This is a great piece of equipment from Belkin. It takes a bit of getting used to, the orange thumb button is useless, and the buttons are a bit stiff at first, but these are minor considering the outstanding quality this controller oozes. It's fairly comfortable, even for me, and I have small hands. The shift state thing is very useful, because in games like Battlefield there are quite simply not enough buttons to go around. It also allows you to bind macros to keys. I can forsee this being extremely useful in RTS's like Age of Mythology. Definitley worth the money.

While the whole design looks weird, the Nostromo n52 works surprisingly well. Although suited best for right handed players and for those with very large hands, it doesn't take long to get used to the key mapping you set up for it.

I have only had one problem with the array software that comes bundled with the n52, and this is with Pro Evo Soccer 3 (the game will not run while array software installed). This doesn't undo the good points. since I have played with the n52 i have made my own keymaps for a variety of games, Conflict Desert Storm 2, Deus Ex:Invisible War, just to name a couple. Both of these games require way more than 14 keys to play, but using the array software I was able to map shift state buttons that change the whole layout of the n52 and perform additional functions.

There are lights situated just below the thumb button that allow you to find out which shift state you are in (Red, Green and Blue). The blue it way too bright in my opinion because if you have very sensitive peripheral vision it causes a distraction, but you can get used to it.

Overall a good job done here, compared to the last one made the n50 I find it more comfortable to use, and better and more sturdy for the bigger hand.