Logitech PowerPlay vs Corsair Qi - Wireless Charging Battle!
Logitech PowerPlay vs Corsair Qi - Wireless Charging Battle!
2018-02-26
all right Oh
let's begin why am i wearing glasses no
no no no no the Sun go back go back in
the cloud you need more kick Wow
had to redo my entire lighting stupid
clouds alright so what I was trying to
say is that I feel like wireless gaming
mice are becoming so good that they're
almost like hitting their peak
performance they're using the same
sensors as their wire counterparts the
weight is becoming less so they're more
comfortable to use for competitive the
latency is not an issue and so what I
feel like would be the next logical step
for a brand to expand their wireless
peripherals is to eliminate that
inconvenience of actually charging your
wireless mouse and that is exactly the
topic for this video I'll be comparing
the large thick pair play and that
entire ecosystem versus the new coarser
mm 1000 and the dark core Mouse because
I feel like removing the inconvenience
of charging a mouse is a really good
incentive to push consumers into that
direction so let's review right after
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well what's with the hair man new hair
new location let's begin alright so
first of all I want to say that both
these mouse pads kind of highlight the
compromises at one another because
they're a little bit different in terms
of their approach to wireless charging
and I'm pretty sure that over time we'll
see a product that combines the feature
set of both these into one so price-wise
the Corsair mm 1000 has the advantage
the actual mousepad cost $80 versus the
large tech G power play for the mousepad
alone is $100 and both of them kind of
lock you into their own ecosystem
Corsair less so because they're using
the Qi charging protocol which is kind
of like the you know the global standard
now that Apple has implemented and then
launch tech has their own proprietary
thing so from a full value perspective
Corsair is still better because the mice
are cheaper too so you're looking about
172 dollars for the entire package
from the Corsair mm 1000 and the dark
core mouse versus $200 minimum for the
powerplay mouse mad plus the G 703 but
if you also decide to go with the GE 903
which is more expensive that's a $250
deal for the entire package which is
hella pricey
now size-wise launch tech 1 is slightly
bigger but I wouldn't say that's an
advantage because they both fall into
the category of like you know medium
mouse pad in terms of area so you don't
gain that much extra movement real
estate on the Logitech power plane but
because there are differences in charge
of technology each of them have this
unique advantage over the other so for
example with power play because the
actual circuitry that generates the
electrical field and the energy for your
mouse is spanning the entire area of the
mouse pad it is more delicate so you
have to be more careful but because of
that you can charge the mouse regardless
of where the mouse is positioned on the
mouse mat whereas with the MM 1000 it's
basically just a simple hard mouse mat
with a small area where that Chi charger
is built-in so your mouse can only
charge when it's placed on top of that
and you have to align it it's pretty
easy just aligning the bottom of the
mouse where the curve happens with those
circles and they've also implemented the
clever status LED on the hub so if it's
blinking once per second means your Chi
charging is going fine all the contacts
are aligned properly but if you get 2
blinks per second means you have to move
the mouse a little bit more for those
contacts to align properly and so
there's your weird compromise the dark
core Mouse cannot be charged while it's
in use and you have to place it on to
that Chi area for it to receive power
while on the powerplay as long as the
mouse is on top of the mouse mat you're
constantly getting power
however the unfortunate circumstance of
this being a proprietary circuit large
tech power play is not approved in all
countries so for example you cannot even
buy it in Canada and so that makes your
decision much easier and so this is
where the Qi charger technology makes
total sense and it's a big advantage for
Corsair because product approval
globally will not be an issue and
functionally I don't think there's any
difference because the dark core can
last up to 24 hours without any lighting
which i think is pretty reasonable and
as long as you don't forget to place it
on top of the Qi charger while it's not
in use you'll never
have any issues with a low battery
indicator however there is actually no
battery percentage indicator with the
dark core mouse you only have the bar
from high medium and low in the software
and you really kind of have to dig into
