Cheap $15 Gaming Mouse Round Up!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,631 words · ~8 min read
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So, you bought a cheapo backlit keyboard from our last guide.
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But come on, if you want to do anything other than sit in the dark playing Q-Op,
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you're gonna need a hella wicked but bank account friendly gaming mouse to go with it, right?
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Well, turn out your pockets, rip up your seat cushions, and scrape out those cup holders,
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because kids, every gaming mouse in this roundup costs less than $15.
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Synergy is the amazing software that lets you share your mouse and keyboard between multiple computers.
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Check it out now at the link in the video description.
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First up, at $9.99, we have the mouse known only as Sautech,
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sporting the cheap and glossy Power Rangers look, which is totally in for spring 2017.
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But don't judge a mouse by its grease magnet fur.
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The Sautech has the highest Amazon rating of any mouse in our roundup,
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boasting a max DPI of 3,200, higher than the 2,400 DPI of most of the competition,
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and it's the most symmetrical, ensuring apparently no fatigue, even for a long time use.
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The scroll wheel is unexceptional, a little mushy feeling,
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but the moderate to heavy right and left click feel very similar,
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indicating at least some consistency in the switch quality.
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The breathing LEDs provide visual feedback when stepping through the four DPI presets,
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and it even has a quality control past sticker.
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Although apparently you get one of these even if your mouse shows up broken.
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Sautech never skimps on the included decals.
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The Havit MS672 from their Magic Eagle lineup is the glowiest mouse in the bunch,
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with as many as,
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two colors shining at once.
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It's got a soft touch finish and actually decent feeling build quality.
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From the heavier clicks, to the multi-color woven braided cord.
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Though it should be noted the mouse wheel appears to be a common problem.
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Ergonomics wise, if you've got the Donald sized hands like me,
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you'll probably feel like you have to stretch to hit the side buttons,
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which, just like the Sautech,
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are
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programmed backwards for some reason.
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And I also couldn't help noticing that the finger rests only really work at a bizarre,
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unnatural angle for my wrist,
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and that it's pretty hard to hold on to when lifting it off the mat.
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Ergonomics are not a strong point for this one.
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The cheapest mouse in our roundup is the Letton S20,
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which we got for,
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WOW!
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$499!
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Though at this point it's gone up to $999 on Amazon.com.
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And...
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WHAT?!
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$62 on Amazon.ca!
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Maybe that accounts for the effective antioxidant and
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electromagnetic ring to reduce radiation claims that they make on the product page.
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In all seriousness though,
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this one has an understated look that we appreciated,
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feels pretty good in a claw grip,
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with the textured plastic sides,
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and lightweight making lift-offs easy,
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and the medium weight clicks,
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all felt consistent and pretty good.
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Almost letting us forgive the very short cord,
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and the lack of advertised gold plating on the USB connector contacts.
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Time to kick it up a notch then,
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with the Emarth Combatter Wing.
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Or as I like to call it,
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the Cyborg Can't 9.
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The most aggressive looking,
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and subjectively,
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janky ass mouse in the pile.
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It's the heaviest one,
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and it's a low-wired mouse,
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thanks to its steel-based construction.
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It claims to have 10 programmable buttons,
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but if you don't count scroll wheel up and down,
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you get 9,
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and if you do, it's 11.
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So...
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Anyway,
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the default mapping is a bit weird too.
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I mean,
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who would want to go forward and back using these?
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How do you reach these,
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no matter what you program them to?
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And on the subject of ergonomics,
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well,
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it's a mouse targeting users with smaller hands,
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and it's got these springs to adjust the width of the...
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You know what?
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Just forget it.
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What it gains in style points,
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it loses in points points,
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and mine came with a broken right click,
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so don't buy this thing.
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Moving on,
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the Red Dragon M601 Centrophorus is,
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shall we say,
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inspired
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by the MSI Interceptor,
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and is the proud winner of several awards in our roundup here,
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including best unboxing experience,
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longest cord,
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and lowest weight,
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or not.
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It's the only mouse that came with removable weights,
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though,
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I almost broke my fingers trying to open the frickin' door.
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It's comfortable,
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the plastics feel quality,
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and it has a grippy finish on the medium weight right and left click,
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that'll be nice while it lasts.
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Overall,
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this one came away with top marks during our tests,
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but your mileage may vary.
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We did find complaints online
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about short connectivity hiccups every few minutes.
