Announced in May, the gaming laptops Lenovo Legion 7 and 7i display an original feature: analog ZQSD keys.
Until then present on a few handpicked gamer keyboards, such a feature makes it possible to erase a well-known pitfall of keyboards: the sensitivity of movements in play.
An addition that could not be more ana-logical
The information comes to us not from Lenovo, but from the manufacturer of these analog keys: Peratech. In a press release cited in source below, the company walks us through the feature in detail.
Like a left stick on a gamepad, ZQSD keys are traditionally used in-game to perform movement. However, there is usually only one speed, and pressing another key to start walking or sprinting is necessary.
This is where the term “analog” comes in, since it makes these ZQSD keys sensitive to finger pressure. The harder you press the key, the faster the movement will be.
Such a thing was previously difficult to integrate on a laptop, due to the size of the keys on the keyboard. Good big mechanical keyboards often feature thicker keys, around 4 mm. To offer a good compromise, the keys of the Legion 7 and 7i are 1.5 mm thick, in order to allow a certain pressure distance and thus make possible the integration of analog.
Parameterizable analog keys via Hydra
To do it right, Peratech has married these analog keys to its proprietary software, dubbed Hydra. It offers a plethora of adjustable parameters to adjust the pressure curve of the fingers on the keys.
As you can see from the image above, these settings can be customized specifically for each game. Like gaming mice, it is also possible to save different sensitivity profiles and switch them on the fly.
Even though Lenovo and Peratech assure that these analog keys should not impact use outside of games, it is possible to replace traditional ZQSD keys at will. These are included with the Lenovo Legion 7 and 7i, expected later this month at a rather steep price: respectively 2,599 and 2,999 euros.
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Source : Peratech
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