Samsung 27" S27C650D monitor and Thermaltake Level10 mouse review

[dizmo]

Sasmung S27C650D

 

I'll keep this one short because I highly doubt anyone else will buy it.

I bought it mainly to see how a 27" monitor was size wise, and to use as a second/main screen for my ultrabook.

 

Design

 

Very nice brushed plastic (made to look like brushed aluminum).

The monitor has tilt, swivel, and pivot adjustment. It's height adjustable and there is a pin you insert into the arm that locks it in place. A nice touch over my last monitor.

It has a built in USB port, and instead of most other companies that stick it in the body of the monitor, here it's placed in the base. A nice touch for cable routing, a downside if you use a different stand.

The monitors menus are controlled by actual buttons instead of touch buttons and they're well laid out on the front. Much better than touch buttons, or the ones on my Benq.

 

It has DVI, D-sub and DisplayPort as connectivity options. No HDMI, which is kind of a downer but understandable for it's intended purpose.

 

Performance

 

The monitor puts out a beautiful picture. Yes, it's a 1080p 27" monitor however it has a nice MVA (AD-PLS? Both are stated on the website) panel. It looks sharp to me, however I've spent the last year using a notebook with a PLS panel so I don't notice much of a change. Also the pixels aren't nearly as bad as most would make you believe.

Played games no problem.

 

 

Thermaltake Tt eSports Level 10 M mouse

 

I got this mouse on Boxing Day for $50. I wanted a mouse and it was one of the few deals I could get locally.

My last mouse was a Steelseries Ikari Laser for a reference point of where I was coming from.

Linus has a great video for this mouse as well where he goes a little more into the software aspect, I don't really change too many things so if you want info on that you know where to go.

I just thought I'd give my take on it.

 

Design

 

The design is extremely nice. The mouse has adjustable tilt, and you can also adjust the height of the pad through a screw.

It has a nice soft touch finish, and a solid aluminum base. Feels very nice to the touch, the metal is a little cooler (depending on ambient temperatures) which I like.

There's an LED dragon underneath the ventilated palm rest, LED square on the left mouse button, and 4 LED profile indicator on the right mouse button. The scroll wheel is also illuminated.

Braided cable, with a nice cap. Pretty standard fare.

The 4 way DPI/Profile switch is awesome. Much better than the buttons on all other mice.

For build quality, this mouse is probably one of, if not the best.

 

There's a small information overlay that shows on the bottom of the screen when you change profiles and DPI.

 

Ergonomics

 

This is where the mouse starts to falter, in my opinion. I palm my mice. This one loses some comfort in the aspect of pinky and ring finger placement.

Also the button layout is a little off. The two left buttons are pretty far back and low, so you have to make a fair bit of effort to hit them compared to the Ikari. It might seem like a small issue but I noticed a significant speed improvement when I was using the Ikari, where as this takes a little more thought.

The buttons on the right side of the mouse are also a little hard to hit without moving the hand way from the trigger.

One annoying thing I found was that I would sometimes hit the back button by mistake and it would minimize the game I was playing. Easily changed in the profiles (disable or change its function) but it was an annoyance nonetheless. It's not an issue for mice where those buttons are placed elsewhere, and could pose a problem if you have it set to say reload and it reloads at an inopportune moment.

 

If you have bigger hands and/or claw, a lot of those probably won't be an issue. This is just my smaller handed perspective.

 

Issues

 

Other than the aforementioned ergonomic issues, I had a few other qualms with the mouse.

The scroll wheel isn't as smooth as I'd like. It feels notchy, and not in a good way. Sometimes the "bump" will be more pronounced than other times. Probably the cheapest feeling part of the kit.

The software is decent, but could be better. There's times it won't recognize the mouse and fails to load. I downloaded the latest API from the site, and it still says v1.0 instead of the listed v1.2.

When you go forward or back, a large icon shows up on the screen to show that you have indeed hit the button. I find it annoying, but there's no way to turn it off.

Wording is also a little strange, using Yes instead of Ok. Not a huge issue, just strange.

While playing around with the options, the left mouse button LED switched to pulsing instead of staying solid. I don't know what I did to change it, and there are no options for this feature in any of the menus. To fix it I had to completely redo every lighting effect and restart the app. At which time the scroll wheel started to pulse instead. Trying to fix it, I turned it off, and then back on through the software. It stopped working. Restarted the program, hit Apply and then Ok and it changed. The software needs work to say the least.

 

Conclusion

 

Overall, it's a very nicely built mouse with large attention to detail. Solid clicks, metal and soft touch construction, and that 4 way switch are it's highlights for me.

There's a few things that I would change. I'd like RGB LED's instead of being limited to the 7 colors.

Button placement is a bit of an issue for me, but it's something I'll probably adapt to as I use the mouse on a long term basis.

The software needs an overhaul in regards to light changing features, and tweaks in other areas. Other companies do a much better job.

 

Would I buy this again?

I've seen it on sale for $34.99 (I wasn't local so shipping would make it the same or more than the price I paid). If you can grab it for that, it's an awesome mouse for the price especially build wise.

Also if you claw the mouse, it would probably be pretty comfortable for you and if you find yourself constantly changing profiles during gaming it's an excellent choice.

However at $50, there's usually a few other mice that hit that price on sale as well. The Mionix 8200 comes to mind.

If you palm your mice, this is a better bet. It also has RGB LEDs instead of the limited color selection provided by the Level 10.

While I will probably purchase a different mouse when I do my build, this one will do quite nicely in the interim, and if you don't pay the $99 retail price it's a steal.