The Life's Way Desk Setup With All Accessories in 2021 @TheLifesWay #TheLifesWay

Hi Friends, 

I have been using a desk since the last June 2020 when I shifted to rental accommodation and since then I have tried to make the best use of my small desk as compared to what I was using earlier for the past 3 years in my old house. I was putting my Acer monitor on the top of a circular gift pack to raise its height to suit my neck ergonomically as well as various other JUGAAD technology on the go. 

Since the last year when I shifted to this home a lot of accessories have been brought into the play on this small desk setup. In this blog post, we will go one by one through the items I am using on my desk. 

1. Deskstand Wavy Sit-Stand Laptop Bed Stand - https://www.thelifesway.com/2020/05/thelifeswayreviews-thedeskstand-wavy.html - It's a really nice laptop stand I bought last year but soon it got broke and the company sent me another one for free during the lockdown. You should definitely try out their products. I bought the one for R395 on 25th Sep 2018 during one of their month-end sales. 

2. BOSE Companion  II Multimedia Speaker System - I bought them in clearance sale from Incredible Connection long back (7 July 2014) for around R600 only. Since then I have been using them on a daily basis, and only now there is a hissing sound when not being played or connected to a source and even after connected to the sound is prominent. Otherwise, the audio quality of Bose speakers knows no introduction and I totally love these. 

3. Asus VivoBook S15 Laptop - Asus VivoBook has been my laptop of choice since my Dell XPS L501 laptop became too slow for my liking and then I shifted to this Intel Core i5 8th Gen powered laptop with NVIDIA GEFORCE. I also upgraded the same to 1TB of SSD (for around R3188 on 23 July 2019) as compared to 1TB of Hard disk drive it had and since then the laptop switched on and off in no time. 

4. Acer KA220HQbid Black 21.5'' LED Monitor - I bought an external display for having bigger size screen and this was my first LED monitor which was on sale on Acer Online store for R1300 and I was given R500 discount coupon by Acer South Africa to buy anything from their store so it costed me R800. I bought the same on 31st August 2017 and since then it has been my monitor of choice and during the last years work from home it has been my main display. 

5. Leroy Merlin DESK LAMP WITH CLIP E14 1X25W METAL + PL - I bought the last piece available on display (priced at R149) from the Edenvale store and the manager offered me a discount as I got it for R100 only. As this was the last piece and I wanted it badly, so I didn't check the quality of the clip which I feel has a missing rubber. Overall, it has a long cable so can reach all the sides of your study table and can even be clipped to your bed as a nightshade. I want to install a Wifi enable colour LED into the same so as to enjoy various colours of lights on the go. I have stopped searching for any other table lamp since this has come into my life in the month of September 2021. Thanks, Leroy Merlin for the great products and discounts from time to time. Your service is excellent. 

6. REDRAGON DRACONIC K530RGB Bluetooth Mechanical Keyboard - This one I also reviewed some days back on my blog post where you can get all the information regarding this awesome keyboard. I need to have an RGB mousepad and another RGB mouse for my setup to be complete. 

7. Logitech M720 Wireless Triathlon Mouse - I got this Logitech mouse in May 2017 and since then it has been in my hands and never given me any kind of problems so far. I really love the design of this mouse and the feature that it can be connected to three different gadgets using the small Logitech dongle. Now I want to change to a wireless RGB mouse for my desk setup. 

8. Free Dell Alienware Mousepads - I got these mousepads during one of the RageExpo some years back as a part of their expo campaign. Since that time I am using the same and now wants to switch to RGB mousepads for my desk setup. 

9. Pens and Stationery - Most of my pens and stationery are free goodies from various events but Pens from Parker, Xiaomi and Pilot are bought by me specifically as I love writing with Parker Fountain Pens (I have Vector and IM series). I specifically love the design of Lamy pens but so far I have not had them. I love fine tips or anything which is lower than 0.5mm in nib size. In Pilot pens, I love the C4 which has around 0.38 mm nib tip in gel pen style which is priced around R60 per piece. I keep them all in the Dell Pen Stand or the Typo Buffalo pen holder. 

10. Notepads/Journals - I am still using the Huawei notepads got from one of their launch events and that has been my daily gratitude journal of 5 things to be grateful for. The other notebooks I have are from the movie Godzilla as a goodies bag which is my BuJo (Bullet Journals) and contains all the important information about myself and my days since the past year or so. I soon want to move to the expensive journals from Exclusive books or from Typo. 

11. Maxnomic ESL Pro 2.0 Gaming Chair - This was a dream come true gaming chair that I got in October 2017 and since then my posture has improved and never I have faced any kind of back pain or neck pain. A gaming chair of this quality really helps you ergonomically. I enjoy sitting on this chair and since the lockdown last year the PU leather has started to crack as the time spent on the chair increased a lot. I can change it to a leather cover for the chair which will cost me around R1000 to change but I thought I will get it done once the whole piece is gone or not worthy of sitting anymore. 

