Ozone Strike Pro Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

Peter Donnell / 11 years ago

Final Thoughts

Price

Mechanical keyboards are known to be quite expensive compared to their membrane counterparts and the Ozone Strike Pro is no exception, however I have noticed that when it comes to mechanical keyboards, this one is actually cheaper than a lot of rival products despite its plentiful feature set, making it great value for money. The Ozone Strike Pro mechanical keyboards is available in the UK for £74.99 + Shipping from Overclockers.co.uk and $137 in the US from Amazon.com.

Overview

Ozone are no stranger to making award-winning products and the Strike Pro is yet another great addition to their range. With an unwavering focus on gaming performance I was expecting the keyboard to be a little hard to live with day-to-day, but it really isn’t, it just feels like most mechanical keyboards and it’s just as wonderful to use when typing up Excel spreadsheets as it is beating the sense out of people in League of Legends, the latter is far more entertaining.

The included software does offer some features that will certainly benefit you as a gamer, and the on-board memory means that its LAN tournament friendly. Most of the “gaming” focused stuff here is aesthetic, the red two-tone lighting of the common gaming keys and the normal keys certainly helps you keep track of the important stuff while gaming in a dim room. The small, but effective wrist rest and typing angle promotes a good hand position. Strong kick stands and four grippy rubber feet at the front of the keyboard, combined with its weight and size means that even on slippy desks the Ozone Strike Pro is going to keep nicely planted, it won’t slide away from you when you’re punishing your keys in Starcraft II.

I would have liked more macro keys on the left side of the keyboard, but looking at the price of this keyboard and the number of features it packs, I’m amazed at how great the value for money is overall, so I’m not going to complain about the macro key position. At this price range you’ll often find that mechanical keyboards are actually quite bland and featureless, with usually little more than some LED back lighting, so Ozone are certainly pushing the market in a great direction here and that will certainly benefit a lot of consumers. I’d still like to have seen a key-cap removal tool included, even if it did mean paying the extra few pennies that it would cost Ozone to bundle one with it.

This keyboard has it all then, superb performance and the ultra high quality of Cherry MX switches that we’ve come to know and love as a gaming community, a hard-wearing design, stunning LED back lighting, gaming focused features and software, USB and audio pass through, a braided cable, and a price tag that puts the competition to shame. If you’re on the market for a new gaming keyboard, and you don’t mind the extra noise of mechanical keys, you would be mad to not at least consider the Strike Pro.

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Pros

Very competitive price tag
All the major features you would need as a gamer
Great for day-to-day use as well as gaming
Premium build quality and design
Tournament ready thanks to on-board memory
Choice of Cherry MX switches
USB / Audio pass-through connections

Cons

Strange Macro key placement

Neutral

Separate dedicated multimedia keys would have been preferred

“Ozone has created one of the best value for money mechanical keyboard on the market, its packed full of features that make it ideal for gaming, but no less great for day-to-day tasks. It’s build quality makes it a joy to own and its overall style will make you proud to have it on your desk”