Designed to streamline your gaming and productivity experiences, Mountain’s MacroPad and DisplayPad accessories complement its mechanical keyboard range. Adding 12 macro keys to your setup is possible with the former, while 12 LED buttons are available for mapping.
These two control panels offer snappy mechanical buttons, a MacroPad, and a DisplayPad that offers bright, colorful shortcuts. In a market dominated by the slightly more expensive Stream Deck, the display version enters a market with a multitude of MacroPads.
Design
The durable, stocky design of the MacroPad and DisplayPad is reminiscent of Mountain’s gaming keyboard lines. These wedges have a brushed surface on top, just like the Everest Max and Everest 60 hot-swappable keyboards. The Mountain logo is prominent on the bright blue rubber surface of each device. The rubber and heavy weight of these pads mean they won’t fall over anytime soon.
In both pads, there are 12 buttons (the MacroPad has a keyboard key and the DisplayPad has LED buttons). If you’re running a smaller setup with fewer buttons than the standard Stream Deck Mk.2, this compact desk accessory won’t take up all your space. As you cram a 32-inch monitor and two laptops onto a 105x50cm desk, the smaller footprint is greatly appreciated.
Using a mountain keyboard lets you do without a wedge stand. Designed to fit directly onto the modular keyboard, both the DisplayPad and MacroPad offer a full control panel setup that is extremely appealing. The Stream Deck cannot match the ergonomic, streamlined feel of every macro and keybinding because they are just one slight shift up from the main deck of keys.
Features
Featuring two rows of six programmable buttons, the Mountain DisplayPad has illuminated icons under clear caps. With folders, shortcuts and commands can be divided into sections of the display pad, offering 144 macros.
You can use these controls to shut down your computer, open specific websites, run programs, run macros, control media playback, mimic mouse clicks, switch profiles, and shut down OBS, Adobe, or DaVinci Resolve.
All of these settings can be toggled through Mountain Basecamp, but there are some bugs. It took several attempts to shut down and reload several times to get back on track when the very helpful RGB settings for the MacroPad seemed to give up. However, Basecamp is always being updated, so future developments are sure to fix these problems.
Performance
When mounted atop a compatible keyboard, the Mountain DisplayPad and MacroPad are a joy to use. The DisplayPad buttons are crisp and clear without requiring excessive force to click. I did notice certain programs (such as Spotify) ceasing to work on the pad at some points, and loading up the desired programs or features was a bit slow at times. It took some tinkering with program files to restore the command.
Bright and vivid, the LEDs display everything from game logos to Mountain’s own icons with excellent color and contrast.
The Macropad also performed well. From RGB settings crashing to certain keybindings failing after changing keys, it needs a little more maintenance.
This is an excellent accessory, offering a happy medium in its button supply while performing all the same fundamental tricks. If you’ve got a Mountain keyboard in your setup already, it’s a no-brainer. If you’re running a different keyboard, the smaller stand and lower price point are certainly enough to make this a worthy contender for everyday use.