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Onto the only mouse without a braided cable,
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or any cable,
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the EagleTech MG001 is a wireless gaming mouse for $13.99.
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It's got a high arch for large hands,
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and,
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though all of our mice feature toggleable DPI settings,
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this is the only one with dedicated buttons for up and down.
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It's got three side buttons,
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which are easy to reach,
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and map to control,
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alt, and shift by default for some reason.
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That'll need to be remapped with a third party tool,
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me thinks.
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It's got a battery saving,
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non-LED mode,
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and,
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believe it or not,
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not only was it,
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subjectively,
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the most comfortable mouse in our roundup,
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it performed the best,
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in our counter strike test,
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with its input lag,
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not being noticeably worse than any of our other mice here,
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and two meter per second maximum tracking speed,
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being the best.
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Speaking of best,
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the Bestly ZM700 gaming mouse,
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is a decent all-rounder,
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especially if you have longer fingers,
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with breathing LEDs that cycle according to DPI,
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or that can be set to a solid color of your choice,
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including pink,
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using the included software.
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It's got a simple base design,
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with a couple of flares,
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a thumb,
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and a pinky pad,
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that helps it glide around,
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and it's got these sort of,
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dark night,
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fairing things,
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that could probably poke your eye out.
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It's reasonably comfortable,
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and every button but the left click,
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is programmable.
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Unfortunately,
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it was the only mouse to fail our,
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glossy conference room table test,
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and,
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as for the advertised weight tuning system,
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there's nothing built in,
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so the expectation seems to be,
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that you're going to DIY it.
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Bringing us finally,
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to the highest resolution mouse in town,
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Zelotes,
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550 DPI gaming mouse for pro gamers,
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AKA,
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the T80 Big Mac.
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I think,
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unexceptional,
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summarizes this one pretty well.
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Its size makes it suitable for medium to large hands,
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it's got a competitive gamery look,
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and a pinky rest,
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mostly delivering on its promises of,
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built weight iron,
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feel comfortable,
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mobile and stability,
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and it also has this nifty double click button,
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but I'm personally not convinced,
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that moving my finger over to click it,
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is actually any faster,
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than simply clicking the medium weight left click twice.
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So which one,
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should you buy then?
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Let's get this out of the way first.
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If you're a low sensitivity gamer,
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none of them.
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Ed,
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our resident CSGO player,
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gave every single one of our mice,
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a fail,
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in the tracking speed department,
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with all but one of them,
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coming in at under 1.5 meters per second,
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maximum.
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With that said,
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he didn't notice any obvious latency,
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or accuracy issues,
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so they should be okay for casual use,
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in other games,
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or for higher sensitivity players.
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So with that in mind then,
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the Eagle Tech Wireless works pretty well,
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and runs on standard AA batteries,
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if you don't mind the extra weight,
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and the expense associated with that.
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If you like a simpler mouse,
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the Letton checks all the boxes for us.
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This was my personal favorite,
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of all the wired choices.
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And,
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if you're looking for something a little more aggressive looking,
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the Red Dragon is probably the most bang for your buck.
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Just bear in mind,
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that with any of these choices,
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you might not get the same kind of longevity,
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that you might expect,
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from a higher end gaming mouse,
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from a respectable brand.
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Synergy is an amazingly elegant solution,
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to the problem,
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of having too many keyboards and mice on your desk.
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Do you,
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for some reason,
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have more than one computer?
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Maybe you need a different OS for a development environment,
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or maybe,
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you've got a laptop and a desktop,
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whatever the case may be.
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With Synergy,
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you can use just one keyboard,
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and one mouse,
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and you can actually share them,
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effortlessly,
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between both or even more computers.
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It's supported on Windows,
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Mac,
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and even Linux,
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and they've got a couple of different versions,
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depending on all the features you need.
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And you can get stuff like,
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clipboard sharing between the computers,
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dragging and dropping files between them,
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the ability to set up hotkeys,
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and more.
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So check out the link in the video description,
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to get 25% off Synergy today.
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So thanks for watching, guys.
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If this video sucked,
10:33
you know what to do.
10:34
But if it was awesome,
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get subscribed,
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hit that like button,
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and check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured,
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at Amazon,
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in the video description.
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Also down there is a link to our merch store,
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which is full of cool stuff like this,
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as well as our community forum,
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which is full of cool people,
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like you.