the settings in order to find it which I
find strange I would definitely love
just a simple percentage battery
indicator somewhere on top of the driver
software whereas with the power play and
like the G 703 and 93 that percentage
indicator is lot more precise and it's
definitely visible because it we have an
entire battery compartment in the driver
software which is a lot more useful now
the one major advantage with the corsair
eco system is the cheap protocol which
means that you don't have to combine the
dark or mouse with the MM 1000 they're
kind of like almost separate products
that complement each other and that's
because the dark or mouse already has a
Qi charger built in so if you have one
lying around you can simply charge your
mouse on top of that instead of using a
mouse mat of course it's more convenient
because it's kind of like an ole
enclosed unit you can simply slide the
mouse into that corner for charging but
even so you can charge other peripherals
and devices on top of the mm 1000 as
long as they support Qi charging but
Corsair also includes a little dongle
little fob that you can plug into you
type C lightning port or a micro USB so
you basically turn any device into a Qi
charging compatible device that will
charge on top of your mouse mat it's
awesome but you know obviously have to
keep in mind that the area of the mouse
mat is not that large so if you have
your phone there your area of the actual
operation where your mouse can move is
smaller I also like that we have an
additional USB pass-through built into
the hub on the mo 1000 which means you
can plug in the or your wireless
receiver for the mouse to eliminate the
distance and you know eliminate any
potential unwanted latency whereas with
power play because the proprietary
wireless technology you can only use the
two mice the g7 or three and the 93 with
a power play mat but I do like their
implementation in terms of this little
puck at the bottom that you insert which
also gives the signal to the receiver on
the actual mouse mat so you don't have
to plug in
additional receivers for the mouse
itself and I think it goes without
saying that both these mice can be used
in Wired mode with a microUSB cable so
they don't rely on the wireless charging
mat and the one major advantage of the
power play ecosystem is the ability to
swap out surfaces we have a fabric one
included and the hard one I personally
don't like the hard ones because even at
400 dpi settings it feels a little bit
too sensitive and I don't have as much
control as I would with a fabric piece
whereas with the MM 1000 we only get the
hard surface which I don't particularly
like and it's also the entire thing is a
bit thicker I also don't like the really
thick cable on the MM 1000 because it's
carrying power and the additional USB
pass-through whereas the cable on the
powerplay is nice and compact a lot
thinner in comparison but of course your
decision to buy mouse mat will be
dependent on the mice itself I prefer
the G 703 from Logitech I just perform
better with this in competitive the
shape is fantastic the buttons are great
the weight is awesome and the sense of
performance is just incredible whereas
the dark rock 3 all those things also
apply but it's like the heavier slightly
bulkier so from my particular style of
FPS it's just not my thing but I feel
like the streamlines the shape and the
button design that this would be a very
popular thing for many of you out there
and I'll be using the dark core for the
next few weeks alongside the mm 1000 to
get an idea of how this ecosystem could
evolve in the future and I really
appreciate Corsair with going on the Qi
charging protocol so that potentially
it's be easier for them to you know come
up with complementing products for their
wireless charging mouse pads but also
could introduce many other players in
the industry to come up with something
similar so you could kind of like cross
brands and be fine across wireless
devices
alright so stay tuned for my full review
of the dark core mouse and which of the
wireless charging mats you perform more
obviously the power play has the
advantages of being able to swap out the
surfaces and also have the food charging
capacity regardless of where the mouse
is on the mouse mat whereas with the
dark rock because of this whole Qi
charging thing it charges your mouse but
it can also charge anything else which
capability which is awesome for example
I'm charging Mikey 63 wireless with the
Qi charging dongle on the mouse mat I
never thought I would be charging a
wireless mechanical keyboard on my mouse
mat with a dongle that came with the
mouse that's ridiculous
but so cool at the same time alright
guys that's all for me thanks so much
for watching we'll see you in the next
video
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