If the Das Keyboard? is the Cadillac of keyboards (and it is), the MadCatz S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 is the Batmobile of keyboards. I've never seen so complicated or full-featured a gaming keyboard before, and at $299.99 (list) it better be. This has everything from an LCD screen and backlit keys to a modular design and customizable macros. Its only weaknesses are its extremely high price and its membrane keyboard design.
The Big Box
When you pick up the box the S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 comes in, you get a sense that this is going to be a big deal. When you open the box, you're assured of it. Instead of just one keyboard, all on its lonesome with nothing more than a screen and a few extra buttons, the S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 is a complex endeavor with two keyboards (one QWERTY, one number pad and macro key), a screen, a button panel, and three wrist rests, all of which are modular. That's its main appeal, and left-handed users will welcome it.
The QWERTY and number pad keyboards, button pad, and touch screen connect to each other through sturdy, flexible braided cables, and while you can hook everything up to its conventional layout (QWERTY keyboard on the left, screen on top of QWERTY keyboard, number pad keyboard connected to the right of the QWERTY keyboard), you can also mix and match the parts. The touch screen can attach to the top of the QWERTY or number pad keyboard, and the button pad can similarly attach to the left of either keyboard. Two wrist rests are plain plastic that snap into the keyboards, but the third has a thumb button and scroll wheel, and that can connect to the bottom of either keyboard as well. You can even move the number pad keyboard to the left of the QWERTY keyboard and separate it by a foot of distance with the included extra-long cable. If that's not enough, the S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 also comes with two sets of direction keys (one WASD and one arrow) that have rubber bumpers around them to make them more noticeable under the fingers, and a key removal tool for installing them.
It took me a few minutes to get the keyboard completely set up, and after that I had to grasp the fact that it needed a few seconds to boot up. The keyboard is completely nonfunctional without the touch screen plugged in to control the keyboard parts, and since it uses a big power brick to plug in, it can easily eat more than one socket on a power strip.
Once you plug all the parts together, screw them in using the included hex driver, and plug the touch screen into your computer's USB port and a wall outlet for power, you can get to the other main feature of the keyboard: the touch screen. You need to install both the drivers and control panel for the keyboard on your computer to take full advantage of it, but once you do the attractive TFT touch screen can serve several different purposes. It can launch programs, perform macros, adjust the keyboard backlighting (a full RGP selection with several presets and three color sliders), control music, show the time, set alarms, take notes, and even disable the Windows key. It also has full TeamSpeak controls for talking to your teammates during multiplayer games.
Customizable But Not Mechanical
The touch screen has eight physical buttons spread around the screen, including Volume Up/Down, Mute, Home (for the touch screen menu), and three preset buttons that let you switch modes on the keyboard, adjusting things like the backlighting. You can set the top mode to glow your favorite color and turn off the Windows key for your gaming, and set the middle mode to not glow at all and leave the key enabled for when you do other things. The mode is shown as a color, red (top), blue (middle), or purple (bottom) on the large MadCatz logo emblem to the left of the touch screen and above the Home key.
For features and functions, the S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 is the most impressive keyboard I've used. However, as a $300 gaming keyboard, it commits one crime that could be considered a dealbreaker for hardcore gamers and enthusiasts. It uses a membrane design instead of individual mechanical (preferably Cherry MX) keyswitches like the Das Keyboard. It means the keyboard is much quieter than a mechanical keyboard, but it also means it's less reliable and long-lasting. Mechanical keyboards tend to be virtually indestructible and immortal, while membrane keyboards are much more prone to failure after years of use. To be fair, the S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 feels very good for a membrane keyboard, and the keys seem significantly sturdier and more responsive than your average membrane keyboard, and MadCatz's documentation claims the mechanism they use have extremely close response levels to the "soft" Cherry MX Brown mechanical keyswitch. Still, purists might find the lack of mechanical keyswitches unforgivable.
Despite the membrane keyboard, the S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 plays extremely well. I loaded up
The MadCatz S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 is an expensive, complicated keyboard, but if you want something that's eye-catching, versatile, and friendly to left-handed gamers, it's impressive. No amount of touch screens and modular keyboard designs can reasonably justify the $300 price tag when you can get nearly indestructible mechanical keyboards or customizable one-piece gaming keyboards for a third the price, though. If you can spend as much on a keyboard as you can on a Sony PlayStation 3?, check out the S.T.R.I.K.E. 7. If you don't want to drop that much cash on a keyboard but still want an impressive one, get a Corsair Vengeance K90?, our Editors' Choice gaming keyboard, or a Das Keyboard Ultimate S, which you can use as a cudgel and still write a novel on it.
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