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Microsoft Sidewinder X5

Will Smith — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:00:00 -0500

Sporting an ever-so-slightly trimmed-down shape compared to the original Sidewinder gaming mouse, along with a stripped down featureset, the Sidewinder X5 delivers great performance at a very reasonable price. Like the original Sidewinder, the design works great for gamers who use either a claw or a standard grip (or who like to change between them), but it’s not particularly comfortable for people with small- to medium-size hands. After a couple of hours of play using a standard grip, our hands cramped.

While its height seems trimmed down a little, the Sidewinder X5 is still designed for a large hand.

Missing from this updated Sidewinder are the original mouse’s adjustable weighting system, the interchangeable foot pads, the sensitivity display, and the weighted cable anchor. While we especially miss the cable anchor, extra features (like the one that have been omitted) aren’t something we’d expect in a mouse that costs $60.

The Sidewinder X5 mouse retains the killer high-and-low thumb button studs, which make it easy to tell precisely which thumb button you’re hitting, regardless of the grip you use on the mouse. We’re also pleased to say that Microsoft has improved the scroll wheel with much better tactile response. And, when it comes to the sensor, the X5’s 2000DPI laser sensor is simply as good as any other gaming mouse sensor we’ve tested.

We typically test mice using a mixture of fast action games—think Team Fortress 2 and Quake Live—as well as slow-movement challenges, such as the sniper mission in Call of Duty 4. At the fast sensitivity setting, the X5’s sensor was pixel accurate even at extreme speeds. When sniping, we cranked the sensitivity down for smoother movement and got similarly accurate results.

We’re not fans of Microsoft’s mouse software. While it lets you customize each of the three sensitivity settings to your personal taste, we wish that it let you establish more than just three different sensitivities. As for the Sidewinder button, which launches the Intellipoint software on XP and the Games Explorer on Vista, it ably fulfills Microsoft’s “weird proprietary button” rule. (In our experience, there’s always one odd proprietary button on every Microsoft Hardware product. Always.)

All told, this “budget” gaming mouse is an improvement on the more expensive Sidewinder original, but there are still cheaper, more comfortable budget mice out there. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: If you can’t palm a basketball, your hand is probably too small to comfortably use a Sidewinder.

Steelseries Ikari

Will Smith — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:00:00 -0500

Steelseries delivers a one-two punch of awesome with its first mouse—the Ikari, a standard five-button, right-handed design suitable for gamers who use either the palm and claw-style grips. With its low-profile design, the Ikari doesn’t provide sufficient support for folks who like to rest their palm on the mouse; our palm-gripped tester had a stiff hand after a few hours of play. Nonetheless, the Ikari’s other features and kick-ass sensor make us almost willing to ignore the less-than-ergonomically perfect shape.

We love the Ikari’s tournament-friendly, driverless design. Using the screen on the bottom of the mouse, you can tweak the sensitivity of the mouse on any PC, without any dependence on drivers. The settings you create are stored in the mouse’s flash memory, so they’ll work on any PC you use, even a tournament rig that you’ve never even played on before. Once you configure the mouse’s high and low sensitivity settings, you can swap between the two using the sensitivity button directly below the scroll wheel. A pair of white LEDs on the side of the mouse light up to show you which sensitivity you’re using.

The Ikari’s most notable feature is the bottom-mounted LCD display,
which you can use to adjust the sensitivity settings on-the-fly, sans driver. Tres cool!

Now let’s be realistic: The sensitivity indicator lights are really just a gimmick. In the heat of an online firefight, you’d have to be suicidal to glance down to make sure you’re on the proper sensitivity! Harmless gimmicks are forgivable, but the real problem here is that the Ikari only lets you switch between two sensitivity settings, on-the-fly. It’s not a deal-breaker, but on the sensitivity front, we hate having to choose just two sensitivities. Hell, three settings is barely enough! But aside from this quibble, the Ikari’s six-button design is positioned for quick and easy access, even in the most heated of battles. The button layout includes two top buttons, two thumb buttons, a single button on the scroll wheel, and the sensitivity adjustment button.

