Extreme Tech: The world's finest monitor, sharpest mouse, and gaming gear

Some of the best industrial design minds have been crafting hardware for both working professionals and professional gamers, here's a look at some of the hardware and the individuals who push it to the extremes! The Wacom Cintiq 21 is an example of one such thing, this 21-inch interactive pen display is priced at Rs. 1,66,000 in India - this is no iPad - it delivers a one-of-a-kind precision experience for artists and animators. It can register one gram of pressure, and 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. (Stay tuned for an exclusive review of it soon, and subscribe to our RSS feed!)

 

 

World's Finest Monitor The iPhone 4's 3.5-inch screen has a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch, which is as good as glossy print magazine. A PC display monitor with near pixel density existed as a piece of extreme-tech oddity back in 2003, the IBM T220. Sadly no longer in production, some units might still be around.. check your local e-bay.. it's a deceptively innocuous looking 22-inch monitor, but had a huge palate to work on... a whopping 9.2 megapixel WQUXGA resolution screen - that's four 4 HDTV channels right next to each other, simultaneously. If you have 20-20 vision, maybe you can work on a similar setup without squinting..

It had very slow refresh rates, and was priced at around $8000, not exactly for end users: "This monitor surely makes sense for anyone in professions like CAD/CAM, 3-D visualisation, imaging, DTP, science or even medicine." concludes Inquirer. Awesome read, awesome monitor.

Sharpest Mouse
With professional gaming leagues, Starcraft is one of the most loved games in South Korea. It's a real-time strategy game with dedicated professional gaming leagues that compete against each other every year. The gameplay speed of the top league is really fast - to win they have to make over 300 actions every minute, using a keyboard and mouse.. While there are other alternatives for the RSI afflicted, including trackball mouse, when it comes to high speed precision, we'll go with what the gamers are using in Korea. The Hax Life is a really cool 4-part documentary, and is worth a watch! Their workstation chairs look pretty neat as well..

 

The Razer Mamba and Imperator series have 5600 DPI resolution, and seem like the sharpest mice around, there are options for left handed users as well, and if you're into MMO gaming, the Razer Naga has 17 twitch-sensitive programmable buttons.

There are plenty of customized options for both left handed and right handed, something for both PC and Mac users in the Razer catalogue for those who want to pamper their wrists, and upgrade from a cheap optical mouse. An entry level mouse like the Razer Abyssus (Rs 1,699) gives you teflon feet, 3,500 dpi sensitivity, and 1ms response time. According to the specs, this translates to mouse speeds of 60-to-120 inches per second.

To get the best precision, you have to pair it with a nice mouse pad as well, and those teflon shoes will glide well on a hard mouse mat that uses gunmetal coating for higher tracking precision. The Razer Destructor is available in India at Rs 2,599, if you want a huge mouse pad as a gaming surface, have a look at the Goliathus. Pair it with a sleek neon-blue backlit keyboard and you will have sniper-level precision at both work and play.