Tt eSPORTS COMMANDER Gaming Gear Combo

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Just because you’re on a budget doesn’t mean you have to settle for components that look cheap, perform poorly, or worse—both. With a little research and patience, though, you can find solid hardware that won’t bankrupt you. Tt eSPORTS understands this, making quality gaming gear available for every gamer, including those whose wallets contain little more than a driver’s license and a handful of half-completed customer loyalty punch cards. The COMMANDER Gaming Gear Combo is a terrific example of how Tt eSPORTS has extended its stable of products to every income bracket. The COMMANDER combo is a dynamic duo consisting of a sharp-looking keyboard and mouse. There’s no question that this set looks the part. Both input devices have LED backlighting (blue, in this case), a staple of the LAN party scene. On the keyboard, that means LED backlighting at the base of each key, plus the attractive design flourishes on both sides and Tt eSPORTS’ logo, complete with the Battle Dragon, at the top. The mouse also sports a backlit Battle Dragon, and two thin strips of translucent plastic that flank the palm rest also have LED backlighting. Everything on the keyboard that isn’t LED-backlit looks awesome, too. Tt eSPORTS has designed the keyboard to look as though strips of copper have been fastened to the edges with hex key bolts. The majority of the keyboard’s surface is swathed a soft-touch rubber coating that’s become popular on a lot of enthusiast cases; the same substance coats the top of the COMMANDER combo’s mouse. Both the keyboard and mouse have braided cords to prevent tangling. If you want to dress up the keyboard even more, you can purchase separately a set of Tt eSPORTS’ METALCAPS, which are zinc alloy keycaps that have been anodized and UV-coated, We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Just because you’re on a budget doesn’t mean you have to settle for components that look cheap, perform poorly, or worse—both. With a little research and patience, though, you can find solid hardware that won’t bankrupt you. Tt eSPORTS understands this, making quality gaming gear available for every gamer, including those whose wallets contain little more than a driver’s license and a handful of half-completed customer loyalty punch cards. The COMMANDER Gaming Gear Combo is a terrific example of how Tt eSPORTS has extended its stable of products to every income bracket. The COMMANDER combo is a dynamic duo consisting of a sharp-looking keyboard and mouse. There’s no question that this set looks the part. Both input devices have LED backlighting (blue, in this case), a staple of the LAN party scene. On the keyboard, that means LED backlighting to replace the keycaps commonly used for games (WASD, QWER, and the arrow keys). Using what Tt eSPORTS calls “plunger switches with mechanical keycaps,” the keyboard is built to feel like a much more expensive mechanical keyboard. After using the COMMANDER keyboard, we’d say the overall experience falls between a mechanical keyboard and a typical rubber dome or membrane keyboard. To clarify, though, the action was far crisper than the latter two types of keyboard and certainly better than anything else you’ll find in this price segment, where the competition’s offerings are almost always a squishy, unsatisfying mess. Tt eSPORTS even includes a few bonuses you might not expect, such as a Windows key lock and repeat rate adjustment. For such a nice keyboard, you could consider the COMMANDER’s mouse a bonus, but it’s a capable component in its own right. It has four DPI settings (800, 1,200, 1,600, and 2,400), and you can switch between them on the fly. The sculpted sides felt great in our hand. In addition to the main right and left buttons, the scroll wheel, and the DPI button, the mouse has a pair of thumb buttons on its left side. In use, it moves well and clicks well, so as long as you don’t need a bunch of buttons and extensive macro support, the mouse should be up to the task. Even if the COMMANDER combo’s keyboard and mouse were half as good as they are, for 30 bucks they’re an incredible deal. (We would’ve gladly paid that for the keyboard alone.) Budget builders and thrifty gamers should keep the COMMANDER in their sights