Tag Archives: mouse

Review: 1byone 4000DPI Programmable Wired USB Gaming Mouse

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Rating: ★★★★

PROS:

  • Very comfortable to use
  • Braided cable for extra durability
  • Performs well in game, easy to map buttons as per requirements
  • Inexpensive

CONS:

  • Only 6 LED colours to choose from, no fully fledged RGB system
  • Would have liked more programmable buttons
  • Software can only be installed from CD

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Learn more about this product at 1byone.co.uk

I wouldn’t call myself a heavy gamer, but I do enjoy the odd PC game from time to time when I get the chance. Historically, I’ve very much been a controller-based gamer, typically relying on an Xbox 360 or Xbox One PC controller. 1byone got in touch with me and said they thought I should try gaming with a high DPI mouse designed for gaming, so i took them up on their offer to sample one of their latest models.

The mouse comes packaged in a simple cardboard box which thankfully doesn’t require any frustrating man-handling to open, and arrives together with a mini-CD containing the software required to use the mouse’s high DPI functionality. The software is fully compatible with most recent versions of Windows including Windows 10 but unfortunately can only be used as a standard mouse within Mac.

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The mouse itself fits very nicely in the hand and is a good size. If anything I might have liked it to be a tiny bit larger but that’s just personal preference and most will feel it’s an ample size for the job at hand. Buttons are well placed with a button marked ‘DPI’ on the top which by selects each DPI profile that has been configured (and simulatenously changes the configured colour scheme ready for each profile). There are then two other buttons on the left hand side of the mouse which by default act as back and forward buttons for your web browser.

Getting started is simple. Simply plug in your new mouse and then run the bundled setup.exe program within the installation CD and in a few easy steps you’ll be good to go. Once the software is installed, you can configure up to 5 gaming profiles and even assign the profiles to an individual game. The profile can even be automatically selected when a particular game starts.

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Bar a minor spelling error, the interface is well designed and allows easy configuration of gaming profiles.

Playing games with the mouse is very easy and the comfortable thumb rest makes use of the mouse for extended periods of time comfortable. I’m not sure how I’d use the mouse in my left hand as it does seem to be manufactured for right-handed gamers, but that’s likely to be an issue that won’t affect many. The two buttons above your thumb are well placed so you don’t hit them by accident and have a very decent level of feedback and a loud click upon pressing.

Every button on the mouse including the left and right mouse button can be mapped, which can be particularly useful if you want to avoid using a keyboard almost altogether. One of my criticisms is the lack of buttons for you to be able to map – I’d like to have seen a couple more custom buttons myself but overall feel that the choice 1byone made is reflected well in the price.

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My biggest gripe with the mouse is the lack of downloadable software for it. At the time of writing, the only way you can install the software (which is absolutely mandatory if you want to do any form of gaming with the mouse) is to use the provided mini disk. If you don’t have a CD drive on your computer (and let’s face it, many of us don’t these days) you’re going to find the software difficult to install unless you have another computer with a CD drive kicking about. 1byone could however easily fix this!

Aside from those relatively minor niggles, this is a solid budget gaming mouse with as much accuracy as most will ever need. At around £15, it fits nicely within its price range and certainly feels well built and designed to last. If 1byone could fix the software download issue this would be suitable for all games no matter how their computer is configured. If you’re in need of a reliable gaming mouse that won’t cost the Earth, this is a good choice.

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Google Chrome being unresponsive or unusually slow? Here’s a fix!

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In recent weeks I’ve been finding my favourite browser, Google Chrome, walking on thin ice. It used to be a seriously speedy browser dancing from page to page… OK, cut the fairy tale. Nonetheless, it was getting increasingly slow performing basic tasks like opening new tabs and launching video playback. It even seemed to cause mouse lag when multiple tabs were open.

Nonetheless, I was fiddling with settings and finally seem to have found a reasonable solution. It seems hardware acceleration has been a relatively new feature for Chrome (available from early 2014-ish). but many seem to be reporting this has led to Chrome becoming slower rather than faster.

Try turning it off using the instructions below and see if it makes a difference.

  1. Type chrome://settings into your address bar. Alternatively, click on the Google Chrome customize button (far top right button in Chrome with the 3 lines, then click Settings)
  2. Scroll to the bottom and click Show advanced settings…
  3. Scroll all the way to the bottom and find the System section. Untick Use hardware acceleration where available. Chrome will tell you it’ll need to restart, so do that by clicking restart (or closing Chrome fully and reloading it)

Try browsing to some sites now or opening some new tabs. I noticed an immediate improvement myself, but let me know if it makes any difference for you.

Review: Logitech EX100 Cordless Mouse and Keyboard

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I got this keyboard and mouse today from my local Curry’s store as I accidentally broke my old wireless mouse. I’ve been trying to cope with using VNC to access my computer without a mouse, but my patience didn’t last long so I decided I had to go and get a new mouse/keyboard.

I paid just under £20 for the mouse and keyboard, so I was relatively pleased as that isn’t too bad at today’s standard.

In terms of quality and performance, I’m really happy. Set up was really quick and easy. I simply connected the receiver to the computer via USB, placed the batteries in the keyboard and mouse, and off I went. I installed the optional software to provide the function keys on the keyboard, although this isn’t vital and quite a lot of people probably wouldn’t bother.

The keyboard has a really nice comfortable feel which makes it a pleasure to type on. It’s feedback to your fingers is really good – it’s not too hard to press the keys that it becomes tiring to type with, yet not to easy to press the keys that you start double-pressing keys by mistake. Compared to my previous Advent keyboard, it’s really good (my old Advent keyboard was just too hard to type with – made you tired of typing very quickly).

The keyboard’s function keys are handy. It has all the obvious keys you’d expect – Internet, Email, Music player, Skip Track etc. However, the keys are built in to the keyboard itself rather than using separate buttons which makes the keyboard very compact. It makes the keyboard very useful if you are using it on a small desk.

The mouse is also very good. It’s a fairly big mouse which I prefer (I’m not a fan of the mini mice!). It has the usual 3 buttons – left mouse button, right mouse button, and a scroll wheel in the middle with a clicker. The mouse has a really comfortable feel which I would be happy to use for several hours continuously.

The included software is pretty good. Not only does it let you handle which function buttons do what, but it also lets you handle things like “gaming mode”. I actually like the idea of this (I am aware that this is probably not unique to this keyboard). How many times have you been in the middle of a full screen game and then accidentally hit the Windows start key, and the whole game minimises and your start menu appears – arghh! Well that’s solved with this keyboard, as you can have the keyboard’s software detect that you’re in a game and disable the start key. That is a lifesaver.

On top of that, the software also alerts you if either the keyboard or mouse battery is running low, which is helpful. That neatly brings me on to the only downside I can really think of for this keyboard – it doesn’t have a mouse charging cable or dock. Instead, it just uses simple standard AA batteries. Of course, you could just use rechargeable batteries and charge them externally, but this can become annoying when you need the computer and the mouse batteries are on charge. But then for £20, it’s not going to be perfect.

Overall, I’m very happy with the keyboard and mouse. If you’re in need of a good cordless mouse and keyboard set on a budget, this one is a good idea.