Cougar Deathfire EX Keyboard and Mouse Combo Review

1. Introduction2. Unboxing and First Look3. Testing4. Closing Thoughts5. View All Pages

Getting a set of quality peripherals can often set you back a fair chunk of cash – and that's on top of the cost of your PC. Cougar realise this and hope their Deathfire EX keyboard/mouse combo can provide a good alternative to buying the latest peripherals separately. Priced at £49.99, the Deathfire EX combo features a ‘memchanical' keyboard and a lightweight gaming mouse – but are they any good?

It is true the latest-and-greatest peripherals can cost a lot – just look at the ASUS ROG Claymore (review HERE) which is priced at a whopping £199.99!

While the Cougar Deathfire EX keyboard/mouse combo won't be able to offer the same feature set or build quality, it is much cheaper – coming in at £49.99. For this price we would still expect solid performance, though, so let's dive right into the review and see just how good this keyboard/mouse combo really is.

Specifications

Keyboard:

• Dimensions: 448 x 140 x 43 mm (W x D x H)
• Weight: 0.8 kg
• Colour: Black
• Keys: Mechanical hybrid switch
• Layout: UK
• Lighting: LED backlight with 8 effects (Rainbow 1, Rainbow 2, Breathing, Wave, Constant, Rhythm, Customize, Ripple)
• Connection: USB
• Cable length: 1.6 meters
• Anti-Ghosting: for up to 19 keys

Mouse:

• Dimensions: 120 x 65 x 38 mm (L x W x H)
• Weight: 100 g
• Colour: Black
• Sensor: Optical sensor (ADNS-5050)
• Resolution: 500, 1,000, 1,500 or 2,000 dpi
• Buttons: 6 (incl. Mouse wheel)
• Sample rate: 1000Hz / 1ms
• Layout: Ambidextrous Design (two-handed operation possible)
• Key switch: Omron switches (min. 5 million clicks possible)
• Lighting: Breathing (Cycle) or static (white, yellow, blue, orange, turquoise, green, violet, red)
• Connection: USB
• Cable length: 1.6 meters

The Cougar Deathfire EX combo ships in a colourful box, with a photo of the keyboard and mouse taking up most of the front of the box.

Inside, there is a small user manual which goes over things like changing the LED colour or lighting effects.

Starting with the keyboard, Cougar have opted for a fairly minimalistic design instead of the ‘typical gamer' look, which often features sharp corners and aggressive angles. I much prefer this design as it works in a variety situations – this keyboard would not look out-of-place whether it was on your desk at home or being used in the office.

While it is made of plastic, Cougar have actually given the keyboard a faux brushed-aluminium finish which adds a bit interest and keeps the keyboard from looking plain. It is obviously not an aluminium keyboard, but this finish does look good and helps keep things stylish and modern.

You may also have noticed the light-grey plastic strip which runs alongside the entire outside of the keyboard. This is actually an LED strip – very similar to the ‘LightBar' used in the Corsair K95 RGB Platinum, something I am actually testing at the moment. We take a look at some of the lighting options on the next page.

 

The Deathfire EX keyboard is also a ‘memchanical', or ‘hybrid' keyboard – meaning that it is actually a membrane keyboard but the keys have been modified slightly to give some tactile feedback, making them feel more in-line with high-end mechanical switches.

While we assess how this feels in practice on the next page, one feature I would have liked to see is compatibility with standard Cherry MX keycaps – that way, if you lose one, a replacement is easy to source. At the moment, it looks like you would have to go through Cougar to get a replacement, since the keycaps are proprietary.

Lastly, the keyboard uses a non-detachable, 1.6m braided cable.

Moving on to the mouse, it is clear that Cougar have kept the design nice and simple here, too. It is also worth pointing out that the mouse is ambidextrous, and its outer-shell is made from hard plastic.

Before looking at the mouse's features, though, it is worth mentioning that the Cougar logo and the scroll wheel do illuminate once your system is powered-on, though the LEDs cannot be controlled independently of each other.

The left-hand side of the mouse features two extra buttons – used for navigation purposes – as well as a textured area which should help with gripping the mouse.

On the right-hand side, there are no extra buttons but there is more of this textured material.

At the top of the mouse is the textured scroll wheel – something which should also help grip in the heat of battle. Below the scroll wheel is another button – but it is not a DPI switch. It actually changes the lighting colour and effects – something we look at on the next page.

If you want to change the DPI – it comes in pre-configured stages of 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 – you actually have to turn to the underside of the mouse where there are two small switches, one for the DPI and another for the polling rate.

Lastly, the mouse uses a 1.6m non-braided cable – something I find a bit strange actually. Why use a braided cable for the keyboard but not the mouse?To test the Cougar Deathfire EX keyboard/mouse combo, I used both pieces of kit together for over a week. This meant I used the gear for general office tasks as well as for gaming and photo editing.

To keep things simple, I will break up my thoughts into two distinct sections – one for the keyboard, one for the mouse.

Keyboard

The first thing to mention about the keyboard is that is there is no software included – which means all the lighting options are configured from the board itself.

The colours and effects are all pre-configured, though, as the keyboard is not RGB-capable. Changing the LED options is thus very easy, as all you have to do is press Fn+ and one of the number keys from 1-8. Each number key has a different effect assigned to it – for example, Fn+1 causes a rainbow effect, Fn+4 makes the wave effect and so on.

