Switch -2-versjonen av « Hell is Us blir utsatt til etter september

This is the monitor I've been waiting for. As someone who has just entered another Counter-Strike arc that is sure to last an epoch, as my arcs tend to, I've been on the look-out for a 1080p monitor around the 360 Hz (ish) sweet spot that doesn't break the bank. Enter stage left: the KTC 25M1, at just $350. And I've already seen it on sale for under $300, which bodes well.

Of course, this price-to-refresh-rate ratio wouldn't matter if the monitor sucked, but I'm happy to report it doesn't. Far from it, I'm finding it a genuine pleasure to use for my late night Faceit matchmaking sprees. In what is proving to be both a blessing and a curse, gameplay is so smooth, clear, and snappy that I find it impossible to blame any blunders on the panel. Even if I could convince myself my opponents are using the $1,000, 600 Hz Zowie panel I recently tested, it wouldn't matter because the difference in practice is so slight that I highly doubt it would actually make my enemies any better.

The 24-inch, 1080p monitor, clad with detachable flappy side-wings (to prevent distraction), rear-side headphone stand, cable management feed, and the usual smattering of ports including a 3.5 mm headphone jack, is bred for one purpose: competitive shooters.

No matter how fast it is, you're probably not getting a TN panel for casual gaming or even competitive non-FPS gaming. Even though this panel's colour is damn good for TN, it's not as lush as an IPS and certainly not as vibrant as an OLED.

While it offers a solid 98% sRGB coverage, its DCI-P3 is only rated to 85%, meaning its HDR content is average at best, which is what I'd expect from a TN panel. That fits for my experience turning HDR on in Doom Eternal and eyeballing it: lighting seems a little more natural, but it's hardly night and day between that and sRGB mode.

The sRGB mode thankfully seems pretty well calibrated to my eyes. In addition to making casual gaming pleasant, this makes day-to-day use outside of gaming surprisingly comfortable, too—surprising, that is, for a TN panel.

HDR, though, is certainly not as good as what you get on the 320 Hz Alienware IPS panel I tested. Still, that was an IPS, not a TN. And more expensive esports TN panels like the 600 Hz Zowie one don't have it as an option at all.

For this monitor's real purpose, though, HDR is irrelevant. Sticking it in FPS1 mode but raising brightness a little, Counter-Strike displays flawlessly: enemies are clear and easy to spot, and movements are incredibly smooth.

I used an Nvidia Latency and Display Analysis Tool (LDAT) to test end-to-end latency—thus indirectly testing the response time—and it reported an average of 6.42 ms in-game over 150 muzzle flashes. That's well within a threshold where shooting feels and appears instantaneous to my eyes.

Latency performance

End-to-end latency

KTC 25M1

6.42

Alienware AW2525HM

6.09

Zowie XL2586X+

6.81

012345678910

Time (ms)

End-to-end latency Data

Product	Value
KTC 25M1	6.42
Alienware AW2525HM	6.09
Zowie XL2586X+	6.81

Tested using Nvidia's LDAT over 150 muzzle flashes in-game.

It's even quicker than the 600 Hz Zowie panel (6.81 ms), and only a little slower than the 320 Hz Alienware one with overdrive on (6.09 ms). These differences are all sub-millisecond, though, meaning they're imperceptible and for all intents and purposes we can say they perform about as well as each other when it comes to response times. I certainly didn't notice any difference in snappiness between the three when playing Counter-Strike.

For whatever reason, with this KTC monitor, I can't seem to find a mode that allows me to enable its 'Ultra Fast' overdrive, the fastest setting. But that's okay, because the middle 'Advanced' setting is snappy enough, and it's usually inadvisable to use the fastest overdrive mode in monitors anyway, as it risks inverse ghosting/halo effects. With the Advanced mode enabled, I haven't noticed any pixel overshoot.