12. Orico Power Adapter - This is one of the simple gadgets to plug in all my devices as well as offering 2 USB charging points. I bought this one for around R150 from one of the shops in 2016 or so and since then has been my favourite charging station. Now I am finding it difficult to insert 2-pin plugs as the adapter is showing resistance. It takes a little bit of power and shakes to insert the power adapters to charge my smartphones. There is no such problem faced with the South African power adapters. 

13. Xiaomi Mi Wi-Fi Range Extender Pro - This is one of the cheapest wifi repeaters available in the market and I bought this from the mia.africa.com website in one of their online Chinese New Year sales in the month of Feb 2021 for R150. I bought another one for R100 only during their June 2021 sale. 

Other than that there are many things which I have received from the launch events and goodies from the expo which I use for some time before being replaced by the new ones. Also, I keep visiting typo and other shops in search of deals that can make my desk set up a little bit cooler and organized. I am also a productivity fan and follower and always tries to save time. I am one of the lazy persons Bill Gates talks about in his famous quote. 

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Cheers!!!

Support me if you like reading this blog post by buying me a cup of tea or coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TheLifesWay Contact at thelifesway@gmail.com to collaborate and promote your services and products. Subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel for giveaways, product reviews and mystery unboxings. #TheLifesWay #9YearsofTheLifesWay. Namaste!

REDRAGON DRACONIC #K530RGB 60% in Size - Better or Perfect? You Decide! @RedragonSA #Draconic #ProductReview

Hi Friends, 

My wife gifted me this Redragon Draconic keyboard at the start of 2021 on the 1st of January 2021 and since then my life has changed a lot. I have been a fan of Ali Abdaal Youtube channel and I used to see him type on a lot of keyboards and I always wanted one of the RGB keyboards where you can change the pattern of the lights and when my wife surprised me with this small package I never knew the contents are going to be so great in functionality, form and design and most importantly that clicking sound to keep you focussed and engrossed in whatever you are doing on your desktop, laptop or PC. 

I am not one of the sponsored content creators who promote their products so this is my personal review and the love I have for this keyboard. My wife won the same in a December/Christmas contest for 2020 on the Fortress of Solitude Website and all the delivery details and collection was arranged behind my back as I know the owner of the website - Evan Saunders. I remember I participate in all their contest and won some goodies from the Disney Pixar Soul movie and most importantly whatever movies I am watching in theatres is just because of their cinema nights in Johannesburg with Sterkinekor. Thanks, Evan for making it possible. 

I posted the unboxing video on my Youtube channel and some shorts of the oscillating RGB lights too. I love playing with this 60% keyboard which makes it really easy to carry and the mechanical switches brings a great typing experience on the same. The amount of self-written blog posts on my blog are coming right from this Draconic keyboard. Though I have one from Microsoft (wireless) too, the one which has a mouse pad built into it but never used that much. I had to use it when this one's manual I lost and was not able to connect to my laptop. I had to watch someone's Youtube video to see what's the combination of keys to reset the same. Hence, I thought of reviewing this keyboard and produce all the shortcuts for easy reference of myself too if not anyone else. 

Redragon is one of the accessories and peripherals makers in the eSports gaming industry and I was attracted to their logo first at one of the rAge Expo. I have visited their stalls but have never been lucky to win anything from this brand in all the 7 rAge Expo I attended to date. Let's start with the features on this marvellous keyboard -

Battery and Connectivity - Bluetooth v5.0 - The Redragon Draconic comes enabled with Bluetooth technology so no dongle or adapter is required to connect to this keyboard. Also the same can be connected to 3 different devices and a button on the side has been provided with an LED that changes colours as you connect with Bluetooth devices. B1 is Red, B2 is blue and B3 is green colour led when connected to paired devices. On the same side, there is a Type-C charging port along with a switch On and Off button. Next is these B1, B2, B3 toggle button along with a Bluetooth indicator. In the end, there is another indicator to showcase the charging light or battery downlight. It twinkles red when the keyboard is running low on power and green when it's charging and full Green without flickering when the charging is complete. The 3000mAh battery lasts easily for more than a month or so for me. I have so far charged the device twice since January 2021 but I use the device only for use on my Asus VivoBook personal laptop along with sometimes on the office laptop too. The pairing process is really easy, just switch the device On, and select B1 to connect Draconic-1 from the list of Bluetooth devices. You can even connect this keyboard to your tablet on B2 as well as your smartphone on B3 which will work seamlessly even if you carry this one for all your devices. 

