When you consider Acer’s Predator vary, laptops and displays are most likely the primary issues that come to thoughts. This yr, nonetheless, Acer are going all in on PC gaming peripherals, as they’ve simply unveiled a brand-new mouse and keyboard at their New York press convention – the highly-flexible Predator Cestus 510 and the blue mechanical switch-themed Aethon 500. And I’ve been plastering my grubby mitts throughout them.
Acer have beforehand dabbled in a bit bit in peripherals with their Cestus 500 mouse and Galea 500 headset, however now we’ve bought the complete spectrum, together with some RGB (and non-RGB) mouse mats in all styles and sizes for good measure, in addition to a tough carry case to bung the whole lot in if you go off to your rad LAN events.
Starting with the Cestus 510, that is, as you’d anticipate, the second gen model of Acer’s RGB optical gaming mouse. It’s a relatively odd-looking factor with its further wings on the suitable and left click on buttons and madly over-sculpted thumb crevice, however Acer’s made certain the remainder of it can cater to as many various hand shapes as doable, as you not solely get two detachable right-side panels to make it fats or flush, however you additionally get a pair of excessive and low rear palm plates bundled contained in the field.
A tall and fats Cestus 510…
Held on by magnets, they’re all very easy to pop on and off to search out essentially the most snug match, and if that wasn’t sufficient, Acer have additionally cribbed a bit from the Steelseries Rival 600 and caught two 5g weights in there as effectively. These nestle below the rear again plate and sit proper on the prime of the mouse to provide it a bit of additional heft. Personally, I discovered they made the Cestus 510 too heavy for my liking, however at the least the choice’s there in the event you favor your mouse to really feel extra anchor-like on your mouse mat.
…and a brief and slim Cestus 510.
The Cestus 510 additionally has two facet buttons positioned inside simple attain of your thumb, and a central DPI button that may swap between one in all 5 profiles you may customise utilizing Acer’s software program. Its scroll wheel may also be assigned three separate capabilities (tilt proper, tilt left and press inwards), supplying you with eight programmable buttons in complete, and its twin Omron switches are rated for 50 million clicks on the left and 20 million clicks on the suitable.
My solely fundamental concern is that the additional wing on the suitable mouse click on button would possibly begin to chafe after some time, as even my quick hands-on time with it noticed my little finger repeatedly butting up in opposition to it each time I readjusted my grip. I’ll have to attend and see the way it pans out over an extended testing interval as soon as overview samples can be found, after all, however the quantity of flexibility on provide is definitely a plus, even when its general look is a bit try-hard.
Which is odd, as a result of Acer’s brand-new Predator Aethon 500 keyboard is about as muted and ‘ordinary’ wanting as mechanical keyboards come. Apart from the Predator brand simply beneath the house bar, the remainder of its aluminium chassis is totally plain and freed from every other ‘gamer’ branding (until you rely the additional Predator badge on the magnetic wrist relaxation), and the font on every secret’s – brace yourselves – CURSIVE of all issues.
Cursive letters on a gaming keyboard? Whatever subsequent… (click on to develop)
It’s virtually, dare I say it, fairly nice-looking, however I’m a bit apprehensive it gained’t look excellent for lengthy, as 30 minutes with the world’s press was all it took for it to start out wanting a bit scruffy and coated in greasy fingerprints. Still, I’m relatively keen on its grooved quantity knob, and I notably like that it stands proud over the facet of the Aethon 500 as effectively. With the tall quantity pad keys in the best way, a totally flush quantity knob wouldn’t have given you sufficient room to make use of it correctly, however that little finger’s value of additional extension offers simply the correct quantity of buy for cozy quantity adjustment.
I used to be much less eager on its devoted media keys, although, as these felt extraordinarily shallow to the contact and didn’t present as a lot tactile suggestions as I used to be anticipating. They’re very clicky, so that you’ll undoubtedly know if you’ve pressed them, however the sensation wasn’t practically as satisfying as different keyboards I’ve used up to now.
Acer was additionally a bit cagey on what kind of switches are getting used within the Aethon 500. Simply described as ‘blue mechanical switches’, there was no point out of Cherry or every other sort of swap producer, so I can solely assume that they’ve been made in-house. They had been nonetheless completely usable in my temporary time with it, however don’t anticipate every other kind of colors to be obtainable when it comes out later this yr.
More on different new Acer bits shortly…
