If you love PC games, then the crave for a capable hardware is always a top priority. Building a beastly gaming PC with specifications to create envious friends and neighbours is the dream for most gamers. However, if you are financially incapable of building your dream rig, or if you have just started your journey into the world of PC gaming, then settling for affordable options are your only choice of enhancing the experience, step-by-step. While the most obvious area where newbies think of is going for a midrange graphics card or a powerful processor, you can have capable and exciting input devices specially meant for gamers. Rapoo is fairly a new player in the affordable gaming accessory segment and they recently brought in the VPRO V110 gaming keyboard and mouse combo at a very affordable price of just Rs 1,690. It looks tempting on paper, but can it add to your experience of gaming?
Build, Features:
Straightaway, it can be stated that the VPRO V110 combo looks every bit a dedicated gaming setup. To begin with the keyboard, you get this huge and bulky form factor, which is what gamers would prefer. A normal plastic chassis with a fixed palm rest is what you get on this tight budget. The keys don’t look any different from a standard keyboard meant for typing, and that’s because they aren’t actually any different from a regular keyboard. The looks of the keyboard may tempt you to think you have mechanical keys at your disposal, but they are actually membrane. Therefore, dial down your expectations — you can’t have all the gaming goodies on a tight budget. Additionally, there are no dedicated programmable keys — you are only offered standard function keys.
However, what you get as a basic standard is RGB lighting, which is an important part of every computer accessory that falls into the gaming category. There’s a common LED base that can pull off some impressive light shows. You won’t get a dedicated driver software to customise the light show, but at such a low budget, the four preset lighting patterns are good enough to give your 'gamer ego' a slight boost. You can change light patterns through a dedicated key. A brightness adjustment key could have surely helped here, which we found missing. Nonetheless, the overall plastics are good (not as great) and definitely don’t feel flimsy.
Moving on to the mouse — it draws eyeballs. We must say that it has an outrageous bodywork. We have seen many gaming mice that try to take maximum advantage of its RGB lighting through sharp creases and clever shapes. The V110’s mouse takes it a step further by putting a body that’s mostly transparent. Especially in dark rooms, we felt as if something scary is crawling on the mouse (pun intended). The design will appeal to those who prefer extremely expressive accessories. However, we would say that it does not match completely with the keyboard as a set, which is comparatively subtle.
The mouse has two programmable keys to its side which is something gamers prefer while playing demanding games such CS:GO or Call of Duty. There’s also an additional button on top for tweaking the DPI and changing the colours of the lights. We find it weird as one has to press the button multiple times to get the right colour and a suitable DPI setting, which indirectly can make life a bit tough for the speedy gamer.
Lastly, both the keyboard and mouse work on USB 2.0 and have a sufficient cable length for conventional desktop setups.
Performance:
As stated, the keyboard isn’t mechanical, it doesn’t impart the amount of satisfactory tactility that a mechanical keyboard offers. However, the keys travel substantially, which means it is satisfactory enough for heavy use — be it mowing down innocent pedestrians in Grand Theft Auto or outrunning the cops in Need for Speed: Rivals.
Even when you aren’t ploughing battlefields in the virtual world, the keyboard feels at home when you show it some lengthy office documents. With a high key travel, typing feels natural. The keyboard’s design also helps in reducing the rate of error while typing fast, which is good news for those who rely on auto-correct features. Here, we felt a desperate need to adjust the LED brightness as it is pretty difficult to see the letters and symbols on the keys. A brightness control for the LEDs is a must.
As for the mouse, it has a very comfortable grip for long sessions. The underside is prone the gathering debris, which means you will have to keep cleaning it pretty often if you aren't into mouse pads. The buttons are pretty tactile and have a pleasant ‘clicky’ feel to them. The scroll wheel has a heavy feel too, which is preferable while scrolling through long documents and web pages.
The mouse isn’t on par with the best we have seen when it comes to sensitivity and responsiveness. New gamers may not notice it, but there is a slight laziness witnessed, especially when changing the view of First Person Shooters (FPS). When using it otherwise, you won't notice any issues, whatsoever.
Verdict:
The Rapoo VPRO V110’s asking price of Rs 1,690 offers a combination of a capable gaming keyboard and mouse, where others only offer one component. The keyboard is pretty user-friendly and certainly boosts a gamer’s mood with its RGB lighting whereas the mouse with its attention-seeking aesthetics and a comfortable shape makes for great user experience. If your requirements match with the positives of the V110 gaming combo, then we see no reason as to not recommend it. However, make sure you keep your expectations reasonable as this is a gaming kit suitable for rookies or casual gamers who are restrained by a low budget.