With a sensitive laser sensor and a driverless approach designed to appeal to hardcore tournament players (who play their most important matches on machines not their own), the Ikari Laser leaves us undeniably stoked. With a few tweaks for comfort and one more sensitivity setting, this mouse could easily reach Kick Ass territory.

Razer DeathAdder

Will Smith — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:24:38 -0500

We love the shape of this mouse—it’s comfortable for even the longest session—and the DeathAdder just gets better from there. The sensor delivers pixel-perfect accuracy, and we love that the driver lets us adjust everything from X and Y sensitivity to the lights on the mouse. We’re still not sold on the idea of constantly updating firmware for a mere mouse, but Razer’s built a highly compelling rodent with the DeathAdder.

The DeathAdder’s matte finish and uber-comfortable design let even the sweatiest gamers maintain pixel-perfect control during heated deathmatches.

Razer eschewed the standard laser sensor for an old-school 1800dpi 3G optical sensor. Our testing showed that this third-gen optical sensor offers virtually indistinguishable performance compared to laser sensors. Now, even mouse sensors have their own fanboys—some hardcore gamers swear by old-style optical sensors; others prefer their mice with lasers.

But regardless of your personal preference, we think you’ll find that the DeathAdder’s sensor kicks ass. The mouse itself is extremely comfortable, even for extended gaming sessions, and the buttons are perfectly placed for palm-grip gamers. Gamers who use a claw grip may find this particular mouse a touch narrow. Combined with the uber-comfortable matte finish, the DeathAdder rivals the Logitech G5 for comfort.

Our only complaint is that the DeathAdder offers too much granular control for quick in-game sensitivity adjustment. Instead of dedicated sensitivity switching buttons that toggle between two or three settings, you must bind one of the mouse’s five buttons to on-the-fly sensitivity adjustment in the Razer control panel, and then use the scroll wheel to hone in on the desired sensitivity. If you don’t adjust sensitivity on-the-fly, this shouldn’t pose a problem for you. But if you do, it could be a deal-breaker.

Zalman FPSGun FG1000

Will Smith — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:39:04 -0600

We've tested some crazy mice over the years, from ergonomic wonders designed to prevent RSI to dedicated gaming mice shaped like an actual handgun, but the new Zalman FPSGun is one of the oddest-looking designs we've ever tested. We approve of its neutral-grip, sensor-forward design, but the actual implementation has resulted in a mouse that's just too small for the vast majority of gamers to use.

We very much like the sensor-forward design for certain types of shooters. By moving the 2000dpi adjustable-resolution optical sensor away from the area directly beneath your hand, Zalman gives you much more precise horizontal control than a typical mouse offers, although it comes at the expense of vertical control. For gamers who play lots of headshot-oriented tactical shooters, such as Counter-Strike or Call of Duty 4, this could be a very good thing. For games that require as much vertical movement as horizontal, you'll need to load up the included software and tweak the vertical sensitivity pretty heavily.

Zalman got quite a bit right with the design, placing two triggers on the forward-facing edge of the grip, but moving the mouse wheel beneath your thumb. There's also a pair of thumb buttons and a profile-switching button on the front portion of the mouse. While the mouse ships with three default sensitivity profiles, you can manually adjust the sensitivity- and refresh-rate settings for each profile using the included software, and you can instantly tell which profile is active by looking at the multicolored, illuminated scroll wheel.

Unfortunately, the mouse is much too small to comfortably hold if you have normal-size hands. Because you hold the FPSGun with your hand in a vertical position, the blade of your hand rests on the mousing surface. In order to keep your fingers on the trigger button, you need to splay your pinky out to the side of the mouse, which can become quite uncomfortable—not to mention the dirtying effect your grubby mitts will have on your mousepad. Factor in that its unique design makes it difficult to use for more typical desktop work, and it's difficult to endorse this rodent.