Ozone Strike Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

As you may know already, we put all the keyboards we get in through their paces by throwing many scenarios at them, to see how they perform and unlike many review sites that just try and bang out as many reviews as possible, we take our time when testing, which sometimes lasts as long as a month, in order to discover as much as we can about the product. So for the Strike, we have lined up our usual tests for gaming, general use and what the software (if any) is like.

Before we even unleash the tests on the Strike, we thought it would be good to point out just how well made the keyboard is. It has a very high build quality, as with most mechanical keyboards, as after all you’d expect that for the steep price you pay for them. The keyboard also feels great with a slight soft touch to it. The key presses alone feel very nice due to the Cherry MX Black switches. The Strike also weighs a lot more than you’d expect, you could bash someone over the head with this, to then carry on using it as keyboard without any problems. So lets now move to the gaming tests.

Gaming

First up we are going to put the Strike through our gaming tests, which consists of many hours  playing a range of games to see if the keyboard fairs better in any particular genre or whether they are just a decent all rounder.

For any keyboard intensive genres like RTS’ or MMOs the Ozone Strike was well suited due to the higher pressure required to activate the keys. This allowed accurate key presses resulting in far fewer mistakes, which can mean a world of difference in some games. Whilst the Strike does not offer any additional buttons that can be used to bind macros to – something useful for MMO and RTS players, the keyboard still performed without any noticeable issues. Each press of the keys produced a satisfying movement – you’ll have to try it to understand.

For FPS and general shooting games, the Strike performs just like it does with MMOs/RTS’ with a slight exception being because of the higher force required to activate the keys, it can be slightly more straining on the fingers, and those quick presses can often go unpressed due to not applying enough pressure. As time went on however, this small issue was soon overcame as we adjusted to the extra force required.

Something else that we thing we should point out is the left windows key has been replaced with the ‘Ozone’ function key that you can see in the closer look section. This removes the windows key’s previous function, that means you cannot “tab out” by accident, something that can happen frequently with other keyboards.

General Use

For typing, the Cherry MX Black switches did not make it ideal due to the additional force they required. This put a bit more strain on your hands making it less comfortable to type lots of words, like I am for this review. That aside, the keyboard is comfortable to use, more so with the detachable wrist rest added.

The included media key functions also make it simpler to control any media that is playing, such as music or a video. Whilst it would have been good to see this as independent keys, they still perform their tasks adequately.

The two USB ports, the mic and speaker port also make it much more convenient for the user to plug in a headset or speakers, as they now no longer have to reach around the back of the PC, and can just plug it in directly to the keyboard – the same with any USB devices. The only issue with having these additional ports, is that it has drastically increased the thickness of the cable that connects the Strike to the PC.

There is no software supplied with the Ozone Strike, nor is there any available as the Strike is just a straightforward keyboard that does exactly what it says on the box. Whilst this would not be ideal for some users – particularly gamers, it makes it much simpler to use and stays true to the meaning “plug and play”.

So we know how the Strike performs, how it looks, so lets wrap this up