Also, this keyboard can work as a wired one when you just plug in the cable provided to any desktop, laptop etc and keep the power OFF and no drivers need to be installed. The same cable charges the keyboard too. I found out that a complete charge takes around 10-12 hours or so. 

Key Functions - 

The keyboard has two FN keys - FN1 and FN2. Both give you multiple options to work with other keys to get to work on this 60% keyboard as compared to a full-fledged keyboard. The most important of them is to illuminate and change the RGB lights - 

FN2 and 9 = Backlight modes switch to change from different RGB patterns. 

FN2 and 0= Turn On and Off backlights

FN2 and += Increase brightness (5 levels)

FN2 and -= Decrease brightness (5 levels)

FN2 and Esc = Press and hold for 3 seconds to broadcast function

FN1 and Esc = Press and hold for 3 seconds to factory reset. 

FN1 and A = Move left

FN1 and W = Move up

FN1 and D = Move right

FN1 and S = Move down

FN1 and /? = Delete

and many more functions can be performed from PGUP, PGDN, HOME, END, PRTSC using the FN1 button. 

CapsLk has a special function too which can be enabled by long-pressing the same to switch to MAGIC FN. Using this feature you can record a macro for gaming which can be assigned to any of the keys from 1-6. Similarly, there is a light recording feature available for different gaming modes available too using the FN2 key. 

The only problem I found is that once you switch on or off the light, it comes back to the full brightness as compared to whatever level you were using the same at. 

RGB Patterns - 

There are 13 dynamic preset illumination modes to choose from ranging from The trail of light, Breathing, Normally On, Go with the wave, Clouds Fly, Winding Path, Flowers Blooming, Snow Winter Jasmine, Swift action, Both ways, Surmount, Fast and the Furious, Coastal. The 16.8 Million RGB lights really look great on the device. I really loved the Flowers Blooming and the Fast and the furious as those are colourful with all the keys lighting up in different colours. Surmount also offers you to change between four colours which are also nice using the software available at the Redragon Website for this particular keyboard and attaching the USB cable you will be able to access these profiles. In the software, you can adjust any colour, speed and brightness in these 13 dynamic preset. I also liked doing Yellow in Breathing. Some of the presets are colourful by design and can't be done in a single colour and most of the presets allow you to do so in a single colour in my case it was Yellow. Flowers Blooming, Fast and the furious, Swift action are compulsorily colourful profiles. The trial of light doesn't offer colour settings. Rest all can be made colourful as per your choice or a single colour. I found out that the white doesn't look that white as it comes out as a combination of colours and the same is true with several other colours too. The colour combinations possible is endless if you want to change them every day or every hour it's possible too. 

Keyboard Design and Keys -

The keyboard is not full-sized but it's 60% of the size which makes it really portable and compact. It does take some time to learn too as you need to do some alternatives to make use of the normal functions available in the regular keyboard. It has tactile brown switches which required 45 grams of force to activate and are really soft to touch.  They don't make much sound and spring back very quickly after the actuation. I do love the noise they make as I am able to focus better but they are definitely not made for office purposes. Brown switches are mostly used in all gaming keyboards and as mentioned on the package it's also dust-proof. The tactile brown switches are guaranteed for 50 million keypresses. Redragon Draconic has 61 keys with side-printer letters which makes it really cool. The L Type-C cable wire is provided to safeguard the cable for long use too. The keyboard package weighs around 800 grams whereas the keyboard itself is around 650 grams and it has foldable legs on the backside to tilt the keyboard just like you see in all the keyboards. I totally loved the design of this keyboard and the first time I read about I wished to have it in my arsenal as I have never used any RGB keyboard ever before. 

Package - 

The package is really nice and it contains Redgraon K530 Wireless Keyboard, Switch Puller, Switch Backup box (4 switches with red, black, brown and blue), L Shaped Type-C Charging cable. Most importantly this comes with a nice red dragon sticker which you can put on your laptop or anywhere you love to see it daily. 

This one goes for around R1200 in Johannesburg, South Africa and if you want to lay your hands on the same kindly check all the retailers for this lovely keyboard. I am enjoying looking at this beauty and since the time I have got this my blogging has improved a lot since I like to type on this keyboard. My typing speed seems to be still not that fast as compared with Ali Abdaal but I am working on using all my fingers and type as fast as possible from my ages old hands. The next step will be to have an RGB mouse along with the RGB mousepad to make the whole setup look bright, colourful bringing me back to the same time and again. Thanks, Redragon for making this possible.

Cheers!!!

Support me if you like reading this blog post by buying me a cup of tea or coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TheLifesWay Contact at thelifesway@gmail.com to collaborate and promote your services and products. Subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel for giveaways, product reviews and mystery unboxings. #TheLifesWay #9YearsofTheLifesWay. Namaste!