INTRODUCTION

   If you happen to be a casual/pro gamer or a professional who needs to type a lot chances are you're already well aware of the benefits of owning a good mechanical gaming keyboard including the far superior build quality compared to membrane models and of course the tactile and audible feedback they can offer. Well it seems that after several mechanical keyboard reviews lately many of you have emailed us saying that tenkeyless models are the future of gaming and asking for more such reviews and although we don't quite agree with that (then again we don't attend LAN parties any more like in the past so size is not really an issue) i always want to cover your requests the best way i can. So todays review is about one such model and more specifically the Strike Battle Mechanical Compact Gaming Keyboard with Cherry MX mechanical switches by our friends over at OZONE Gaming.

   OZONE Gaming Gear, is an European brand of gaming peripherals that revolves around the concept “It’s all about Evolution”. OZONE is a brand created by and for gamers, the evolution is part of our gaming life, we all want to improve and evolve into a better gaming contender. OZONE is committed to the development, engineering and evolution of innovative gaming peripherals with a unique style and the best performance, to allow gamers to exceed their limits and become the best. It’s all about evolution. In the recent years the gaming industry has developed into the ultra-competitive arena that we see today, and the gamers have also developed into a more demanding, sophisticated and exigent consumer. There is an ever increasing demand for better design, increase number of functions and higher performances. Due to the development of newer and better gaming peripherals, the market has suffered a transformation. New segments of high performance gaming accessories have grown to become more specialized and subdivided. But this change in the market has also come accompanied of an increase in the price levels of those products. OZONE provides customers a wide range of gaming peripherals. Everyone from the occasional user to the professional gamer is ensured to find a OZONE product at a reasonable price which will fit their requirements to enjoy their favorite games.

   The Strike Battle is a tenkeyless gaming keyboard (88 keys) that gets shipped with Cherry MX blue, brown, red and black mechanical switches that feature a lifecycle of up to 50 million keystrokes. It also has a top aluminum plate (available in black and red), 6-level red LED backlight for the keys, fully supports N-key rollover and has 64kb of onboard memory in which it stores its 5 available profiles each of which can have up to 6 assigned macro keys (30 macros in total). True the Strike Battle is not one of the most feature-rich keyboards we've ever seen but tenkeyless models are generally cut-down versions of full sized ones so we never expect many bells and whistles to begin with (the Atlas G410 by Logitech is an exception to that rule). On the other hand tenkeyless models are known for their durable construction so let's check the Strike Battle out and see if it has what it takes to be your LAN party companion.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The keyboard layout and the some of its features are printed at the front of the box right in front of a large product picture.

More product features can be found at the base of the box right next to another product picture.

The size of the Strike Battle is showcased at the top of the box.

The Cherry MX mechanical switch selection is placed on the left side.

A large product picture is placed at the rear and used to showcase all the product features.

Packaging is very good so aside being wrapped inside a protective bag the keyboard is placed inside an extension of the cardboard box.

Not much in terms of bundle so along with the Strike Battle compact mechanical keyboard you will also get a case sticker with the company logo on it and the user manual.

THE STRIKE BATTLE

The 685g heavy Strike Battle measures just 351mm in length, 123mm in width and 34.59mm in height (smaller compared to the Rantopad MXX we reviewed a while back).

Since we happened to have the Attack X3 by Cougar at the same time we placed it right next to the Strike Battle to see how a tenkeyless keyboard compares to a somewhat basic full sized model.

OZONE printed the product name at the front of the space bar key.

F1 through F4 can also be used to rotate the key response time (1/2/4/8/12/16ms) and polling rate (125/250/500/1000Hz) of the keyboard.

F5 through F12 also double as media navigation keys (play/pause, stop, previous, next, launch media player, mute, Volume down/up).

You can enable gaming mode (disables windows keys and enables the macro keys) with the print screen key and adjust the brightness levels of the keys with the scroll lock key (Off, Pulsating, 10%, 30%, 70% and 100%).

Here we see all six macro keys which are enabled once gaming mode is activated.

The space between the caps and the keyboard allows for much easier and faster cleaning compared to regular keyboards.

Here we see the Cherry MX mechanical switches and the red LEDs right above them.

At the base of the keyboard we see 3 rubber feet and two height adjusters rubber coated at the end.

These height adjusters raise the top of the keyboard roughly 12mm from the desktop.

The 1.5 meter long cord ends up on a gold plated USB plug.

CONTROL SOFTWARE

Since OZONE doesn't bundle a CD with the Strike Battle you will need to download the latest driver/software version from the bottom of their product page.

The first screen allows you to reprogram any key on the keyboard by clicking on it while the second allows you to assign macros, multimedia & windows commands, shortcuts and programs to any of the 6 macro keys.

Creating new macros is easy, just create a new macro name and start recording.

Through the advanced settings page you can set the polling rate, enable/disable the windows key, adjust the response time for the keys and choose the brightness level.

Here you can see the brightness level of the keys at 10% and 100%.

AUDIBLE FEEDBACK

Many people ask my opinion on what keyboard they should get for their needs. Some want a “silent” model for use in their living room or even in their bedroom while others ask for a model with good audible feedback for use in the office or for gaming. Because of this I decided to test keyboards by placing our ExTech HD600 vertically over each keyboard (5cm distance) and typing NikKTech a total of 6 times with each (after that the max recorded number - max hold - is placed in the graph). I have to admit that this may not be 100% accurate but it does give a good idea on what you can expect from each model since aside the type of switches used keycaps and keyboard material also matter.

CONCLUSION

   If you like feature-rich keyboards with RGB illumination for the keys, plenty of macros and other extras with which you can impress your friends the Strike Battle was obviously not designed with you in mind. Instead OZONE built a very sturdy 88-keys (tenkeyless) keyboard by marrying durable materials with red LED illuminated MX mechanical switches by Cherry and left it at that. Certainly you have some extras like macro and media navigation keys (not dedicated ones however) but that’s just about it. Since however the Strike Battle was designed to be a small keyboard for use on the go (or in LAN events) we can’t really complain for the lack of features. As for the Cherry MX red mechanical switches as usual they provide smooth and linear motion making them ideal for gaming. Sure they don’t have the audible and tactile feedback of the Cherry MX blue switches but if you ask me the difference is not that huge (and since we’re talking about a gaming keyboard reds are better).

   For some strange reason we were unable to track the OZONE Strike Battle inside the USA so currently we only have its EU price tag which is set at 94Euros (Amazon.co.uk). This price tag places it right next to several regular and tenkeyless mechanical gaming keyboard models (with Cherry MX switches) so in the end it just comes down to how much you’re willing to spend for a quality tenkeyless keyboard. Overall the Strike Battle is a very solid and compact mechanical gaming keyboard and although it doesn’t impress with its features still it delivers exactly on everything OZONE says and for that it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (Aluminum Top)
- Size (88-Keys Tenkeyless Model)
- Cherry MX Red Mechanical Switches (50M Actuations)
- N-Key Rollover
- 30 Macro Keys (5 Profiles)
- Available In Red And Black
 

CONS

- No USB Ports
- Current Availability