[section_title title=Introduction and Specifications]

Introduction

Brand: Venom

Model: Warrior Keyboard

UK Pricing: £54.99 (@ Amazon.co.uk at time of review)

US Pricing: TBD

If you own a console, you probably know of UK based manufacturer Venom. They’ve been in the game of providing accessories for almost all consoles ranging from mounts and grips through to rechargeable battery packs and charging stations for 15 years and they’re pretty good at it judging by the reviews and awards they have received not just from Play3r but from a wide range of reviewers.

But what happens when an established player in the console peripheral market tries to break into the already crowded PC market, fighting against established names such as Logitech and Razer? Well, we’re about to find out as that’s exactly what’s just happened (if you exclude the couple of PC compatible items hidden in their vast range). For the first time since their inception in 1999 Venom have released a keyboard for PCs, and not just any keyboard, they are wading in with the mechanical Venom Warrior keyboard complete with macro functions and hotkeys and, of course, no respectable gaming keyboard would be seen in public without the obligatory LED lighting effects. But does it bring anything else to the table and what’s it like to use? Read on because I’m about to spill all its dirty little secrets.

Specifications

This is where you would normally expect to see, or skip past a vast table of data… not this time. Information is being so closely guarded by Venom prior to the release of the Warrior that even the item’s weight is listed in the promo material as TBC so this review will probably need to be edited at some point after the fact. What I can tell you is that it only comes in black (with red accents) and it’s ‘pretty damn heavy’, which is the technical term for hinting but not actually telling you.

Here’s what else we know:

110 mechanical shaft keys

19 function key combos including media and program controls

4 macro buttons

Dedicated volume control rocker switch

Backlighting in red, blue or purple, with 4 brightness levels

Solid metal fascia

Braided cable with gold plated USB connection

So, without further ado it’s on to the features, and you’ll be happy to know that I AM able to tell you all about those.