Ozone Strike Pro Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review




/ 10 years ago

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Introduction


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Pro gaming, LAN gaming, online gaming, eSports, or just dragging Draugr around Skyrim on your own, it doesn’t matter what type of gaming you prefer, PC gaming has a whole lot to offer. It doesn’t matter which style of gaming you pick either, one of them or all of them, having the right tools for the job however does matter and having a great keyboard, mouse or controller at your disposal can not only improve your performance, but it can go a long way to improving your overall personal experience and comfort while you play.

The Strike Pro has been launched with one thing in mind, gaming. Everything about it is focused on improving your gaming experience and performance and Ozone are quite keen to shout about its abilities, so today I’ll be expecting nothing short of excellence to see if the Strike Pro really lives up to all of its own hype.

Mechanical keyboards are a prime choice for the gaming market, the switches used for each key offer a lot of precision and feedback that you often don’t find in a lot of membrane keyboards. Of course this is mostly just preference and many people still choose to play using a membrane keyboard, but one cannot deny the accuracy and speed that is offered by Cherry MX switches. Ozone offer a choice of popular switch types, Black, Red, Blue and Brown, but today we will be taking a look at their keyboard equipped with Cherry MX Reds, a very popular choice with gamers.

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Specifications wise, the keyboard is very well equipped with 104 mechanical switch keys (fully mechanical), a 1.5 meter braided cable, 64KB on board memory for storing macros and profiles, full Nkey rollover! As well as an array of lighting modes and gaming modes.

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The packaging is really nice on the Strike Pro, with a few major features detailed on the front, a really nice image and a cool cutaway that lets you get hands on with the arrow keys, a great way of testing out the mechanical switch types.

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Around the back we have a very detailed break down of all the major features, but of course we will take a closer look at those in just a moment. There is also an endorsement from Samsung Pro-Game Team star Cho “Mata” Se-Hyeong;

“ For me there is no other option but mechanical keyboards. And there is no other option but the new Ozone Strike Pro. Cherry MX Switches, HUB & Audio inputs, Red LED Backlights, fancy design… So yes, I have many reasons to choose this amazing keyboard for my professional gaming sessions.”

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In the box I found a small CD-ROM with all the basic drivers and software on it, of course I’m not going to use that as I will be downloading the latest from the official website, but it’s always nice to see them included. There is a full colour user guide that shows you all the major features of the keyboard, as well as a break down of different mechanical switch types. Finally you’ll find four spare grips for the underside of the keyboard, as well as a large vinyl sticker that would be perfect for the back of your monitor or the side of your PC chassis.

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A Closer Look


The keyboard features an extended chassis that forms a steep wrist rest at the front, the whole thing is coated with a hard-wearing rubbery-type plastic that makes it durable, harder to scratch up and it also provides a light amount of grip.

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Obviously this is a full size keyboard, and the key’s have been given a nice wide spacing to prevent you accidentally swiping the wrong key.

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It features a raised profile thanks to a thick base that adds a little extra weight to keep the keyboard well planted. The keys features a gentle curve from front to back which should provide a more comfortable typing / gaming hand position.

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Around the back you’ll see that the keyboard comes hard-wired, and there are some extra input-outputs on the back right side. You’ll find a single USB 2.0 pass-through and headset / microphone connection points.

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On the underside there is a little extra routing space for the braided cable which can be taken through one of three routes, handy for keeping it out of the way depending on your desktop configuration. At the front there are four tough rubber grips and two more on the base of the kick stands.

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The kick stands are only plastic, but there a lot more durable feeling than most.

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The key caps feature a really nice custom font to they which is cut through to allow for LED back lighting.

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The key caps are fully removable, although Ozone didn’t include a key cap removal tool, something which I think all mechanical keyboards should come with as standard.

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Here you can see the Cherry MX Red Switches and their LED lighting. Being able to remove the key caps is great as you can apply custom caps, and it also makes maintaining and cleaning the keyboard much easier too.

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The keyboard features a special G Mode for gaming which locks out the Windows key, then we have a light adjustment key and six extra macro keys on the insert, home, page up, etc keys which can be toggled on via a key or profile.

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Finally, the keyboard features gold-plated connectors for both the USB and audio pass through.

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Performance


The keyboard is plug-and-play compatible, making it super easy to set and of course the 64KB internal memory will let you take your profiles and settings with you. However, to really unlock all the customisation features you’ll want to download and install the Strike Pro software. Here you can tab through five profiles as well as configure various settings.

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Macro settings allow you to change which hot keys trigger which macro.

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Advanced settings allows you to change polling rate, key response time (1ms – 16ms), disable Windows keys and adjust the lighting.

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There are six lighting settings available, off, pulsating, 30% , 70%, 100% and gaming. Gaming only illuminates the red LED gaming keys.

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An advanced macro recorder is included too, handy for deploy tricky commands or cool down timed attacks.

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The LED back light is rather stunning, clear white lighting on the majority of the keyboard is contrasted with a fire-red on Esc, QWEASD and the arrow keys.

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Mechanical keyboards are often known to be quite loud, and the Strike Pro is no exception to this. It is noticeable louder than the Isku-FX I use for the bulk of my work and a lot louder than the low action keys of the Steelseries Apex Raw. This is of course for good reason though. The keys of the Strike Pro bottom out on the keyboards chassis, this gives a nice tap sound when you strike the key and a very satisfying tactile feedback. Sure it’s noisier, but it’s only annoying for the person sat next to you.

Keyboard Accoustics 25-02-2014

Gaming performance of the Strike Pro is exactly as you would expect, nothing short of exceptional! I’ve been using it for two solid days now and have very little to complain about overall. The keys are really fast, giving a nice tactile response that makes them perfect for quick double taps, and there was a noticeable improvement in my League of Legend abilities (I’m only half rubbish now, haha). Battlefield 4, Skyrim, and Torchlight II all played beautifully without issues.

The Macro key placement does concern me a little though, having extra Macro keys above the arrow keys is a little odd, am I supposed to move my hand away from WASD or my right hand from my mouse to hit them? I think extra keys to the left of the keyboard would have been a much more useful solution overall.

Typing and working on this keyboard is a joy, having shortcuts for multimedia is always a welcome bonus and Cherry MX Red switches make typing long documents a lot less strenuous on your hands. There should be more to say about this keyboard, but there isn’t, it delivers the high performance and features that Ozone promised!

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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”

Ozone Strike Pro Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

Ozone Strike Pro Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

Thank you Ozone for providing us with this sample.

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