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Plain-English definitions of the specs behind mice, keyboards, monitors, audio and controllers — from polling rate and DPI to NKRO, dBFS and deadzone.

• dBFSDecibels relative to full scale — the level of a digital audio signal, where 0 dBFS is the loudest possible and quieter sounds are negative.
• DeadzoneThe small area around an analog stick's centre where movement is ignored, used to hide drift and tiny unintended inputs.
• DebounceThe short delay a keyboard or mouse uses to ignore switch contact bounce, so one press registers exactly once.
• DPIHow many movement counts a mouse sensor reports for each inch it travels; higher DPI moves the cursor further per inch.
• eDPIMouse DPI multiplied by in-game sensitivity — a single number for comparing aim speed between players in the same game.
• Input LagThe delay between an input — a click, keypress or mouse movement — and its result appearing on screen.
• NKRON-key rollover — a keyboard's ability to register every key pressed at the same time, no matter how many.
• Polling RateHow many times per second an input device sends its state to the computer, measured in hertz (Hz).
• Refresh RateHow many times per second a display draws a new image, measured in hertz (Hz).
• Response TimeHow long a display's pixels take to change from one colour to another, usually measured grey-to-grey (GtG) in milliseconds.