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Cutting-Edge Video Game Tech to Impress Your Gen-Z Friends
There’s nothing quite as off-putting as telling a story about a game you’ve just purchased, pulling out your phone to show the picture you snapped of the gorgeous collector’s edition and box art, and then hearing your young friend chuckle. “What?” you ask. “Nothing,” your Gen Z buddy responds as he points to your computer setup in the background of the picture. “I just didn’t know people still use LCD Monitors.”
Technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, and some hobbyists take this more personally than others. Among gamers, there’s a constant pressure to keep up with new tech advancements— if not to be able to play games that are increasingly demanding of hardware, then to avoid being the butt of jokes from your technologically demanding friends. Fortunately, we’ve got you covered with some cutting-edge video game technology to put you ahead of even your most tech-savvy zoomer friend.
OLED Gaming Monitor
OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) monitors and displays are powerful pieces of technology, well-regarded due to being more energy efficient thanks to emitting light directly rather than as a backlight. OLED monitors are also thinner, lighter, and more flexible than their LED or LCD counterparts. Pair these benefits with the larger field of view, and OLED monitors distinguish themselves as the cream of the crop when it comes to gaming visuals. One look at your favorite virtual world through one of these and you’ll be hooked.
The Agon Pro OLED Gaming Monitor boasts an absolutely absurd 240Hz refresh rate, perfect for fast-paced competitive games where a single frame can be the difference between a victory for your team or a disappointing defeat. This monitor produces rich details, diverse color contrast, and even has six different game modes to optimize visuals depending on the type of gaming you’re doing. And we haven’t even mentioned the height adjustable, ergonomic stand the monitor sits on – which you can rotate between landscape and portrait mode.
Gaming Keyboard
There are a couple of things that set a gaming keyboard apart from a regular keyboard. While, yes, we love the sleek designs and light displays that many gaming keyboards often come with —we’re gamers here, after all — we value function above form alone. That’s why we’re drawn to gaming keyboards that employ both hardware and software to achieve peak usefulness. Such keyboards are often built with mechanical switches to improve responsiveness and reactivity, options to assign macros to repeat certain commands, and customizable profiles for varied gaming styles.
The Logitech Mechanical Gaming Keyboard is our pick for a reliable keyboard from a reliable brand. This gadget comes with the sort of high-speed and high-accuracy mechanical switches we mentioned above, in addition to programmable G-keys that can be used to create custom macros per game or app profile. Plus, for those of us with endless USB cables for webcams, flash drives, our mouse and more, this keyboard provides an extra USB 2.0 port you can plug in to.
USB Hub
Like we just touched on, there’s one type of inflation that’s hitting gamers especially hard: USB cord inflation. Your mouse, your monitor, your flash drives and external hard drives, your webcam, and on and on. Managing all these wires is as unwieldy as it is unsightly, but there’s a simple and cheap device you can use to quickly resolve this issue: a USB hub.
The Anker 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub lets you plug in four devices into your computer via the hub. You can sync data across your various gadgets with speeds up to five gigabytes per second. This nifty device can be purchased with either a 2-foot cord or a 0.7-foot one.
Gaming Mouse
There’s a lot more you can do with a mouse than just left click or right click. Gaming mice tend to have options such as adjustable sensitivity, more buttons, macros, and more. This results in more power easily accessible within your grasp, which can make the difference between a win or a loss while you’re gaming.
Hey, consider us brand-loyal. The Logitech Wireless Gaming Mouse comes with wireless charging (circumventing that pesky USB cord inflation issue we mentioned above) in addition to a Hero 25k Sensor. This sensor allows for a DPI sensitivity range starting at 100 and maxing out at 25,600, which you can set as-desired. Lightspeed and light weight, this mouse also comes with 11 customizable buttons and a hyper fast scroll wheel so you can always outpace your competition.
Gaming Headsets
Gaming headsets have numerous advantages that put them ahead of regular headphones, such as built-in microphones to make sure your teammates can hear the calls you’re making. Many of them also come with features such as noise-canceling (so you can always hear an enemy trying to sneak up on you) and comfortable memory foam so you’re at maximum comfort when you lock in for a gaming session. If you want to make a purchase that has an immediate impact on your performance, you can’t go wrong with a high-quality gaming headset.
The Logitech Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Headset has a 20-meter wireless range for complete audio transmission and has a whopping 29 hours of battery life. It also comes with advanced mic filters, to make sure your voice is clear and crisp, and PRO-G drivers to reduce audio distortion from games. You’re not even limited to your PC with this set, since it’s console compatible with PlayStation 5 & 4 and Nintendo Switch in Dock.
Get Ahead of the Curve
It can be tough enough staying up to date on technology as it is, and once you stop paying attention, you start to fall behind. When it comes to gaming, this gap can become the difference between life and death… in your favorite video game. That’s why we highly recommend that all gamers make a check every year or two to see what new models and technology are coming out so you can upgrade the tech they make use of.
Of course, there’s one other way you can make sure you’ve always got the tech upgrades you need to beat out the competition and impress your friends: checking ShopperAdvocate on a regular basis.
