Engadget: SteelSeries takes another stab at gaming headsets with Siberia v2

Posted by on under gaming peripherals, kinzu, untrained eyes, mouse technology, fri, laser sensor, lten, xai, noes, steelseries, siberia, headsets, mousepad, footsteps, stab, mic, gamers, mice, cans, capabilities |

We played with the original Siberia headset from SteelSeries, which was specifically designed to emphasize "gaming noises" like grenade pin pulls and footsteps -- but didn't do much good for listening to anything else. The Siberia Headset v2 looks to solve some of that with slightly larger speakers, an enclosed design to reduce ambient noise, improved frequency response and increased volume. There's also a built-in mic now. We took a listen and found the music listening capabilities much improved, especially in the bass end, but still no challenge for "regular" over the ear headphones. Still, serious gamers should get what they need out of the cans, which will be offered in models with and without a USB 7.1 virtual surround soundcard in November. No word on price until then.

We also got a quick look at the new Xai and Kinzu gaming mice. The ambidextrous-friendly nature of the pair is nice, materials are great, and mousing around briefly on a fancy SteelSeries mousepad certainly felt effortless and accurate, but mouse technology is so wild these days it's hard to differentiate one multi-megapixel optical or laser sensor from another -- to these untrained eyes, anyway.

Gallery: SteelSeries hands-on

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

SteelSeries takes another stab at gaming headsets with Siberia v2 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tagi: gaming peripherals, kinzu, untrained eyes, mouse technology, fri, laser sensor, lten, xai, noes, steelseries, siberia, headsets, mousepad, footsteps, stab, mic, gamers, mice, cans, capabilities

Engadget: Nyko ships $25 Zoom Case for DSi: because your DSi totally needs a zoom lens

Posted by on under gaming peripherals, steel shelves, shell case, dsi, cold steel, eight times, zoom, nintendo, alg, ships, nbsp, nyko, product design team |

Remember that wacky zoom lens attachment for Nintendo's DSi that was launched back in January? Amazingly, the product design team convinced everyone else in the company to move ahead with plans for production, and now it's making its way out to cold, steel shelves. $24.99 buys you a hard shell case for your handheld along with a detachable optical zoom lens, which supposedly gets your sensor eight times closer to a given subject than Nintendo ever intended. You'll also be mocked eternally if you're ever caught using this in public, but hey, maybe you're thick-skinned.

Gallery: Nyko ships $25 Zoom Case for DSi: because your DSi totally needs a zoom lens