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Alienware is announcing a pair of new Pro accessories at CES to give gamers that competitive edge. These will be the company’s first accessories designed and aimed at competitive gaming. What exactly does that mean? Well for starters, Alienware took a focused approach to adding features that add real-world benefits that can help you perform better in games. That’s not to say these accessories will guarantee that you play better. But with better tools, you have a better chance of performing at a higher level.
You’ll likely still need to practice of course. But you get the idea. Alienware’s new ‘Pro’ accessories are equipped to help you level up. The accessories include the new Alienware Pro Wireless Keyboard and the Alienware Pro Wireless Mouse. Alienware also took a page out of Logitech G’s book. The company says it consulted pro players for input to help them create products that pro players would be proud to use.
Alienware Pro accessories are the company’s most advanced ever
Starting with the Pro Mouse, Alienware sought to provide pro players and tech enthusiasts alike with something that was “tuned for performance and comfort.” The Pro Mouse stakes its name and its reputation on a few key features. A fast polling rate is one of these features. You can use the mouse in wired or wireless modes. But wired most certainly gives you a faster polling rate. It can go up to 8000KHz if you keep the mouse plugged in which is well above what many gaming mice offer.
However, this is not the only mouse that offers a polling rate this high. Razer offers its ‘HyperPolling’ feature that also goes up to 8000KHz on at least six different mice. Again though, this is still a polling rate that’s less common in the grand scheme of things. If you decide to use the mouse in wireless mode, it can still go up to 4000KHz which again, is well above the 1000KHz that’s offered on most mice.
If you’re unfamiliar with what the polling rate does, it’s a frequency that basically relays the mouse’s position to the PC. The faster the polling rate, the more often your PC knows your mouse position and that can result in smoother mouse cursor animations. The Pro mouse also has a more rounded symmetrical shape. Alienware says this is to make it more comfortable for all grip types. The mouse also weighs under 60g. So it should be easy to flick it around the mat.
The mouse also has these ‘Magnetic-Force keyplates’ that are designed to lower debounce times. Which is how quickly the switch will recognize that you’ve clicked a mouse button. To top things off, it has a battery life of up to 32 hours at 4000KHz. And you get 6 hours of use at 1000KHz with just 5 minutes of charge time. There are even 6 programmable buttons for mapping hotkeys. Alienware says this will launch on January 11 at $149.99.
A pro keyboard worthy of your fingertips
To pair neatly with the Pro mouse, Alienware is also releasing the Pro keyboard. Like the mouse this is a wireless keyboard that can also be used in wired mode should you need to charge it or you simply don’t want to drain the battery life. Speaking of which, it’ll last for up to 72 hours with the 2.4GHz connection and the RGB backlighting at 50%. However, if you turn the RGB backlighting off, it’ll last for up to a whopping 798 hours.
To meet pro player standards. Alienware designed the Pro keyboard as a 75% form factor keyboard that it says “strikes the sweet spot for saving space without sacrificing features.” This custom form factor is small enough to give you plenty of room on the mat for your mouse and it still gives you all the keys you need to complete whatever actions you set up for your games. The keyboard also offers a 40g actuation on key presses so inputs are registered fast. Which is what you want if you’re playing competitively.
To make things even better though, you can swap the switches out if you don’t like the ones Alienware provided. The Pro keyboard supports most 3-pin and 5-pin switches so you can hot swap in the ones you prefer. The keyboard will also be available on January 11 from Alienware and will retail for $199.99.