#qpad

QPAD is a name that might ring a distant bell for anyone who lived through the early days of LAN parties, cloth mousepads and the wild west of pre-esports PC gaming. In the 1990s and early 2000s, QPAD was the European gaming gear company. And now, after years of near-silence, they’re officially back. The company announced today that it’s returning to the gaming market with a freshly rebuilt…

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Qpad MK-40 LED Gamingtangentbord - Endast 299kr - Spara 216kr @mediamarkt

QPAD DX30 Gaming Mouse Specifications

Sensor technology: ADNS 5050 Sensitivity: 2800 CPI (Counts/inch) Max Acceleration: 8G Max Speed: 30 IPS (Inch/Sec) USB Report Rate: 125, 500, 1000Hz USB Data Format: 16 bit/axis Buttons: 7 Sensing Pixels: 361 pixels Sampling Rate 4500 FPS (Frames/second) Cable: Braided cable 1.8 meters USB Plug: Gold plated USB Response Time: 1ms MCU Controller Unit: ARM Cortex M0 processor Backlight RGB 16.8 million Installation: Plug & Play Main Buttons: Omron 10 Million click Shape: Ambidextrous Firmware Update on line

Weight 0.349 kg Dimensions 0.44 × 0.14 × 0.03 cm

Price when reviewed – €29.90 (official store)

What’s In The Box?

Nice and straight forward for this, you get a mouse and a ‘quick start’ guide to using the mouse. The guide makes no reference to requiring a software download and simply plugging the mouse into my PC prompted it to recognise the mouse.

The mouse itself is actually pretty nice. From the top, you have a fairly standard ‘mouse’ finish, with no special texture or grip to the palm or the standard mouse buttons. The wheel, however, is satisfyingly chunky with a large zig-zag style ridge to help with grip and control. The translucent stripe down the centre of the mouse wheel is of course where the RGB light will be visible.

Nothing much to write home about at the back of the mouse, but you can see the translucent plastic of the QPAD logo indicating where more RGB lighting will be visible.

Maybe it’s just me, but I would disagree with the shape being ambidextrous. Indeed, QPAD themselves actually refer to it as a being designed for right-handed use in the description on their website. It is interesting that from the front, at this low angle, you can see the sponge/foam used to assist with the longevity of the mouse.

From the left-hand side of the mouse, you see an additional translucent strip for the RGB lighting and the two ‘thumb buttons’. When I initially opened the box, I did wonder if these would be difficult to use as they were noticeably thinner than my existing mouse of choice, but in practice, this proved not to be the case. You can also see here the more grippy, rubber-like material you would expect to find on the side of the mouse. This is also found on the other side.

Lastly, the USB connector. A gold plated connector, fairly standard on gaming peripherals these days, but the connector itself is nice and chunky and feels very robust. The braided cable is 1.8m long and again feels quite durable.

Software?

I took a couple of moments to go through my settings, looking for any installed software related to the mouse, but could not find anything. It was very much just plug and play. Even the firmware updater, downloaded from the manufacturer’s website is a minimalist pop up with the option to run an update and nothing else.

In general, I am not opposed to this. In the past, especially when SSD drives were less affordable than they are currently, the host of software that would load on startup often meant I had time to switch on my PC and go make a coffee, drink it and then make another cup before I was able to jump into whatever game I was playing at the time.

I did, however, struggle to make sense of the quick start instructions in the box and it took some trial and error to make sense of the DPI adjustments. And by the end of two gaming sessions, I still had not worked out how to change the RGB mode from ‘neon’ mode.

Gameplay

What was more important though was how it performed as a mouse. A great mouse feels like an extension of your arm and hand, while a bad one feels like having a hand tied behind your back. And, when it came down to it, I am pleased to report the QPAD DX30 held up its end of the bargain.

Once I had my DPI set to a nice level, I jumped into my go-to game for testing reactions and ease of use, League of Legends. The first thing I noticed when compared to my current mouse was the ease with which the mouse glided across the mat. The combination of lightweight body and a good base made it easy to negotiate the screen and then the chunky mouse wheel made it a breeze to zoom in and out without any drama.

I mentioned above that I had been a little concerned the thumb buttons would be hard to use as they appeared to be significantly thinner than my normal gaming mouse, but they were actually perfectly situated to not need to be any bigger.

I have definitely used mice that feel grippier in your hand, and some people might be put off by how light the mouse is, but there is very little I can criticise when it comes to actually using the mouse as an input tool.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to peripherals, I will always prioritise how it feels to use over the extras such as RGB lighting, especially when the extras typically have a price tag associated with them. But the QPAD DX30 provides a nice option for someone looking for a comfortable and great to use mouse, with the flash of some RGB, at a solid price. The DX30 is widely available for £25-30 and some companies would not think twice to charge twice as much for a mouse of similar quality.

I do think some software to provide an interface for controlling settings and creating profiles would be a great addition, but I accept that this not existing may be a part of the pricing being as it is.

My biggest complaint is the RGB settings, which I discovered are linked to the DPI setting the mouse is currently in. It makes little sense to me to have this linked to a separate setting in such a fashion – OK, at a glance you can tell what DPI mode your mouse is using but if you want coordinated RGB this isn’t going to work out too well.

All of that considered though, and again led by what I said about my priorities, I do still have to give this mouse a favourable review. I wholeheartedly give the QPAD DX30 a silver award and would highlight the combination of great price and how good an experience I had while using the mouse in-game.

Thank you to QPAD for sending us a sample of the DX30 gaming mouse to review.