Manufacturer: Mad Catz

Release Date: 10/31/2012

MSRP: $199.99

Mad Catz has an interesting history of trying to revolutionize the PC scene with interesting new devices that are unique and not seen anywhere else. It started with the RAT series of mice, which were modular and fully customizable to your hand. Later, they released the Strike series keyboards, which took that to a whole new level.

With the RAT 9 that I owned, I liked it a lot, but there were a lot of mechanical issues for me, and it failed twice. I skipped Mad Catz altogether for a while until I saw this keyboard on sale. The Strike 7 is the most expensive gaming keyboard ever made, and I didn’t want to spend $300 on it. The Strike 5 takes some of those features and creates an interesting piece of hardware. The box is huge and stands out from all other flat keyboard boxes. When you open it up, it has some very ugly packaging, with all the pieces in plastic bags and ugly pressed cardboard.

Once you get everything out, it seems overwhelming to put together, but in the end, it’s not really. There are about a half-dozen pieces to screw together. You can put them in any order, but it’s recommended that you put them together as instructed until you are familiar with the product. The main keyboard piece attaches to a side piece that holds the num pad and arrow keys. There are three wrist rest pieces. One is taken straight from the RAT series mice, which are the palm rests. With a scroll wheel and red button, as well as adjustable height and length. It looks like an oversized RAT palm rest on the keyboard, which was rather disappointing as I wanted to see something unique for this series of keyboards. There’s a macro sidebar, but the most interesting thing is the top EYE unit.

This unit has an OLED display and a scroll wheel. There are arrow buttons, macros, media controls, and profile selection for this piece. You can see the time, set timers and stopwatches, use the program shortcuts, and control backlight brightness and volume for speakers and mics. This is what makes the Strike keyboards so unique and why they cost so much. Using the Mad Catz software (which isn’t all that great), you can see the program icon on the display and just select it to open it. It’s actually very useful, and this whole top piece will be used quite a bit.

The software itself hasn’t changed much in nearly five years. I also don’t like how you can’t set windows or media functions to any other keys; you also can’t set them to open programs, which really stinks. After spending a week with the unit, I felt the keys were a tad too soft. The keys are made with Mad Catz’s own technology, but they have an actuation force similar to Cherry MX Blue keys. You won’t get the super clacky sounds of standard Cherry keys, but they feel mushy, and while you will get used to it, Cherry MX Brown and Red fans will find it too soft. One key I loved, in particular, was the space bar. It’s wider and comes down further, so people with longer fingers won’t cramp their thumbs. It’s a subtle detail, but one that could matter with extended use.

The arrow keys take getting used to because there are lowered command keys around them, so sometimes you will press a command key. Overall, the key layout is fantastic, and I don’t really have huge issues with any part of it. The overall disappointment stems from identity issues, as the keyboard borrows too much from the Mouse series and doesn’t quite stand out on its own. While all this is great, it all comes down to price. For $200, it’s hard to say if this keyboard is worth it for most people. If you are looking for something unique to stand out from your command station, then go for it, but recently the keyboard has been on sale in stores for under $100, and if you can find it at that price, swipe it up.