 It used to be that to everyone but tiny niche companies, platforms that you could use to operate a keyboard and mouse on the couch were a solution in search of a problem. But whether we have Steam Link to thank for this or something else, Corsair and Razer both reached out asking us to evaluate their couch keyboard mouse gaming product. So, here we go. Cooler Master's MasterCase Maker 5 features their freeform modular system allowing you to customize, adjust, and upgrade. Make it yours at the link in the video description. The Corsair Lapdog comes in two pieces with the knurled allen key that you'll need for assembly tucked into a little notch in the bottom one. Pull that out then put it aside. That cushion attaches to the bottom with magnets later. This is the meat and potatoes of the Lapdog. A plastic-backed brushed aluminum topped board intended to act as a comfortable platform for your full-size keyboard and mouse that sits across your knees. Though a spacer is included if you prefer a shorter tenkeyless keyboard without a number pad. You can use any mouse you want but official keyboard support is limited to Corsair's own K65 and K70. Let's talk assembly. Plug your power brick and USB 3 cable in on the PC side. Cable management options are a little limited due to the 15-foot length limit that's imposed by the use of a passive cable. Then undo the four screws from the mouse pad and the two screws from the top fascia that pulls double duty as a cable management cubby to hide the keyboard's long USB cord that will be plugged into one of the two internal USB 3 ports. There's another two on the outside and as a lock to keep the keyboard in place. There are a couple of anchor points below to make this easier and exactly two zip ties to go with them in the box. So if you break one or you want to tighten things down a bit more then you better have your own already. Then from there mouse assembly is equally straightforward. There's a large compartment for cable management though with no zip tie anchors for some reason and a little gap to bring it up to the top with minimal cable drag. Finally there's this handy little compartment that's presumably for condoms due to all the sex that you'll be having whenever anyone sees you using one of these. Which I guess leads us pretty well into the usage experience. The aluminum top plate makes the lap dog very, very solid but also kind of heavy and unwieldy and not helping matters is the way that the mouse flops about and slides cringingly off the mouse pad whenever you take your hand off of it or move the board. But once it's in position it is mostly pretty darn functional. The only limits to the kinds of games that you'll be able to play from the couch now will be the ones imposed by the game developer due to poor text scaling implementations of the UI and the like. And having extra USB ports for a headset or a thumb drive is pretty nice but there are also some oversights that I'd like to see addressed in a V2. One, it needs wrist rests. Within 20 minutes holding up my arms or resting on the hard metal edges of the lap dog were both kind of a drag. Two, the integrated mouse pad is not double sided for some reason nor is it symmetrical so that I can DIY an alternate pad for the other side. And three, there needs to be a narrower K65 only version. I realize the widened board improves keyboard compatibility but it causes interference with plush arm rests, a wider than natural gaming posture and discomfort when typing and all for what? So I can have a number pad for all the accounting that I'll be doing on my TV. I'm not personally a huge fan of 10keyless keyboards but it would save 30 bucks on a $300 purchase and it was the right move here ergonomically and Corsair chickened out a little bit IMO. Let's move on to the Razer Turret. Where the lap dog screams no compromises, the turret counters with I'm not perfect but I'm small and attractive enough that your wife might actually allow this thing in her house which is not a bad point. Included in the box is a wall wart, a weighted base station that charges both the keyboard and mouse when they're not in use, a wireless receiver and a wireless keyboard and mouse both of which are capable of being used with Bluetooth or with their 2.4 gigahertz receiver with the flick of a switch and both of which were specifically designed to be bundled together as this product, purpose-built for couch gaming. It's just too bad that they, the mouse in particular, really didn't impress me. Surprisingly and maybe the higher input leg of TVs, especially my LG OLED compared to monitors was a factor here, I didn't feel like the wireless interface hurt the gaming experience but there were other things that did. The mouse clicks are pleasantly tactile and the scroll wheels satisfying scroll and rubber coating feel great but even with my tiny girl hands this thing feels like a toy. Apart from there being nowhere to rest my pinky the sides are the worst kind of slippery glossy plastic making it hard to lift and reposition the mouse on the 20 by 12 centimeter mouse pad and on top of that the ergonomics are bad enough that within about half an hour my wrist was getting that cold sensation radiating from my joints really bad kind of sore. In spite of one huge advantage that's given to the turret by its low-profile design the fact that your thigh can be used as a wrist rest. The keyboard fared quite a bit better. It's got a similar layout and feel to my Blade 14 daily driver laptop the function keys are shorter and the space bar is noticeably mushier but it's very usable at least when it's centered in front of me unfortunately the hinge that unfolds the attached mouse pad doesn't lock into place so unless you want that to sag causing your mouse to fall you'll be stuck with it off to the left where it is much less comfortable to use although significantly more comfortable than the keyboard on the CouchMaster now to be clear there are some very good ideas in the turret. The dual wireless interfaces would make the turret a reasonably competent set of travel peripherals if they could be charged via USB with Android compatibility as an awesome bonus. The mouse is magnetic and with a hard textured bottom foot that glides well enough on the smooth pad without falling off all the time a much more elegant solution to the mouse whacking things every time I try and move the damn thing syndrome that other couch gaming boards suffer from like that and the compact folding form factor could probably work for me with a little bit more y-axis height on the mouse pad it just feels kind of first-gen still and at a hundred and sixty dollars it's not an impulse buy for most people which I guess leads us pretty well into the overall conclusion here the barriers that exist for keyboard and mouse couch gaming are deeper than the lack of available platforms on which to place peripherals with game UI scaling being a significant one and the fact that a keyboard and mouse being more comfortable to use while sitting up straight or even leaning slightly forward with game controllers being more comfortable to use resting in your crotch while slouched on the couch being another one. The industry is making progress towards an uncompromising PC gaming experience in the living room and I think we'll get there eventually the steam controller is a viable in between for some genres of games point and click like papers please comes to mind and both of these keyboard mouse solutions are better looking easier to store more refined more affordable and more functional than my three-year-old couch master this is real progress I just think that the balance maybe somewhere in between them still speaking of points I've got a pointer for you guys go sign up for crunchy roll it's the site created by anime fans for anime fans they offer the most current episodes of new shows straight from Japan and they've got a large collection of the most popular anime series we've actually got our summer featured crunchy roll shows that are not in the no it's well Linus sorry about that didn't mean to leave those out looks like for crunchy roll we have a Naruto ship wooden we have one piece dress Rosa something case closed and other popular titles so the colton flogging is done here some of the featured shows boom there you go and let's get back to crunchy roll all the content on their site is professionally subtitled and all you gotta do is head over to crunchy roll dot com slash Linus linked in the video description to sign up for a 30 day free trial of crunchy roll premium it gives you an entire month of free anime completely ad free and premium has a lot of benefits like 1080p streaming getting new episodes of shows straight from Japan within an hour of their premiere being able to stream anywhere anytime to a variety of devices like your phone tablet or game console and if you like all that stuff then you can continue your premium membership for only seven bucks a month so again that's crunchy roll dot com slash Linus go check it out thanks for watching guys if this video sucked you know what to do but if it was awesome get subscribed hit the like button or even consider supporting us buying a cool shirt like this one instructions down there or with a direct monthly contribution through our community forum instructions also down there now that you're done doing all that stuff you're probably wondering what to watch next so click that little button in the top right corner to check out our latest video over on channel super fun