Ozone is a little way in the field of peripheral gamer, the long awaited second keyboard to the firm finally arrived to come to strengthen the range of key held only by the Strike, mechanical keyboard is very popular with the players. The second key of the firm took the name Blade.

It aims to be accessible with a selling price of € 60 while maximum functionality including: macros, backlighting bicolor dimmable, blocking the Windows key, and finally 5 profiles multimedia features.  Abandoning the Cherry MX switches to a rubber membrane, we may certainly lose in comfort and responsiveness, the main advantages of HP Envy 17T mechanical keyboards but a whole other side, the characteristic sound produced by mechanical keys should, against, be much higher than that of a rubber membrane keypad, as tested on the device today.

Presentation

Receiving the Blade, we are astonished at the length of the box. At the opening, we understand why the box is so big. The Blade is simply too long. It features a uniform black color despite two different types of plastics, that is soft keys, while the  E5420 batteries rest of the keyboard is of a type plastic slightly grainy. The Blade can either be illuminated blue or red with varying intensity, it is a backlight almost full (keys and macros configuration buttons at the ends do not receive this treatment) with in addition, two bands backlit on the wrist. Besides talking about the wrist, it lacks 1 or 2cm to fully accept the wrists.

Damage the diodes Shift key locks, Lock and Scroll Lock Num remain illuminated in red, ca swear a little while selecting the blue backlight but ... Let's take a closer look at what happens with a brightness in the room very low and backlight tuned to the maximum:

The new device Ozone still weighs 1.14 Kg It is not as heavy as Dell Latitude E5520 mechanical cousins, but for a membrane keyboard, it starts to weigh. The origin of this weight is probably the size of the keyboard, in fact the second Ozone keyboard is quite impressive in length, it measures just 510 x 199.8 x 30mm. Yeah, half a meter long is impressive nonetheless. Not even talking about the integration of a sliding leaves little room for the mouse. It measures almost 10cm longer in length than the Gigabyte Osmium though it was already a monster of its kind.

This length is mainly due to the integration of macro buttons and settings on both ends of the keyboard. 8 in number they are distributed as follows: 4 macro keys on the left, four buttons on the right settings used to:

- Disabling the Windows key,
- Changing profiles up to 5 profiles available for 10 macro keys which gives a total of 50 total macros! (Four macro keys on the left and six others who can replace the software via the insertion keys, delete, end, origin, next and previous page)
- The choice of colors and the intensity of the backlight (this button also allows the backlight off, no need to go through the slider).
- Access to key functions to use the volume control (+, -, mute) as well as pause / play function and forward / back.

To save all settings, 128KB chip is integrated into the bowels of the keyboard. To power the keyboard, Ozone chose a braided cable short of 1, 60m with a gold plated USB connector. The Latitude E6320  keyboard is silent on any USB hub and also an extension jacks.

Under the keyboard, you will find two small pads that will ensure the stability of the keyboard surface on which it is placed. Two big paws will raise the position of the keyboard. Two small pads for as large a keyboard it's a little light above the two tabs tilt keyboard does not have ...

Software

The software supplied with the Blade Ozone Ozone is simply name is Blade Driver. Comes in its version 1.0, it can make all the necessary adjustments and save the memory of 128KB integrated into the keyboard, so it takes only connect the keyboard to access the 5 stored profiles without installing software (useful for LAN Party). Pretty simple, the software is built around a main page with 3 tabs of settings. Main leaves free rein to create profiles. It is possible to assign a profile to start a Dell Latitude E6420 ATG  game or an executable that is a very good point. The first tab, launched at the same time as the main page, allows you to assign a mouse or a keyboard key to any other key. This page allows among others to access the Macros IDE. The second tab is used to set the 4 macro keys placed on the left of the blade. We can place controls multimedia mouse function, assign a shortcut program or an Internet function. Ozone can also disable the macro key. The last tab will deal with macro keys located above the arrow keys. Functions are exactly the same as the macro keys listed above. 

Conclusion

Inevitably, a membrane keyboard, it is less expensive than mechanical, then results in a price of just € 60 for Ozone Blade. Affordable to find a keyboard as the only close Latitude E6520 competition and the Logitech G110 Roccat Isku both at 69 €. Below is the Logitech G105 at 45 € which is the closest. Suffice to say that Ozone is more aggressive on the prices of its devices. Especially given that the equipment offers Blade: backlight Full (two colors), macros, media keys, adjustable brightness, 5 profiles and a price of only € 60. Actually, we are still looking negative points on the Blade and the only points that emerge, it is the size and quality of the plastics used that "seem" cheap.

But the undeniable advantage of a membrane keyboard, it is obviously the silence! We had almost forgotten what it was with all the bunch of mechanical keyboards that were part of the last  DV4 batteries tests on the portal. Too bad press "Space" is not as silencieuce other keys. It remains quieter than mechanical switch with key. In short, it is a label "recommended by 59H" which is awarded for this device, that even if it can not match the performance and comfort of the mechanical keyboards keys (thanks to Cherry MX switches) It does very well what it was designed, without some problems, for a price defying any competition.

Tags： Dell Latitude E6510， Pavilion DV7， Vostro 1520 battery