If you walked onto the high street and began to ask the general public if they would spend around £70 on a computer mouse the majority would look at you like you’re stupid and say anyone who spends that kind of cash on a mouse is a nut job; but you find a PC gamer and they’ll tell you that they probably would be happy enough parting with the money. Why is that? Well because where most of the population believe your bog standard PC Mouse will do the job well enough, a PC gamer knows that they are far from what is needed to compete at the top level of PC Gaming. So when I heard that Natus Vincere and SteelSeries had teamed up to design a brand new gaming mouse I was looking forward to seeing what they’d come up with.
I guess some of you are wondering who Natus Vincere or Na’Vi actually are, and why have they teamed up with SteelSeries to design a computer mouse. Well time for a mini history lesson; Natus Vincere is Latin for ‘born to conquer’, a name chosen to represent what is now one of the biggest and best electronic sports teams in the world. Na’Vi exploded onto the gaming scene in 2010 when they became the first team in in Counter-Strike history to win three major tournaments in one calendar year, and since then they have earned a reputation as a real force to be reckoned with on the international gaming scene. Now they’ve taken to designing their own range of gaming peripherals to help out gamers of all skillsets be the best they can be.
The first thing you’ll notice about the mouse is the bright yellow and black colour theme, with the mouse looking like someone has splattered yellow paint on a blank black canvas, followed by stamping on the Na’Vi logo. The matte finish makes this somewhat messy design help you feel like you’re prepared to take on anyone and that the mouse isn’t afraid to get dirty to beat the competition if you are to. If the bright colour wasn’t enough though you can also make the mouse light up the sky with several modes available to allow solid lights or a pulsing illumination, alternatively if you’d prefer to have no flashy lights you can turn them off. But they do come in handy as you are a gamer who has multiple profiles you can assign each profile a different brightness to allow you to quickly identify it when you flick through them.
The great design doesn’t stop on top of the mouse though, on the bottom of the mouse there are some High Performance PTFE materials that cover 16% of the base to help ensure maximum glide; which is where I found there is no more getting the mouse stuck when mid game and then ripping it from your computer and smashing it against the wall. However SteelSeries do recommend changing the glides regularly depending on how much you use them as they will wear down over time. And if that wasn’t enough there is a lovely looking black and yellow nylon cord which is tangle free, meaning if you often enjoy attending LAN parties you can take your mouse with you without having to spend ages untangling the cords like some of your mates. Unfortunately that free time may mean you’ll be stuck putting the kettle on and ordering the takeaways for everyone else.
One I really liked about this mouse, compared to some other gaming mice I have used in the past is that not only does it feel great but you have no faffing around trying to download and install different drivers and adjusting settings before you can use it. With the Sensei [RAW] Na’Vi edition you just plug it in, let it work its magic and play your games. However should you wish to customise the mouse to suit your gaming style more, or to tune it to a particular game, the SteelSeries engine will allow you to fully customise your mouse to the smallest detail; from adjustable CPI settings, programmable buttons (of which there are 8 buttons altogether) and as mentioned above the different lighting modes.
If that wasn’t enough, for those expert PC gamers out there, you can also record extremely long and advanced macros. I never really used this feature much as I’m not the biggest PC gamer, I’ll just occasionally revisit some of my favourite games like Command and Conquer, King’s Bounty or Multiwinia and spend more time on my console. But I have to say it was impressive what you could string together and it clearly shows why people will fork out crazy money for equipment of this calibre as it offers so much more than your standard DELL mouse. It really does help when you assign certain keyboard buttons to the mouse allowing for easier gameplay and faster reactions, rather than having to fiddle around pressing all sorts. It’s like they state on their website they have provided you with the capabilities for endless possibilities, however they don’t condone cheating so if a game you play has rules, do follow them like good boys and girls because Santa will be watching even in January.
Overall this is a tasty bit of kit which would suit any gamer of any skill set, and if you’re looking for something to help give you an edge in competitions (fairly that is) then this is definitely a gadget worth buying. The customisable features mean you can make this mouse act the way you want from the way it glows to what your buttons can do. The feel and movement of the mouse are also top quality, it’s comfortable to hold, even after prolonged use and the High Performance PTFE material allows for a smooth glide that other mice will find hard to compete with. However the price on the SteelSeries site is a little steep when you consider it is just a computer mouse you are buying; luckily you can pick them up on ebay and amazon for around half of that cost, so grab yourself a bargain while you can because I really can’t fault this product.
TECH SPECS
- Frames per second: 12000
- Inches per second: 150
- Mega pixels per second: 10.8
- Counts per inch: 90-5670
- Maximum acceleration: 30 G
- Sensor data path: True 16 bit
- Lift distance: ~2 mm
- Maximum polling: 1000 Hz
SIZE AND WEIGHT:
- Weight: 90 grams (0.2 lbs)
- Height: 38.7 mm (1.5 in)
- Width: 68.3 mm (2.7 in)
- Length: 125.5 mm (4.9 in)
OPERATING SYSTEM:
- Windows 2000
- Windows XP
- Windows Vista
- Windows 7
- Mac OS X
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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