REVIEW : GAMDIAS ARES Essential Combo
Gamdias Ares Essential Combo is the product the Gamdias targets at the budget gamer. The ARES keyboard and OUREA mouse provide all the essential features at low starting price point with back lighting and macro support.
The keyboard is membrane-based and the mouse is optical. Let’s first take a look at the keyboard.
The GAMDIAS ARES keyboard is a backlit membrane keyboard which supports macros as well as a number of features such as a turbo repeat rate, swappable WASD and arrow keys, multimedia keys, and a row of additional Functional keys at the bottom of the keyboard just below the spacebar. The HERA software provides additional customization but it is optional to use which is good to see.
The ARES keyboard is bulky but light and it feels sturdy to work on. The keys provide a mushy feedback which is expected from a membrane keyboard but these are still better than their competition in this price range.
The Key Layout is fairly standard with a large spacebar which makes it easy to hit. The Function key row at the bottom is a bit weird as they are duplicates of F6 to F11 keys and will perform same function as the F6 to F11 keys which includes Macros as well. They are positioned really well, as we never hit them accidently and each it to reach when we actually wanted to use them.
The Keyboard feet have rubber pads, so without them the keyboard slides around. Plus, the feet do not elevate the keyboard much and bring the keys at perfect angel for typing.
The Left three keys control the Backlight, WASD Swap and Turbo Features. The Backlight is not RGB instead it cycles through Red, Green and Yellow. The Backlight Brightness can be adjusted by holding the FN key with – or + key. The WASD Swap is brilliant as it swaps the functionality of Arrow and WASD keys, particularly useful in Games which do not allow for key mapping. The Turbo just increases the type rate, so if you want to spam a particular key, just hold it and it will act like multiple key presses.
OUREA Mouse
The accompanied Ourea Mouse is 2500 DPI 6 Button Optical mouse. IT has a single button on either side of the mouse and Scroll wheel has RGB backlight which can be controller with HERA Software.
On the bottom, there is a cavity which can be used for weight adjustment with 4 5g weights. The optical light is always on and does not dim when lifting the mouse.
The HERA software provides customization and options for precision mode which lowers the DPI of the mouse while aiming.
The buttons are very light and sensitive and the side buttons have a tendency to be pressed accidently.
The optical mouse works well with a mouse mat and suffers when using other surfaces with glossy surfaces being the worst.
Both Keyboard and mouse cables are unbraided and are very soft, so be careful while using them.
Software
HERA Software is Optional and portable which makes it very less invasive when using Gamdias products. The software when running utilizes very less resources.
The software is very useable and the layout is pretty well done. Common features among different line of products include macro manager and sound alert when macro is activated.
The mouse menu has muscle memory which tracks the statistics of the mouse like key presses and distance traveled.
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