Riotoro is one of those brands you’ll either know a lot about, or nothing about. Predominantly specializing in budget/value keyboards, mice, power supplies, cases and some cooling on the side, it’s kind of where Corsair was at, about 15-20 years ago. That’s not to say they have bad products, just that it’s a fledgling brand just starting out (2014 to be exact), most predominantly in the world of peripherals, or at least we thought.
At CES 2020 however, the company has just announced some rather unusual additions to its product stack. In fact arguably the largest unveiling we’ve seen from any company. We’re talking monitors, headsets, gaming desks and chairs, and new components, and even more gaming peripherals. That’s one serious commitment, and a big gamble entering so many areas that already have very well established brands inhabiting them.
Stingray Gaming Monitors
First up we have Riotoro’s first ever gaming displays. According to the press release, these 16:9 27" curved 1440p screens deliver an impressively sharp 1ms response on a VA panel and come complete with a 144 Hz refresh rate and FreeSync as standard (so likely G-Sync as well). As for ports, you get one HDMI 2.0, one DisplayPort 1.4 and one USB Type-C inputs.
We’re not too sure who’s manufacturing the panel itself, however those are specs that seem very similar to some of the models that MSI has had for the last year or so. If that's true and the panels are top notch, If Riotoro can bring the price down whilst retaining the same level of quality in a similar manner to what HyperX did with its original Cloud headsets, this could be a brand to watch.
No word on just when exactly we’re expecting to see these screens other than some time in 2020, but more competition in this market space means cheaper products for us and that’s definitely something to be happy about.
rPods Earbuds
Next up, and rather confusingly for us, the company has also announced its own line of wireless earbuds. Including 6.0mm drivers, producing “high-fidelity sound”, and with onboard controls, a charging pod that extends the battery life up to 16 hours, these Bluetooth 5.0 compatible headphones are well, not really something we’d associate with a gaming brand such as Riotoro, but still if they're good, who cares what the brand is? We'll just have to wait and see.