Motion clarity is impeccable to my eyes, too, thanks to that 400 Hz refresh rate. As you can see from my slapdash moving photo of an also-moving UFO test, the high refresh rate really does make a difference. The top animation shown was running at 400 fps, the second at 200, the third at 100, the fourth at 50, and the bottom one at 25.

This difference is visible when eyeballing the moving alien targets, too: 400 Hz is just that much clearer than the rest. Admittedly, playing at 240 Hz in game will still be plenty clear, but this is just another example that goes to show what I've argued previously: around 360 Hz (or 400 Hz, in this case) is the sweet spot for competitive gaming.

To my memory, this monitor is also a bit clearer than I found the 320 Hz Alienware monitor to be when I tested it. I simply can't fault it for smoothness and snappiness.

The bonus here is you're getting the 360–400 Hz sweet spot for a damn good price. The 400 Hz Zowie equivalent costs $650, while this KTC monitor costs about $350 and can even be found for just shy of $300 when it's on sale. The 320 Hz Alienware monitor comes in cheaper than this, but honestly for the extra refresh rate and motion clarity boost, I'd say the KTC is worth it if you can afford it. If not, the Alienware will serve well.

With the KTC 25M1, you're hitting the refresh rate sweet spot just before diminishing returns kick in, which means you're getting some of the absolute best competitive/esports performance you can hope for before prices start to soar.

I feel KTC has struck the balance very well, keeping the price as low as possible for the performance on offer, and keeping things within a budget that doesn't only cater to pro players but also to your average competitive FPS gamer like yours truly. This would be the monitor I'd choose for competitive FPS gaming right now if my own money were on the line.

It feels like a given that Ayaneo would make a premium Game Boy Advance clone, but its latest teaser all but confirms plans for an OG remake. Dubbed the Konkr Pocket Advance, the newcomer apparently pays tribute to "a legendary handheld that defined the golden age of portable gaming," and that certainly sounds like Ninty's 2000s portable to me.

In a teaser post, Ayaneo frames the Konkr Pocket Advance as the retro handheld remake fans have been waiting for. "This time, we pay tribute to a true icon," claims the admittedly vague announcement, which almost feels like it's throwing self-shade at the new Ayaneo Pocket Micro 2. That portable instead borrows cues from the Game Boy Micro, just like the same suggests, so all the emphasis on the word "Advance" with this newcomer feels like an obvious nod to the 2001 version.

Of course, since the teaser includes no actual images of the Konkr Pocket Advance, there's no guarantee it's a clone of Nintendo's first 32-bit handheld. The branding ties to a long lineage of models, and we could end up with another clamshell clone of the GBA SP not unlike the Anbernic RG35XXSP. I'm personally hoping that doesn't transpire, as the OG horizontal bat-wing design doesn't get enough love in 2026.

For those of you out of the loop, Konkr now serves as Ayaneo's "budget" handheld brand. It's supposed to serve as a line between affordable Android emulation systems and beefier premium gaming handhelds like the Ayaneo Flip DS. That said, the company has blurred that line with releases like the Ayaneo Pocket Micro 2, as it starts at $239 and places more emphasis on luxury with its CNC shell and Snapdragon 865 chipset.

For the Konkr Pocket Advance to truly "pay tribute to a true icon", it will need to nail a few key things. At the top of that list is price and availability, as handheld fans are already worried the portable will be limited to 100 units just like the Pocket Micro 2. It also needs to aim for the same MSRP range as the Anbernic RG34XX, even if that means sticking with specs that stop at PS1 emulation.

Nailing the "Advance" aesthetic could also make or break the next Konkr handheld. All the hints sound like we're getting a modern Game Boy Advance remake, and if that's the case, getting the details right will be crucial. Ultimately, many players will be looking for something that feels like GBA to use, but boasts a bright and vibrant modern screen paired with elevated controls, and those should be ingredients rather than a completely new formula.

Take a peek at the best retro consoles if you're putting together a classic gaming setup in your living room.