Fnatic Streak65 Gaming Keyboard Review

It’s only natural that an esports company will create the best-in-class professional keyboard. The $109.99 Streak65 keyboard from Fnatic impresses with a sleek yet practical take on the famous compact 60-percent keyboard style. Even better, the Streak65 has all the fine details you’d expect from a portable keyboard, including a new feature for the 60% category: dedicated macro keys. The Streak65 is an outstanding option and Editors’ Choice selection if you’re looking to downsize your keyboard when upgrading your game.

The Streak65 has 68 buttons, making it a real 65 percent keyboard. (Keep in mind that a full-size, “100%” keyboard has 104 keys.) In addition to removing the number pad, reducing the number of keys to 68 includes getting rid of the feature lines, the utility keys that will usually be seen above the arrows, and the menu key that sits between function and right-control. Such functions, along with general, shared keys like media and RGB brightness controls, have been relegated to feature key shortcuts. Since all of those shared keys have sidecap labels identifying their alternative purposes, the Streak65 takes a little more memorization.

The arrow keys are scrunched into the lower-right corner of a small, rectangular block of keys. There is no space between the one, tab, and escape keys, which is unfortunate. Right-shift and a few other keys are smaller than their neighbors, and they sound out of place as compared on the keys to their right.

The Streak65 takes up very little desk space, measuring 1.03 by 12.31 by 4.34 inches (HWD). It’s only a smidgeon less than the HyperX Alloy Origins 60. The keyboard is very small and tiltable, weighing just 13.7 ounces. (For the uninitiated, while PC gaming, often professional players choose to tip their keyboards to a more ergonomic angle.)

However, the general tendency to cram the keyboard as tightly as practicable isn’t entirely optimistic. If you get stuck or out of place, it’s safe to click the incorrect key and there are no holes between the buttons. The concave keycaps on the Streak65 help to mitigate this—if your finger catches the edge of a key, it appears to slip into place—but you might make a couple more typos than normal in the first few days with the keyboard.

Although the interface is well-designed, it isn’t particularly impressive on its own. The keyboard stands out from the crowd thanks to the typing feel provided by Fnatic’s latest low-profile mechanical switches, which are manufactured in-house. It’s a case where you get the best of all worlds. The switches have a light contact and actuate at 1mm, but they reach a depth of 3.2mm, which is unusual for a low-profile switch. You won’t notice the effect of low-travel keys if you gently tap while gaming or hold down hard while texting.

There are a few extra features on the Streak65. Some features, such as its detachable USB-C power cord (it isn’t wireless like the Happy Hacking Professional Hybrid 60-percent keyboard), are pretty standard for esports-oriented keyboards. Others, such as the four dedicated macro buttons, are noticeably different. It seems strange that the Streak65 has a series of free, “special” keys, given the strenuous attempt to keep the keyboard thin, but they’re worth the extra room. You’ll appreciate being able to change the streamlined 65-percent profile without needing to move stuff around, if you elevate a shortcut to a dedicated key or build a macro.

Get Your Streak Exceptional

Fnatic OP, the company’s setup app, allows for device customization on the Streak65. The lower-left corner of OP has a “early entry” badge, which can illustrate, if not excuse, the ups and downs of utilizing the app. OP seems to be smooth at first sight. It has a clean and appealing user interface. For each key, remapping both the primary and secondary (Fn+Key) inputs is easy. It also comes with a really nice-looking macro editor that visualizes the main combination in a highly editable manner. Both of these items are excellent.

There are still some…less pleasant aspects. Up to four keyboard profiles can be saved in onboard memory on the Streak65. Although four onboard profiles is a reasonable amount, most configuration apps enable you to build an unlimited number of profiles, save the best ones onboard, and store the rest locally. However, since there is no way to link profiles to individual games or applications, sifting through several profiles may be a pain in this situation.

The Streak65 has RGB illumination under each switch, but it does not have per-key light controls. The lighting pattern may be changed in OP’s lighting menu, although those options extend to the whole keyboard. It’s a little blunder, but it’s perplexing.

It Has the Feeling of Victory

Despite its software flaws, the Fnatic Streak65 combines many of the useful features you’d want in a compact keyboard, particularly one optimized for esports. It’s thin, light, and feels fantastic to type on. Fnatic’s fast, deep switches strike the ideal balance between hair-trigger efficiency and comfort if you’re searching for a keyboard that excels at both gaming and typing. The Streak65 promises incredible fundamentals and capabilities you won’t find everywhere else for $109.99, a price in line with the growing lineup of 60-65 percent keyboards from major manufacturers, such as the excellent HyperX Alloy Origins 60 and Razer Huntsman Mini (at least for now). The Fnatic Streak65 comes close to being fine, making it an easy Editors’ Choice winner.

Originally posted 2021-11-11 12:56:41.