Mad Catz S.T.R.I.K.E.7 Keyboard Review
Tim Mammatt / 12 years ago
It’s not often we get a keyboard of this calibre through to the office, so it really has been an experience reviewing it. We all know that the keyboard is a crucial component to gaming, so having the right one is essential to success. With the STRIKE7 you are at first overwhelmed by the sheer amount of features, but after getting to grips with it, you have a new ally against your quest to dominate all games. It’s fully modular nature allows you to customise your setup: don’t use the numpad? Then maximise your gaming space by simply removing it. The custom rubber dome keys have been tailored to feel very similar to Cherry MX Browns, which we find to be the right balance between typing and gaming. We’ve left the best feature to last, and that is the VENOM touchscreen. Its jam packed full of useful features, from a program launcher to an on the fly macro recorder and even an integrated teamspeak function.
Throughout testing we couldn’t fault the keyboard. It felt great, looked great and most importantly, performed great. It goes without saying however, that nothing is perfect and when you check out the price you’ll see why. At a whopping £249, that’s a hell of a hit to the finance department, but hey, if you’re even considering the STRIKE7 you must have some cash to splash. The STRIKE7 is a premium grade keyboard, with a very high quality build, in fact, it’s probably the best we’ve seen – the level of detail and effort is great, even the hexagonal patterns look superb, so this is some justification for the price.
Overall we are thoroughly impressed with MadCatz’ latest creation. It’s ideal for gamers and designers alike, with a whole plethora of features packed into it’s futuristic modular design. Sure it’ll set you back a small fortune, but if you can afford it, you won’t be disappointed – although we have seen the likes of a cheaper version coming soon. So for these very reasons, we can think of no better reward than to award the MadCatz STRIKE7 with our highest award going, the: