The Elgato Stream Deck MK.2 is a type of humorous factor, a bit plastic field with 15 plastic buttons. Every button has a tiny display behind it, and when pressed can do any variety of issues – launching a program, altering to a brand new scene in a stream, adjusting your media quantity, muting a microphone or sending out an alert. It is perfect for automation, providing you with a simple strategy to set off scripts or shortcuts that velocity up the dreary components of your job or your favorite sport, and naturally for sport streamers it is invaluable. The MK.2 mannequin usually prices £139, however right this moment at Currys you may decide one up for £97 utilizing the code GAMING30.
So what makes the 2021 MK.2 higher than the unique 2017 Stream Deck? Effectively, not a lot. The most important leap ahead has are available in software program, not {hardware}, and each containers have entry to the identical options. There aren’t extra buttons, or fewer – see the Stream Deck XL or Stream Deck Mini for that. As an alternative, there are simply three comparatively minor adjustments:
- Interchangeable faceplates
- USB Kind C port with a removable USB-C cable
- Removable 45-degree mounted angle stand
Maybe unsurprisingly, which means there’s little cause to improve should you’ve already received a Stream Deck – however it does imply that the Stream Deck MK.2 is just a bit bit nicer than the older mannequin should you’re shopping for one for the primary time. These alternative faceplates are fairly neat, too.
For me, the Stream Deck is cool as a result of it fulfills, in a method, a promise that was made a few years in the past once I was first beginning within the trade. There was a keyboard idea known as the Optimus, the place as a substitute of getting letters completely etched into the keycaps, it had tiny color screens behind every key. With a full-size structure, that meant greater than 100 screens – or extra accuarately, one display subdivided into 100 sections – and fed by way of clear keycaps.
It sounded unimaginable, however the retail keyboards that adopted existed in tiny numbers and initially price $1600. They had been additionally slightly garbage to make use of, with no actual tactile suggestions to talk of – it very a lot felt you had been pushing a large piece of plastic alongside a brief tunnel, which you type of had been. The software program expertise was additionally dire, requiring time-consuming configuration to set every key’s objective and legend one-by-one. Later keyboards had been smaller and price much less, however the idea had already proven to be a sensible failure by this level.
A decade later, and the Stream Deck is an accepted a part of the furnishings within the streaming house, costing a suitable sum of money with software program that may really assist it. It has been a cool development to witness, and makes the £97 discounted worth right here appear a bit extra cheap…
