeks of use, it all feels normal now. The exception to this is when I’m trying to do something like highlight a word in a text editor. Something so simple becomes a game of Twister for my fingers as I hit Ctrl, Shift, Mod, and J or L for their respective arrow. I know it’s only an extra key being held here, but I haven’t quite gotten used to it.

For the minor tweaks required, like wanting to cut, copy, and paste while using the mouse controls, the UHK Agent software comes in handy. Perhaps the most intuitive and simple piece of keyboard customisation software I’ve ever used, it just works. You select a layer, you select a key, you change it to what you want, and you save it to the keyboard. No mess, no fuss, and you don’t even need the software installed for these changes to be noticed. Macros are an equally simple act of recording what you want playing back and saving it to the keyboard. I honestly struggle to put into words how easy it is to use, and thankfully you can just try it for yourself with their web demo. Another nice thing worth mentioning here is that the keyboard can actually save dozens of full layouts, each composed of four layers. If you only ever use QWERTY like myself, that’s plenty of room to play around with, giving you the opportunity to create specialist layouts and macros for games and apps as you see fit.

It’s here I’ll also mention the UHK’s compatibility with specially designed add-on modules. While they are still in development, they stand as a huge part of what makes this keyboard so interesting. It’s customisable to a degree I’m simply not used to, with these modules fitting next to the Mod key on the left half and the Space key on the right. The ones I’m most eagerly awaiting are the mouse control ones, the planned offerings being a small track ball, a touchpad, and a trackpoint. Placed in reach of your right thumb, these aim to improve productivity in allowing full access to the keyboard while doing your mousey movement. While I am disappointed I haven’t got these to try now, I am eagerly keeping an eye on their development via UHK’s blog and will definitely be picking at least one of these up when available. As soon as I do, expect an update here.

Closing Words

UGL have in my opinion created something spectacular. It’s versatile and customisable to your every whim with so little effort, trivialising things that really should be trivial to give you a streamlined and quality overall experience. The one thing I am yet to discover is whether it really does increase my productivity, having only used it for a week and quite regrettably forgetting to do a typing test beforehand for comparison. At the moment however, I can say this much for certain: it feels great. Two weeks in, I’m still missing the odd character, particularly B as it sits the farthest from my left hand, but I can feel myself getting faster. I understand the reasons behind their design choices and I’ve embraced them to the fullest extent possible. I’m comfortable typing and I’m happy using it. Ultimately though this is a niche product, and with its price sitting at $275, it isn’t going to be for everybody, but those tempted in will not find themselves disappointed.