The best lapboard
- Comfortable for your lap and wrists
- More than enough mouse space
- Light enough to readjust and store easily
- Poor keyboard layout
The Roccat Sova, also available in a membrane version, is the classic middle of the road option when it comes to gaming lapboards. It’s smaller and cheaper than the Corsair Lapdog and more capable than the Razer Turret. You can absolutely get better keyboards for less money, but the Sova’s cushions, mousepad, and wrist wrest make it the best possible way to get a desktop experience while sitting on your couch.
The Sova has compromised exactly where it needs to in order to make a comfortable lapboard. Although it is big, the size and weight aren’t nearly as cumbersome as the Lapdog. It’s easy to pick up and put down, thanks in part to a cord clip that snaps onto the top of the board and makes sure your mouse doesn’t slide away. The pads for your legs aren’t the most comfortable things in the world, but are more than enough to make using the Sova for long periods of time manageable.
The mousepad area on the Sova is a rough matte finish, and while it isn’t as big as a regular-sized gaming mousepad (the Sova mousepad measures roughly 11” by 9.5”) it was definitely large enough for any game I played. Similar to the Lapdog, you’ll probably only feel limited if you play FPSes at an incredibly low DPI and are used to swiping across a huge playmat. Unfortunately, the angle of the Sova made my mouse slide down the pad a little almost every time I took my hand off of it, making that cord clip a necessity rather than an option. Finding a spot that was comfortable and stable both while playing and resting was a bit of a balancing act.
The keyboard itself isn’t the best mechanical keyboard I’ve ever used, but it was more than good enough for being mounted in a lapboard. It uses TTC Brown mechanical switches. Roccat also sells a membrane version for less. While the Sova’s layout was fine for games that use WASD, it was a little odd for anything relying on the arrow keys. Instead of being to the right of the QWERTY section of the keyboard like usual, the arrows are tucked under the right Enter key, shortening right Shift, right Ctrl, and removing the right FN key to make room.
Additionally, the shorter width means there are no gaps between each set of four Function keys, making them harder to find at a glance. It’s a worse layout than your average keyboard, but it’s done this way to allow the lapboard to be shorter overall—a point I really appreciated when compared to the Lapdog. And the fact that the keyboard is built directly into the board also means that it is positioned for the wrist rest nicely.
And oh man does that wrist rest help. I was initially unsure about how comfortable the Sova was on my keyboard hand, but after resting it on the sharp edge of the Lapdog (more on that later), I was begging for the Sova’s wrist rest. The one I used was simply hard plastic, but the rest, mousepad, and cushions are replaceable, and Roccat even says you’ll be able to 3D print your own accessories for the Sova. I didn’t really get to sample this customizability, but it’s an appealing feature for a peripheral everyone will want to use a little differently.
The Sova is generally an easy-to-use lapboard, but it is a big piece of plastic that will be sitting around in your living room. Even if it doesn’t have much of an effect on your gameplay experience, finding a spot to store a lapboard like this is important. Razer's Turret is much smaller and designed to be easily stored, but the Sova is thinner than Corsair's Lapdog and doesn’t detach into two pieces. That made it much easier for me to find a place for it in my living room when not in use. The USB cable that plugs into the computer also has a point where it can disconnect (similar to a wired Xbox 360 controller) close to the board itself, which made putting away the cord a lot easier.
At the end of all my testing, the Roccat Sova was the lapboard I wanted to keep using. It was the most comfortable across any type of game, and was light and easy enough to move that it wasn’t too bad to use for general computer browsing as well. I didn’t get a chance to try the membrane keyboard version (which shares the same shape and size, so I imagine may be a good cheaper option for those who don’t mind membrane) but the Sova MK is a great way to get a desktop level gaming experience on a living room PC. And while Roccat is planning a wireless version for the future, it'll definitely cost a premium over the wired models.
