Remember when choosing a new keyboard or mouse was mostly a decision between different tones of beige and beige, and colour-coordinating those with other tones of beige? Growing up as a PC gamer in the 80s and 90s sucked like that, and you kids with your videophones and SnapToks don’t even know about hauling a (beige) 300-kilo CRT monitor up five floors to a LAN party but everybody else wanted to play stupid Counter-Strike instead of Unreal Tournament so it was a total waste of time anyway.
Now it’s the neon cyberpunk future and, for reasons I couldn’t ever explain, people are still playing stupid Counter-Strike. But beige is out, so I guess it’s an okay compromise, and besides, it’s been replaced by magical rainbow stardust unicorn dream glitter RGB.
COUNTER-TERRORIST AESTHETICS WIN.
Ironically enough, however, choosing new PC accessories in 2019 can be equally disorienting, with an extravagant diversity of vendors, models, pixel clocks, cache encoders, ultraflips-per-hyperflops, and other features I made up but you probably didn’t even realise it because tech specs are like sci-fi. For the purposes of this review, I’m going to focus on budget because cheap options are real options too.
VPRO is a new series of gaming products from Chinese hardware manufacturer Rapoo, but re-branded presumably because the marketing department was, like, “… nuh-uh”. I’ve been provided with two keyboards, a mouse, and a headset for testing.
V500 PRO and V500 RGB WIRED KEYBOARDS
Maybe I’m missing something super important, but these two keyboards are ostensibly exactly the same – both have the same RGB backlights, the same CLICK-CLICK-CLICK mechanical blue switches, the same durable build quality, even the same font. The one obvious difference is that the V500 PRO has a numpad, and the V500 RGB doesn’t. VPRO’s unconventional “spill-resistant” design, including wide-spaced, removable keys exposed over the base and no encapsulating top panel, is conveniently also fur-resistant for those of you, like me, whose cats sleep on the desk like they don’t have their own special catio constructed at enormous expense with ramps and cushions and shit.
From a performance perspective, the V500 PRO and V500 RGB are also the same, with no discernible delay between press and response, but the absence of dedicated media and macro keys limits versatility for some games or applications. That’s to be expected for budget keyboards – but less so, perhaps, the simultaneous absence of driver support. I couldn’t find a driver for either of them, a problem compounded by VPRO’s mess of a website which inexplicably loads a V500 model that isn’t the V500 PRO or V500 RGB, and no driver support means no extended functions like custom RGB configs.
In comparison with comprehensive driver support like Razer’s Synapse and Cooler Master’s MasterPlus+, this is a conspicuous failure that’s hard to excuse. But for a mechanical keyboard under R1,000? Not necessarily impossible to excuse.
VPRO V16 WIRED OPTICAL MOUSE
So, funny thing. The box I got this in and the product image embossed on it are branded with the VPRO logo, but the actual mouse has a Rapoo logo. DUNNOLOL? It’s otherwise the same, and will doubtless be a prized collector’s item by 2030, unless it isn’t.
The V16 is a very simple gaming mouse, with a textured scroll wheel, DPI selector button (from 750 – 2000), and two extra buttons. Its ergonomic, ambidextrous (sorry, semi-ambidextrous) design makes it suitable for left- and right-handed users, but those extra buttons are on the wrong side for left-handed users. As a left-handed user, “wrong” is a consistent reality, but what if I don’t even want the extra buttons? Trick question, because I do want the extra buttons. Boo.
At just over 110 grams, it’s also very light, so if you prefer a mouse that can do double-duty as an improvised weapon, the V16 isn’t for you.
Like the V500 keyboard, though, it’s also cheap – Takealot is selling it for R185, and unlike most of the other gaming mice in the same price category, it doesn’t look like a robot sex toy. That counts for something, I think.
VPRO VH200 STEREO HEADSET
This is the VPRO series marquee hero, and a legitimate contender for your holiday season cash. It’s got razzle-dazzle RGB vibes, swapping between a spectrum-cycle and custom colour at a button push, and a plastic mesh finish adds some cyber-glam.
The VH200 is fashionably sophisticated without superfluous greebling or other pretensions, featuring a padded, expandable band and over-ear cups, integrated volume control, and a retractable, omni-directional mic. Its noise-cancelling design does a very decent job of eliminating ambient distractions, and the audio is on par with headsets at two times its price of about R500, with fat bass and almost zero distortion at maximum volume. It’s also comfy even for extended sessions.
[DISCLAIMER BECAUSE ETHICS. Uh, so, this is kind of awkward, but we’re showing VPRO ads on the website at publish time. This is entirely coincidental, as editorial and ad sales are separate departments at NAG HQ, and we don’t mix except at Vodacom rAge’s booze-booth. I got these units from a local distributor back in October already, but I wanted to write and publish this review closer to Xmas when it would be more relevant.]