Welcome to my unboxing and first look at what MadCats claims is the most
adjustable gaming keyboard ever created.
Ever. This is the US Querty layout one, which makes sense cuz I'm in North
America. Oh. Oh, it has a built-in OLED
screen and the backlight can be changed
to pretty much any color you can imagine. So, there's RGB LED lighting
behind it, giving you 60 million possible backlight colors, which is very
cool. Something we really haven't seen that much. We've seen some keyboards where you can change from between
backlight colors, but they'll usually just have a few options. Now, we finally
have a fully back lit gaming keyboard that can be whatever color you want. So,
it's customizable. It is has color OLED.
Okay, so that's for the screen right there that kind of shows cool stuff about what you're adjusting or whatever
else. Command module setup reduces the
footprint and provides 21 programmable buttons, three profile modes, media
keys, and a Windows key lock. So you can actually put the thing together for to
build what is say basically your own kind of Belulcon Nostromo type thing if
you guys remember that thing. Okay.
Okay. Just another picture of it. Ah, yes. So here's a little bit more
information about what can be displayed on the screen. So, the multiple eye
gaming apps, the woo gaming apps,
something. Okay. Yeah, it's a different language. That's cool. So, basically, it just shows you what's going on at any
given time. So, your program launcher right there. See? Battlefield. This
little launching indicator, mic volume, countdown timer, stopwatch, clock
brightness, and volume can all show up on there. Very cool stuff. So, let's go
ahead and open it up, and we'll be back in a moment. Sorry, guys. We were trying
to open it, and we realized there's more information on the back. So, the modular components adapt to your game space and
playing style just like their RAT series mice. Okay, the it has a full RGB
backlight. Okay, we've talked about that. 21 programmable macro keys and three modes. Okay, we talked about that.
Height adjustable active palm rest features. Additional thumb wheel and
button for even more controls at your fingertips. So, that is right there.
We'll find that after. Eye panel, innovative fullcolor OLED screen, which
is there. And pass through headset or pass through for headset and microphone
port. So, that's uh very handy as well. So, we'll have a look at that once we get this baby opened up.
So, the whole thing comes out of the box in like kind of a tower like this. The
first layer contains the main part of the keyboard where you actually do your
typing, you know, cuz you're writing letters to grandma or whatever else. So,
this is just your letters and your shifts and your backspaces and your Oh,
that's not bad. They're using a very unique key technology with this keyboard
that actually is supposed to feel more like mechanical even though it is using
membrane key switches. And I'd say it is better there. There is more tactile
feedback, but it's still very quiet with the only
notable exception being the space bar. The next piece contains
your number pad as well as your delete and insert keys, page up, page down,
your arrow keys, and all that stuff that you may or may not have any need for.
And you can decide whether you even want to attach it to the main keyboard
itself, and we'll cover that later because that's clearly not how to do it.
Next, you've got the module that goes up at the top that has the OLED display as
well as your media keys and a bunch of programmable macro keys that you can
switch which mode you're using by using
the buttons that are probably located on something we haven't seen yet.
Cables, which yeah, again, we'll figure out how
all that works in a moment. More cables, which we'll figure out how all that
works in a moment. And finally, your wrist rest.
Pull that off. Aha.
This piece that allows you to switch between the various modes. So you can uh
go from uh pick from one of three profiles for your macro keys, your
manual,
a lot Oh, an Allen key to put the whole thing together as well as the screws you
need. And finally, two more pieces of
what will be the wrist rest for the main part of the keyboard.
Now, you have the option of putting it together with screws, but if you change
it around all the time, I guess you don't even have to because everything clips into place. So, I'm going to show
you guys this configuration before I show you the more standard
configuration. So, we've got it in two pieces. So, you got your keyboard here,
which just has all your standard functionality on it. So there's nothing
that exceptional about it except that you can completely adjust the wrist rest
for the length of your hands. So you can see I'd be quite uncomfortable like
this. However, I can move it in one step or I can move
it in one more additional step in order to get closer, which is probably where I
would end up. Then you've got these aha.
See these interchangeable uh things right here that you can use to plug it
in however you need to. So I've used the cables that I need. However, you can see
I have an extra left over. This would be for if I assemble it the other way. You
can adjust the height of it just by pulling these down. And it has lots of
rubber grippy feet on the bottom, making it so it's not going to slip anywhere
pretty much no matter what you do to it.
Now, this piece, so I've assembled this using the OLED display. So, the way you
use this is you can select the functionality using the up and down. You
can use the right arrow to activate things. You can use left arrow to go
back, I believe. I'm not okay. I can't remember what the
left arrow does, but basically these four buttons are for functioning the
display. And the dial around the top allows you to change whatever's on the
display. So, if you're using the application launcher, you can change which application you're going to
launch. If you're using the volume control, then you can adjust in increments of five. And then, if you
want more fine adjustment, then you can use the buttons on the side. Your media
controls are here, your play, your stop, your mute, your left, your left, your
right, your uh your back, your forward. And then these up here are all
programmable keys. Now, I was wrong before. I said that these were for the
different profiles. They are not. The profiles are selected up here. 1, two,
and three. Here's a Windows on and off key, as well as control for the
backlight on the keyboard. These guys right here are additional programmable
buttons. You can see that they have normal functionality. Control, shift,
enter, and backspace. But you don't have
to use them that way. This is a rolling
wheel, so you can use that with your thumb. This is an additional
programmable button. And then all these M button or C buttons rather around here
are also programmable. So this is how you can create yourself a little sort of
gaming pad and you can adjust however you want to use it. It's totally totally
up to you. More adjustments here. So you can change the length. Oh, and you can
also increase the height of it if you want. So very cool stuff. There's that
pass through for the headphone and microphone ports on the back here. And
you can see again how I've assembled it using little wires and cables and
whatnot going where it needs to go. So there you go. You can move as far away
as you want. So you can use the arrow keys like this or if you have smaller hands then you can move it up closer.
Whatever you want to do is totally up to you. So we're going to put it together
the other way and show you how that works.
Heat. Heat.
And we are assembled now. So, I hope you guys enjoyed the assembly process.
Actually, doesn't take that long. Uh, this was my first time doing it, so you
guys could see I got a little bit confused there for a while. So, now this
is in position to use your more typical WD gaming configuration. This has been
moved over so that the uh the Strike 5 wrist rest is here. Everything is still
very adjustable, so you can change everything to your heart's content and
your layout is more like when you what you'd see on a normal keyboard. So,
there you have it. I hope you guys have enjoyed my unboxing and first look at
the Strike 5 from Mad Cats. Don't forget to subscribe to Lest Tech Tips for more
unboxings, reviews, and other computer videos. And before we wrap this up, I
should say, guys, um I'm actually pretty
impressed by what they've done with the membrane keys here. Are they mechanical
keys? No. But are they your typical membrane keys? No. There is a lot of
difference between one membrane key and another. For example, the first generation Logitech G15 had
significantly better membrane keys than any further Gen 2, G, whatever, anything
that's followed it. So, there is a huge difference from one membrane key cap to
another one. And this one definitely achieves that. I'd love for you guys to
post a comment under the video and let me know what do you think of this whole modular peripheral concept. We've seen
it with the Rat series, now we see it with the Strike series. What do you guys
think?