Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator review

Cooler Master’s Devastor keyboard and mouse combo brings stylish looks and pretty blue lights to the gamer on a strict budget, but, looks aside, it’s still a high-quality set.

The Devastator’s keys have plenty of travel and require fairly light pressure to activate, allowing for quick and nimble typing and gaming. Unlike more expensive gaming keyboards, this model doesn’t have anti-ghosting or n-key rollover technology, so pressing multiple buttons at the same time may result in no response. We had no problem in our time with the keyboard, but if you’re a fast-fingered gamer you may run into difficulties.

The keyboard also has very handsome blue backlighting, which not only lights up the laser-etched letter symbols, but also the entire keyboard tray. It looks great, but annoyingly the backlight is always off by default when you turn on your PC or wake it from sleep. The Scroll Lock button acts as the backlight on/off toggle.

The mouse, meanwhile, is equally impressive. It has the same blue backlighting and even incorporates some spaceship-like design flare into its matt black plastic chassis, but remains very comfortable to hold. It has a maximum dpi of 2,000, and you can cycle through the 1,000, 1,600, and 2,000dpi settings using a button in the middle of the mouse, to fine the setting that suits your current task. 2,000 dpi is substantially lower than some of the more extreme gaming mice available, but for most people this should be more than enough. There are shoulder buttons on the left where your thumb would go, useful for desktop tasks as well as gaming shortcuts.

£25 for a keyboard and mouse combination of this quality is an absolute steal. Admittedly, there aren’t any of the fancy gaming features you get with similar equipment, but at this price, you can’t expect much more. The Devastator set wins a Best Buy award.