Conclusion

When you take a long hard look at this keyboard you realize that the demographic the Elixir is aimed is the casual gamer. This is not a bad thing as there is a heck of a lot of people who don’t want to go the $100+ elite gamer keyboard route, nor the SpeedPad route. However, there are plenty of people out there who want a good solid product which works equally well everywhere from a heavy LAN Party environment to a multimedia / internet surfing implementation. Regardless of what you are looking for in a keyboard there is certainly a lot to like about this product. Those rubber keys are truly a godsend when it comes to sticky fingers and / or Cheetoe crumbs as you can be a slovenly as you want and it will never cost you a slipped key press.

More importantly than its ability to shrug off copious amounts of nastiness is the fact this OCZ's keyboard has a lot to offer even for people in your household who don’t game as the macro keys can do a lot more than allow you to tweakyour favorite game. Heck, even taking those 10 macro keys and the multimedia keys out of the equation means you are still left with one very durable QWERTY keyboard. This keyboard gives you plenty of tactile feedback that even if you never use it for games it still would be a good investment…though one with a few caveats.

As we said this, keyboard is aimed at the gaming contingent so high speed (yet accurate) touch typing may require a period of adjustment when using it. The F and J keys do have raised positioning bumps which all touch typists (or at least all QWERTY ones) rely on to know when their fingers are back in position. Unfortunately, the Elixir’s bumps are extremely small and for the first few days you may find your fingers hunting for them. However, once you get used to it this issue does go away.

The only real issues we have with the Elixir is its underlying tech. Tactile membrane keyboards are an interesting work around to fix many of the shortcomings of a typical membrane keyboard. The Elixir does provide more than enough tactile feedback but it is different than the feel of a more typical keyboard. One really needs to train themselves to continue depressing the keyboard past the tactile response to ensure a key command is recognized. This is only half the problem and is easily overcome with a bit of practice. The larger part of this issue is the relatively long key travel required to get that key press recognized. Now if you are the type that hammers away at the keys then you will be more than happy with this keyboard as it is the perfect one for your needs. However, if you believe in the “softly, softly catchee monkey” approach then you are in for a steeper learning curve; however, it is not that bad nor long of a curve and I personally was back to my old self after only a few days.

This is not the biggest concern with the membrane technology; no the above is nothing more than a minor annoyance which can easily be overcome. The real issue which is impossible to get around is the relatively short life span. The tactile membrane keyboard is only rated for about 4 million key presses. This means if you do use it a lot it will only last a few years and will not be around in 10 years like the older mechanical scissor switch keyboards. Of course, when you are talking about a product which only costs $35 this is not a big deal. In a couple of years if you do wear it out, simply get the Elixir 9 (or whatever model number OCZ is up to by then!) as it will owe you nothing after doing yeoman's work for you for so long.

In the end, there really is not much dislike about the OCZ Alchemy Elixir. Sure it’s an older straight style keyboard and it doesn’t do reverse tenting but it still provides a great value for your money. If you are in market for a relatively inexpensive, yet still really good keyboard you should take a long serious look at the OCZ Elixr.


PROS
- Inexpensive
- Tactile Keys do provide feeback
- No slip keys
- Free Replacement Keys included
- Macro Keys


CONS
- Only moderate life expectancy
- Long Key “throw”
- short character limitations for macros