Ozone Strike Battle Keyboard Review
Overview
The next peripheral on my to do list has actually been on my wish list for some time; after seeing the initial images back last year I knew it was something I wanted to take a look at if possible. Well thanks to the guys over at Ozone this is now possible and today I will be looking at the new Ozone Strike Battle
The Ozone Strike Battle is a tenkeyless (meaning there’s no numpad), illuminating, mechanical Gaming keyboard featuring Cherry MX switches. The keyboard itself is available in any of the following Cherry MX switch types (Blue, Brown, Red & Black); we will be taking a look at the Red switches. In addition to this there’s support for macro programming, an adjustable Polling Rate, media controls, Game Mode function, six specific Macro keys as well as support for Anti-ghosting.
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‘Strike Battle offers the best selection of cherry mx keyswitches, a short-body and an ergonomic design to ensure a comfortable use. Its high quality aluminum layout gives you the best materials and performance to improve your gaming skills. It also features a minimalist design and a compact style that makes it perfect for competitive use, travelling gamers or anyone who needs more work space on their desk. Take it to the battlefield.’ |
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The Ozone Strike Battle arrived at pcG in a smart, very small box with a large image of the keyboard on the front. In addition to this other than the brand and product name information Ozone have highlighted the use of Cherry MX mechanical switches and there’s also a sticker showing off the English UK layout. Ozone also goes on to highlight the following main features:
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The back of the box shows another image of the Strike Battle along with the following highlights; Adjust Polling Rate, Keys Effective Time, Anti-Ghosting Capability, Easy Access Media Keys, G-Mode Function, Adjust Back Lighting and 6 Macro Keys. In addition to this we have the product’s weight (685g), dimensions (34.9mm (H) x 351mm (L) x 123mm (W)) and the fact that it’s equipped with a 1.5m braided cable.
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As you can see one side of the box clearly shows the Cherry MX Switch (Red) and all of the other switch types that are offered. The other side highlights the tenkeyless design of the keyboard and its portability, as well as depicting information regarding the 64KB on-board memory, G-Mode Function, Cherry MX switches and the 50 million keystroke lifespan.
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On opening the box we can see that the keyboard itself is nicely packaged and relatively well protected, held within the cardboard frame of the box and further protected within a soft foam bag. I did notice though that due to the small confines of the box the cable at the back of the keyboard was bent heavily to one side as it’s simply too tight a fit in the box! In the box other than the keyboard itself we find a basic User Manual and an Ozone Gaming Gear sticker!
At the time of writing the Ozone Strike Battle is available from Amazon
Specifications/Features
courtesy of Ozone
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* Additional details available here
First Impressions
First impressions of the Ozone Strike Battle are very good, mainly down to its size; and as we all know that ‘all the best things comes in small packages’ (well that’s what I tell the wife anyway!). 😉 But seriously, on face value the Strike Battle is undeniably a good looking keyboard, and the tenkeyless design simply helps to accentuate its appeal in my opinion. It’s heavy too and the construction feels strong, overall it feels rather well made…
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Looking at the Ozone Strike Battle from the front reveals a very simple tenkeyless (that means the NumPad is missing, BTW!) design, with the keyboard itself featuring no additional buttons, keys or extras. What we have here is a solid aluminium top plate and a raft of Cherry MX switches and keycaps. Although, looking towards the bottom of the right side of the keyboard we can see an Ozone (FN) function key, that’s likely to invoke additional functionality.
The back of the keyboard is even simpler with nothing here to note other than the feet, three at the front and two extending legs at the back. Also note that the captive cable is offset to one side!?
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The two extending legs found at the back of the keyboard also feature rubber feet complimenting the three at the front. Extending these legs allows the back of the keyboard to be raised further by approximately 12mm.
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This is quite important as the natural rake/incline of the keyboard is very subtle to say the least, meaning that the keyboard lays almost flat when the legs are not extended. With the legs extended its close to perfect for me… 🙂
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Along the top of the keyboard F1 through to Scroll the Ozone Strike Battle features additional functionality if used in conjunction with the Ozone (FN) key, found at the bottom right. Looking at the keys F1 – F8 we can see that F1 – F2 adjusts key response time (1/2/4/8/12/16ms) and F3 – F4 alters the Polling Rate (125/250/500/1000Hz). Both of these are a little pointless IMHO, but some may find it useful! Looking further along at F5 – F8 we find basic media controls (Play/Pause, Stop, Previous & Next).
Looking at F9 through to F12 we can see more media related controls this time allowing for control over Start Media Player, Mute, Volume- and Volume+. Finally we have key Print Screen and Scroll lock keys that allow for the keyboards Mode function to be switched On/Off and for the brightness of the illumination to be adjusted (Off, Pulsating, 10%, 30%, 70% & 100%). In Gaming Mode the left Windows key will be disabled and the M1- M6 (see below) keys will be enabled.
The Insert/Home keys also provide additional functionality in the from of Macro keys, yet these six keys (M1 – M6) only become available (act as Macro keys) when the Game Mode has been activated via the Ozone (FN) key and Print Scr.
From what I’ve seen so far I’m pretty impressed with the Ozone Strike Battle. It’s a good looking, well made mechanical keyboard with great (Cherry MX) switches. There’s also a handful of useful features too, although I’m unsure about the key response time option!? Also I’m unsure how you know when certain functions are active as there seems no way (via the keyboard) to feed this information back to the user. Probably need to get it connected up and install some software…
Hardware Installation
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The Ozone Strike Battle features a Gold plated USB connection found at the end of a 1.5m braided cable. |
Testing Methodology/Setup
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The latest software for the Ozone Strike Battle was downloaded (get it here) and version 1.0 was installed and used throughout testing.
