Gaming and Creating Hardware News Round-Up April 2023
There have been a number of cool things in terms of gaming and entertainment hardware. There are new controllers, a new gaming handheld, and more. I know I've missed some things below, so let me know in the comments what hardware news you've been most pumped for recently.
XGIMI Projector Sale
First things first, there's a sale going on for XGIMI projectors over on Amazon. You’ll want to hurry as the deals end late on April 9 (11:45 PM PT) but you can save 25% on the Horizon Pro projector and 40% on the MoGo Pro. I’ve been fortunate enough to play with the Horizon Pro and it was a solid projector with a ton of great features like automatic keystone correction to adjust the screen size to avoid anything on your wall and to make it flat even when projected at an angle. At $1275, this is definitely something worth considering in my opinion. If you’re on a tighter budget though, the MoGo Pro is only $299 with this sale, its lowest price ever.
Xbox Wireless Controller – Remix Special Edition
Meanwhile, Xbox announced the new Remix Special Edition of the Xbox Wireless Controller. This is to help promote Earth Day and sustainability projects. It looks just like an Xbox Series X|S controller in fun green and blue colors that I absolutely love and also comes with an Xbox Rechargeable Battery Pack (which should really be standard at this point) for $84.99. What really makes this special though is that it’s made of recycled materials. One-third of the controller is made from regrind and reclaimed materials and additional components include leftover Xbox One controllers, and post-consumer recycled resins like CDs, plastic water jugs, and more. Because of how the controllers are made, each one will be slightly unique “with subtle variations, swirling, markings, and texturing.” Honestly, I think this looks really good and only wish that the buttons had the colored letters on the buttons. You can pre-order one (affiliate link) for yourself now with a release date of April 18.
ROG Ally
ASUS recently revealed that they’re getting into the handheld gaming market. The launch of the Nintendo Switch really started something with more and more handheld devices becoming more mainstream. Then, the Steam Deck launched and showed that you could play at least some PC games on the go. Since then, several competitors have arisen with mixed results, but ASUS is hoping to take over with their upcoming ROG Ally. We still don’t know the full specifications for this device, but we do know some things thanks to some YouTube channels like Linus Tech Tips. It has a custom AMD APU, a 1080p display with a 120Hz refresh rate, and is meant to be fast. It also is designed to have better cooling than most other devices like the Steam Deck. I recommend checking out the LTT video here for as much information as we can possibly have. If this gets you excited, you’ll want to head over to Best Buy to make sure you get the latest information.
Kingston FURY Beast and FURY Renegade DDR5 RAM
If you’re looking to upgrade your PC, Kingston just announced that their FURY Beast and Renegade DDR5 memory modules now have a version with white heat spreaders. I feel like more and more gamers and creators are leaning towards lighter PC parts and this should help them match their RAM to everything else a little easier. There are RGB variants also available that have 18 built-in lighting effects that you can customize to match everything else in your rig. You can grab your new RAM from Kingston today!
Dark Matter Sentry Streaming Microphone
Monoprice is looking to help creators on a budget get good audio quality on their projects with the Dark Matter Sentry Streaming Mic. Monoprice is specifically going after the Blue Yeti Mic with this one. The Sentry is like the Yeti in the fact that it is a condenser microphone with four polar patterns (cardioid, stereo, bidirectional, and omnidirectional) and a universal ⅝” threaded mounting point. However, the Sentry only costs $69.99 instead of $129.99. The Sentry has a black metal housing with customizable LED accent light to help it stand out or blend in depending on your rig. Sadly, the Sentry touts a USB 2.0 connection via USB-C which honestly isn’t terribly impressive, but it is adequate for power and recording, but the Yeti does support USB 3.0. I think the Sentry could be a great entry point and really the only thing the Yeti has going for it is the USB 3.0 support. On paper, the Sentry is identical to everything else as far as I can find except for the price, the addition of customizable LEDs, and the shape of the included mount.
Drop Togekey Keyboard
Drop has also launched a new keyboard aimed at Pokémon fans. The new Togekey keyboard is white with a dash of the iconic red and blue geometric shapes that Togepi and its evolutions are known for around the arrow keys. It’s very subtle, but I think that makes it very chic. Enthusiasts will notice that the case is a special aluminum ENTR and is paried with the White Skylight Keycap set, Phantom Stabilizers, and Gateron Yellow KS3 switches. Pre-orders are now open for $129.
The Last Gameboard
If you’re a tabletop gamer with about $800 to drop, you may be interested in The Last Gameboard. This is essentially a fancy tablet designed to let you play your favorite tabletop games with friends in person and remotely while allowing for the use of physical pieces. It recently left beta and is now available to purchase online and from select GameStop locations (affiliate link). It looks cool, but unfortunately, I’m not convinced that it will last. With a $799 price tag, this is only for pretty hardcore enthusiasts and currently the games library is very small with the main draw being a virtual tabletop to play your favorite TTRPGs remotely with minis. It sounds cool and I want something like this to catch on, but trying to get everyone in your gaming group to shell out $800 sounds impossible. Let me know if I’m wrong though and you think this will revolutionize tabletop gaming.