Cyborg S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 Gaming Keyboard Review

As consumers we’ve have a tendency to like two forms of products. Trendy products (regardless of if we want to admit they’re trendy) and unique products (regardless of poor quality). Personally I lean more towards the unique category. I drive an Isuzu Vehicross, and use a Dell Windows Phone (I know, right?). Both things definitely fall into the unique category but break the rules of sacrificing quality for individuality. Products like these don’t come along often. Most of the time something different and off base is just that, DIFFERENT and OFF BASE.

This categorization crosses all products from cloths to cars to electronics. In the world of ThinkComputers we’re only concerned with the electronics end of this spectrum. Dealing with the unique end of computer electronics we come across devices like the Peregrine Glove (If you haven’t had a chance to check this thing out head over to http://theperegrine.com/). The concept was really cool and the product execution was really neat but did the “uniqueness” of the product kill it? I’ve never seen a single person using The Peregrine Glove and as much as I’d love to see something like that take off, unique PC products are born and die every day. This brings us to today’s topic: Introducing the Madcatz Cyborg S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 Gaming Keyboard. The word unique doesn’t do this keyboard justice. The Mad Catz Cyborg S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 Gaming Keyboard is the craziest looking computer peripheral I’ve ever seen. The look is something out of a science fiction movie.

A year or so ago Mad Catz released the Cyborg R.A.T. series mice. These mice were the craziest looking computer peripheral that I’ve ever looked at till this point. What made the R.A.T. series great was the facts that not only were they unique and cool to look at they were solid performers. Bob reviewed the M.M.O. 7 Mouse a while back and gave it great remarks. The Mad Catz Cyborg S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 Gaming Keyboard (S7) takes the unique level of the R.A.T. series mouse and puts it to shame, the big question is can it hold up to the level that the R.A.T. performed at?

Below is a video that Bob put together a couple weeks back that shows the full unboxing of this beast.

Packaging
Right from the get-go you can see that the The Mad Catz S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 Gaming Keyboard isn’t a normal keyboard by any definition. I’ve never seen a keyboard box like this. At first I thought it was going to house some crazy case for each part of the unit but soon I realized it’s so large due to all of the components involved. The box is almost as tall as it is wide. Each side of the box showcases some crazy aspect of the device:

  • The Most Adjustable Gaming Keyboard Ever Created
  • V.E.N.O.M Touchscreen Gaming Apps
  • Modular Components Adapt to Your Game Space and Playing Style
  • Interchangeable WASD & Arrow Keys to Suit Your Gaming Style

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If you watched the un-boxing video you’ll see how intricately the product is packaged. Once you have everything out of the box you’ll have a lot of pieces and parts in front of you.

  • 2 Keyboards (A Main Keyboard and a separate Number Pad)
  • 3 Wrist Rests
  • LCD Screen
  • Power Adapter
  • USB Cables
  • Macro Keys
  • Key Box (with spare USB Cable)

Included in the package with all the parts is a very straight forward guide on how to assemble the unit. For the sack of being thorough we’re going to go over each piece individually.

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