BUT: The software downloaded comes in the form of a .rar file, a file that no default Windows based PC can open, WTF!? This is a very bad idea in my opinion and (as I’ve already stated in the past) I have no idea why Ozone choose to do this. This practice now forces you to go and find and install third party software, just so you can use Ozone’s software. Please Ozone can you fix this in the future… 🙁 |
The following games were used during testing:
Hardware Performance
From a pure performance point of view there’s very little to complain about when looking at the Ozone Strike Battle. Thanks mainly down to its sturdy aluminum top plate and those Cherry MX switches the keyboard itself performs very well. With those Red switches providing a lightning fast response time to input while Gaming, even during those frantic moments.
Illumination of the key-caps is also very good and there’s plenty of brightness too at 100%. There are no real options to speak of though, with only a basic breathing mode to choose from, which is a bit of a let down. There’s also no per key lighting which is also a little disappointing. But we must bear in mind the cost of this budget conscious mechanical keyboard.
The only real oddity regarding the Ozone Strike Battle is that some of the adjustments that are made via the keyboard, for example the key response time and the Polling Rate, have no visual feedback to the user. Now I thought that a least this would be highlighted in the software, but apparently not!? Let’s take a look…
Software
The Ozone software (not supplied) that can be downloaded here, and is basically split across three main tabs. It’s all pretty basic stuff but it all works, well most of it anyway…
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The first tab (Main Control) is where you can both manage the key configuration of the keyboard and also manage the five available Profiles, in fact you can manage the Profiles on any of the main three tabs! Should you wish to remap a key, simply click on the key that you wish to remap and reassign in the pop-up menu. The five Profiles can simply be created, edited or deleted and loaded to and from disk, but what you can’t seem to do is rename them, so you’re stuck with Profile 1/2 etc, which is a shame.
The Macro Settings is where you can reassign any of the six macro keys (M1 – M6) that are enabled when Game Mode is enabled. From the pop-up menu you can select any of the options from simple keyboard commands to more complex commands such as macros and Windows functions.
The Advanced Settings tab allows you to adjust various settings such as Polling Rate, Key Response Time, Windows Key On/Off and Light Intensity (commonly known as brightness!). The latter Light Intensity allows the same control over the keyboard as the (Ozone + Scroll) key combination on the keyboard (Off, Pulsating, 10%, 30%, 70% & 100%). What’s odd here is that if you change either the Polling Rate or the Key Response Time via the keyboard it never shows in the software, in fact I’m unsure as to whether the controls on the keyboard for these functions work at all! 🙁
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Should you wish to create a macro, you’ll need to check out the Macro Manager shown on the left. Here you can record macros with a default delay or real time delay if you prefer. There’s no facility to record mouse input though and there’s also no facility to edit the macro once it’s been recorded. You can of course delete it though… |
Final Thoughts
The Ozone Strike Battle
The Ozone Strike Battle arrived at pcG in a small (but maybe a little too small!) smart looking box! As, on closer inspection I noticed that the cable exiting the back of the keyboard was bent over at a ninety degree angle, as it was simply too tightly packed in the box, which was a bit of a shame. Over time though, it was (gently) persuaded back into position…
Once out of the box the size (or lack thereof) of this tenkeyless Gaming keyboard became apparent. And it really is small, in fact you’d be hard pushed to make one (with Cherry MX mechanical switches) any smaller. Not only is it small, it’s pretty cool looking too thanks in part to its small size and the fact that the keyboard is devoid of any unnecessary bell ‘n whistles. It’s also well made, thanks to that sturdy top plate it all feels pretty solid, with no flex at all under pressure.
After plugging the Ozone Strike Battle into a spare USB port, it was time to marvel at its illuminating (red) Cherry MX switches, and very good it looks too! There’s plenty of brightness on offer and the keycaps illuminate well. The only disappointment is that there’s no control over lighting other than brightness and a basic breathing mode.
Next it was time to install the software (not supplied), download here. But that’s no easy task: While it’s easy enough to download,you then have to un-zip it, but oh no Ozone doesn’t provide you with a zip file they provide you with a .rar file!? WTF! So now you need to go and get (and maybe even pay) for a third party zip tool so you can install the software. I have to say, although I’ve seen this before, it bloody infuriates me and as far as I’m concerned there’s simply no reason to do this… 🙁
So after installing said software and then after installing said software (no that’s not a typo) you can begin to settle (yes James, calm down now!) at the Ozone Strike Battle. And what a great little (pun intended!) keyboard it is, if saving on desk space is your thing or you just like the size (and I do) mechanical keyboards don’t get much better than this. This is thanks to a sturdy aluminum top plate and the stalwart of the Gaming switch: the Cherry MX (red) switch. It simply all works beautifully well, and the key response time (ignoring software) is simply stunning.
The software itself is best described at best as good but at times it feel closer to simply adequate. This latter fact is down to the fact that as far as I could see either the software doesn’t work properly or the keyboard doesn’t, and I suspect the software. As if you change either the Polling Rate or the Response Time on the keyboard nothing changes in the software, not good! Luckily these features are superfluous anyway, and are often just added to make additional features, so for now I’ll simply ignore them as it doesn’t really detract from the overall experience.
And overall the Ozone Strike Battle offers up a really good experience, the keyboard itself is simply great it’s a shame then that there are issues with the software that let it down. A least, as it’s software these issues should be able to be addressed in later revisions…
Verdict
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Many thanks to Ozone for providing this sample for review