If you want a static colour, that can be done by pressing Fn+5. If you press both keys again, you can choose which colour you want from the following options: white, yellow, blue, orange, turquoise, green, violet, red.

In practice, this makes it very easy to get your desired effect or colour. Of course, this level of control is not as sophisticated as a software-controlled RGB keyboard, for example – but those cost much more than the Deathfire EX combo so it is hardly a fair comparison.

The lighting does look good, too, and the LED strip which runs around the outside of the keyboard is a very nice addition to an otherwise typical back-lit keyboard.

Moving on to physical use of the keyboard, I'll start with this: the Deathfire EX keyboard is better than a bog-standard membrane keyboard but ‘memchanical' keyboards will never be able to match the feel of genuine mechanical switches.

There is some definite tactile feedback from the Deathfire EX board – in fact, the ‘switches' actually require quite a lot of force to actuate, definitely more than I am used to with my Cherry MX Blue keyboard that I use on a day-to-day basis. This takes some getting used to but it did not cause me any finger-fatigue so I cannot fault it for that.

That being said, gamers typically want switches that require less actuation force as that speeds up the time it takes to register each key press – something which can be vital if you are a FPS or MOBA gamer, for example. As such, I can't help but feel Cougar have missed a trick here.

For typing, however, the tactile feedback is definitely appreciated – it does give a much better feel than a standard membrane keyboard. However, the Deathfire EX cannot escape the fact that it is still a membrane keyboard at heart – as such, the keys do still feel a bit ‘mushy' if you bottom them out. In this regard, memchanical switches simply cannot compete with proper mechanical switches.

Elsewhere, there are multimedia buttons on-board but they do share space with the Fn keys – they are not dedicated buttons.

Lastly, there is also one more feature worth mentioning. Cougar give you the ability to switch the WASD keys' function to the arrow keys – something which would be useful for any left-handers out there. To do this, simply press Fn+W and the keys effectively ‘switch'.

Mouse

As with the keyboard, there is no software to control to the mouse's LED options. To change the colours, you only need to press the button below the scroll wheel. By default, the mouse cycles through the 8 available colours (white, yellow, blue, orange, turquoise, green, violet, red) but if you press the colour button again, the mode changes to a static colour, and you can then choose between one of those 8 colours.

While this makes changing colours very easy, it brings me on to my biggest criticism of the mouse – this button below the scroll wheel changes the LED colour, not the DPI stage. To change the DPI, you have to flip the mouse over and adjust a small switch on the underside of the mouse.

I just find this highly impractical. While gaming there is simply no time to be faffing around on the underside of the mouse – simply changing the DPI stage on this mouse would mean certain death in a competitive FPS battle. It is also highly annoying when editing photos – I frequently lower my DPI when cutting around corners in Photoshop as this improves accuracy. While using the Deathfire EX mouse, this usually easy task becomes much more complicated.

I think the solution is simple, too – Cougar only need to include two buttons below the scroll wheel, one for the colour effects and one for the DPI. There is really no need to have the DPI switch on the underside of the mouse as this is just not practical at all.

I am not too sure about the max DPI of 2000 either – I personally prefer a level around 3200 DPI and I know many gamers would also use a sensitivity higher than 2000. Still, I am sure 2000 is enough for a number of people, though I do think it could do with being a little higher just to improve the Deathfire EX's appeal.

The mouse is nice and light, though, at 100g, making it perfect for FPS gamers – where twitch reactions are vital. The side buttons are also useful in-game – I like to re-map them to activate my grenades or a secondary weapon.All-in-all, the Cougar Deathfire EX keyboard/mouse combo is a decent peripheral set for the money.

Both items look good, despite the plastic construction, while the keyboard is especially swanky thanks to its faux brushed-aluminium finish and LED strip which runs along the perimeter of the board.

The ‘memchanical' switches used for the keyboard are definitely better than bog-standard membrane switches thanks to the tactile feedback, but do not be fooled by them – these type of switches are never going to be able to live up to proper mechanical switches. The switches do require a fair bit of actuation force, too, which is not ideal for gamers as it increases the time taken to actuate each key.

The mouse is also decent and I had no issues with its tracking or gliding. It is also nice and light, making it perfect for fast-paced FPS gaming.

The biggest issue I have with the mouse, though, is the fact that the DPI switch is positioned on the underside of the mouse, which makes changing the DPI setting very impractical. I have to say this is a big oversight from Cougar – I know I need frequent access to the DPI switch so having it positioned on the underside of the mouse is not the smartest move.

Other than that, both devices feature cool LED lighting which does away with the need for any software. I am particularly drawn to the LED strip which runs around the outside of the entire keyboard – this is definitely a cool feature which helps the Deathfire EX stand apart from countless other membrane keyboards.

So to wrap things up, the Cougar Deathfire EX is a solid keyboard/mouse combo. It is not perfect but it does offer good value for money and a decent set of peripherals to get you going, all while featuring some funky lighting options.

You can pick the combo up for £49.99 from Overclockers UK HERE.

Pros

• Well priced.
• Cool lighting options.
• Memchanical switches are better than standard membrane keyboards.
• Mouse is nice and light.
• Both products look good.

Cons

• Mouse has DPI switch on the underside of its body.
• Memchanical switches are never going to be as good as proper mechanical switches.

KitGuru says: If you are looking for an affordable yet decent keyboard/mouse combo, the Cougar Deathfire EX is a strong contender. It does have its flaws – the DPI switch being positioned on the underside of the mouse is particularly annoying – but for the money, it is definitely an enticing option.

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