SteelSeries Xai Laser Gaming Mouse Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Let me start off by saying that this is an awesome mouse. From the moment I took it out of the package, I loved the way it felt in my hand. I hold my mouse in a kind of hybrid style, I will actively switch between a "claw" style grip and a "palm" style grip while gaming/surfing or whatever i'm doing, and it feels great no matter how I grip it.The buttons have a nice sold click too them, not too hard, but just enough to eliminate any accidental clicks, which has been a problem for me with many mice (mouses?). the scroll wheel is great too, has a good solid feedback and has a nice clicky feel to it (no audible click but you can definitely tell when you have gone up or down a notch). The side buttons are well placed on the left side of the mouse, the right side, I had some issues with mis-clicking for the first day, and after that my grip had self adjusted to put my fingers just far enough away from it to prevent mis-clicks (I mean self adjusted as in i made no conscious effort to adjust my grip, i just noticed after the second day that I had stopped accidentally clicking the buttons). The DPI switch button is well placed, easy to press and fairly hard to mis-click. The glides on this mouse are some of the best that I have ever used, very smooth without feeling too slippery. The laser is dead accurate, I run a mid-high DPI setting for most of the things that I do, typically in the 1700-2100 range. While photoshopping I find it effortless to hold the cursor withing 1 pixel, while drawing a line, over seemingly endless distances without the slightest bit of jitter or pull (this is without using any of the software aides that make the cursor move "smoother" or "straighter").

However, the greatness of the hardware does not translate into the software for this mouse unfortunately. With the first Xai I got from amazon (it had a USP issue and kept turning off and resetting itself every 5 minutes or so) I installed the software from Steelseries' website and found it to be, well, crap. I found values kept resetting themselves and the hardware update that it installed into my mouse seemed to create more issues that had not been there before. So with my second Xai, i decided to forgo the software, and simply set up the mouse using the LCD on the bottom of the mouse. The process was fairly intuitive considering you are only using the scroll wheel to navigate the menu, although it did take a little longer to set it up this way. Overall this is an amazing mouse with the only real negative being the software. I give the mouse a 6/5 from the hardware standpoint and a 1/5 for software.

OK, if you don't want to read that wall of text, here's a sum-up

Pros:
+Great overall feel to the mouse
+Buttons have a good click to them and are well placed
+Great glides
+Best laser engine I have used
+Able to easily adjust settings without software

Cons:
-Software sucks

I would strongly recommend to anyone buying this mouse to avoid the software like the plague, just take the time to set it up using the handy LCD screen on the bottom and you will be much happier!

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Product Description:
The technology, shape, size, weight and surface of the SteelSeries Xai were designed with one purpose: to enhance the users performance. The sensor offers huge improvement over current laser mice, processing 12,000 Frames Per Second at movement speeds of 150 Inches Per Second. SteelSeries Xai can be fully configured via a LCD menu system on the back of the mouse, while supporting advanced macro capabilities of up to 200 strokes per button. Advanced software allows configuration of SteelSeries FreeMove, SteelSeries ExactSens, SteelSeries ExactAim, SteelSeries ExactRate, plus automatic lift distance calibration. SteelSeries Xai is a tool - not a gadget.

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