SteelSeries is quickly becoming my favourite gaming accessory manufacturer. Not only do they have Blizzard-specific peripherals (and I am, of course, a huge Blizzard fanboy), but their accessories have demonstrated thoughtful design and a superb level of quality as well. There is just a sleekness and polish that did not exist with my previous Logitech products, although admittedly I have not tried Logitech’s high end offerings and I am still using Logitech’s G15 keyboard.
The first thing I noticed about the mouse is that it’s kind of small. I found myself wondering if it could be comfortable at that size, as I’m used to the much fatter MX400 and Razer mice. But it turns out that I can hold the mouse two different ways very comfortably. I can hold it so that my hand fits over and I’m pressing near the front of the buttons, but in high pressure situations I find myself moving my whole hand back a bit a little and bending my button fingers and that also feels nice. The material is very smooth and goes back to the sleekness I referred to earlier.
As for the technical specifications, the Xai realistically has 7 programmable buttons, though you can also reprogram your mouse wheel up and down if you desire. It supports the usual profile functionality (5 in total) that you can switch amoung using the incredibly deep software that it comes with, but there is also an on-mouse LCD on the bottom of the mouse should you desire to configure it without the software on the operating system. The Xai can go up to 5001 counts per inch (CPI) and 12,000 frames per second (FPS). The full specs can be found here.
Now, you may have noticed that I said up to 5001 CPI. That’s because you can set your CPI to whatever you like to control the exact sensitivity that you like. In addition, you can store two different settings, and with the click of the tenth button located below your mouse wheel, you can quickly toggle between them. Not only can you choose exactly any number between 100-5001, which is quite impressive in terms of precision, but what I like best is that the software actually tells you how to choose the right CPI for you. And not only that, the Xai Configuration utility tells you how to configure your FPS and all the other features the mouse offers. This advice came as a wonderful relief to me as I had no idea what was what and didn’t want to spend several hours figuring out what the right combination was. In addition, the utility offers advice on what settings to use in the Windows mouse settings in order to optimize performance, and allows you to change them right in the utility. Everything about the configuration has been very well thought out and I am very impressed with this aspect of the mouse.
Since SteelSeries has a connection with the pro gaming community, their site also offers profiles from pro gamers so you can try out and tweak their settings for personal use.
The only downside I found to the mouse is that the two buttons on the right side of the mouse are rather easy to press accidentally. As a result I haven’t programmed anything to them yet, but it’s a matter of getting used to it, I think. The other worry I have is that the mouse may be too small for some hands. If you find the Dual Shock controller too small for you, you might want to test this puppy out before throwing down your $90 CDN.
It is extremely precise and accurate and was a noticeable upgrade from my previous mouse. In my tests with StarCraft II, World of Warcraft, Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, I felt a significant performance difference. In Mass Effect 2 I was getting headshots more frequently, and it just plain feels faster and more responsive when playing WoW and StarCraft II. I highly recommend this mouse to anyone who is looking for a high end gaming mouse.
Don Tam is a game enthusiast who currently resides in Toronto. He currently owns a two-year old PC, a Xbox 360 Pro and a DS Lite (black). His favourite games include Gears of War, Rock Band, Civilization IV, and pretty much anything Blizzard caresses with their gentle, godly hands.
Seems great so far, but my right side buttons aren’t working with WoW. Any help?
The buttons won’t work except as assigned/macro’ed, so you can just map them to some exotic button combination you don’t use (ctrl+alt+p, say), and then assigned something to that.
If you need a mouse with more buttons for WoW, the SteelSeries Cataclysm mouse is actually quite good if a bit big and I’m using one right now so look for the review soon. That works with WoW with no configuration at all, but other mice with more than the left side buttons won’t function anywhere except as mapped or macro’ed.