Ghostbear
09-15-2011, 08:45 AM
SteelSeries Sensei Review
Product: SteelSeries Sensei
Platform: PC (Mac software coming soon)
Developer: SteelSeries (http://steelseries.com/us/home)
MSRP: $89.99
Available: September 2011
Editor: Jeremy 'Ghostbear' Spurlock
What's Hot: Great feeling mouse, highly customizable.
What's Not: Documentation is sparser than I would like, no way to save your custom colors.
The SteelSeries Sensei claims to be the most customizable mouse in the world. After using it with a wide selection of game types I am inclined to agree. You can fiddle and change mouse settings to your heart's content.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6189/6145097087_b3e41a4438_z.jpg
The first and most obvious option you can tweak is the illumination. There are three distinct areas that you can change, the mouse wheel, the logo on the back and the light above the CPI button. You can use any of 16.8 million colors and you can make each area different if you like. If you're not the kind of person who likes lights on their peripherals, turning them off is also an option. My only real nitpick with this feature is that if I make a custom color for say the mouse wheel, there is no way to save that color so that I can make the other lights match it.
Exactlift is a feature that allows you to customize the lift distance of the mouse, basically letting you to fine tune to your preferred surface. For those of you obsessive about how this mouse tracks on your desk, table, mousepad or kitten, this is the feature for you. Exactaccel does about what you would expect, you can use the software to determine how much you want the mouse to accelerate as you drag your mouse here and there. Exactaim does the exact opposite, when you zoom in for a sniper shot and you start to move the mouse slower, the tracking slows down allowing you to make more precise hits in shooters. I found this feature exceptionally useful in games like World of Tanks and Team Fortress 2. One feature that I was surprised was even there was the option to turn off path correction. Most mice correct for the fact that in general we do not move them in perfect lines. With the Sensei, you can tweak the amount of auto correction you want.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6182/6145648552_3d027ebd73_z.jpg
The feature you seem to hear the most about in gaming mice is resolution. I've become accustomed to using high DPI mice and the Sensei allows me to set any DPI I want between 1 and 5700 DPI. If you want it really fast however, you can hit the little button near the mouse wheel and double whatever you have your resolution set to. I find I double the DPI when doing things like web browsing and general computer use. This allows me to jump from monitor to monitor with the flick of my wrist. Limiting the DPI in some games keeps it from being an incomprehensible blur.
You can also setup macros on this mouse, allowing buttons to simulate anything from a keystroke to a delayed double click. You can set these up in the software, even recording your movements as part of the macro.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6164/6145097109_a7d3280a44_z.jpg
All of these customization options are setup through the SteelSeries Engine, and while you can simply default to manually making these changes whenever you want to, you can also setup profiles that will automatically launch whenever you fire up a specific game, web browser or any other program you have. What happens when you are in a game though and you want to change the profile without dropping back to your desktop? You can load up to five on-board profiles, simply hold down the CPI button for 5 seconds and flip the mouse over, there is a small LCD screen that you can use to load your profiles on the fly. If you're so inclined, you can also load a custom image on to the LCD, mine has a small Colony of Gamers logo.
Usually I feel that ambidextrous mice never have the "right" shape to them, the Sensei allayed any concerns I had in that area. I tend to palm my mice and this felt as comfy as some of my past favorites. Holding the mouse with my fingertips felt fine as well, but I am hardly the expert with this method. The outside of the mouse has a non-slip metallic coating that felt very good in my hand.
The build quality of this mouse is frankly, some of the best I have ever seen. It feels solid and well put together. Every button has a satisfying click and I never really had a problem accidentally hitting buttons I didn't want to. The pads on the bottom of the mouse felt like it was almost gliding.
Score: 5 out of 5 CoGs
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG5.png
Jeremy says, "This is simply one of the best mice I have ever used, if you want a mouse that can be customized with almost any parameter you like and is built to last, get the Sensei."
Product: SteelSeries Sensei
Platform: PC (Mac software coming soon)
Developer: SteelSeries (http://steelseries.com/us/home)
MSRP: $89.99
Available: September 2011
Editor: Jeremy 'Ghostbear' Spurlock
What's Hot: Great feeling mouse, highly customizable.
What's Not: Documentation is sparser than I would like, no way to save your custom colors.
The SteelSeries Sensei claims to be the most customizable mouse in the world. After using it with a wide selection of game types I am inclined to agree. You can fiddle and change mouse settings to your heart's content.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6189/6145097087_b3e41a4438_z.jpg
The first and most obvious option you can tweak is the illumination. There are three distinct areas that you can change, the mouse wheel, the logo on the back and the light above the CPI button. You can use any of 16.8 million colors and you can make each area different if you like. If you're not the kind of person who likes lights on their peripherals, turning them off is also an option. My only real nitpick with this feature is that if I make a custom color for say the mouse wheel, there is no way to save that color so that I can make the other lights match it.
Exactlift is a feature that allows you to customize the lift distance of the mouse, basically letting you to fine tune to your preferred surface. For those of you obsessive about how this mouse tracks on your desk, table, mousepad or kitten, this is the feature for you. Exactaccel does about what you would expect, you can use the software to determine how much you want the mouse to accelerate as you drag your mouse here and there. Exactaim does the exact opposite, when you zoom in for a sniper shot and you start to move the mouse slower, the tracking slows down allowing you to make more precise hits in shooters. I found this feature exceptionally useful in games like World of Tanks and Team Fortress 2. One feature that I was surprised was even there was the option to turn off path correction. Most mice correct for the fact that in general we do not move them in perfect lines. With the Sensei, you can tweak the amount of auto correction you want.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6182/6145648552_3d027ebd73_z.jpg
The feature you seem to hear the most about in gaming mice is resolution. I've become accustomed to using high DPI mice and the Sensei allows me to set any DPI I want between 1 and 5700 DPI. If you want it really fast however, you can hit the little button near the mouse wheel and double whatever you have your resolution set to. I find I double the DPI when doing things like web browsing and general computer use. This allows me to jump from monitor to monitor with the flick of my wrist. Limiting the DPI in some games keeps it from being an incomprehensible blur.
You can also setup macros on this mouse, allowing buttons to simulate anything from a keystroke to a delayed double click. You can set these up in the software, even recording your movements as part of the macro.
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6164/6145097109_a7d3280a44_z.jpg
All of these customization options are setup through the SteelSeries Engine, and while you can simply default to manually making these changes whenever you want to, you can also setup profiles that will automatically launch whenever you fire up a specific game, web browser or any other program you have. What happens when you are in a game though and you want to change the profile without dropping back to your desktop? You can load up to five on-board profiles, simply hold down the CPI button for 5 seconds and flip the mouse over, there is a small LCD screen that you can use to load your profiles on the fly. If you're so inclined, you can also load a custom image on to the LCD, mine has a small Colony of Gamers logo.
Usually I feel that ambidextrous mice never have the "right" shape to them, the Sensei allayed any concerns I had in that area. I tend to palm my mice and this felt as comfy as some of my past favorites. Holding the mouse with my fingertips felt fine as well, but I am hardly the expert with this method. The outside of the mouse has a non-slip metallic coating that felt very good in my hand.
The build quality of this mouse is frankly, some of the best I have ever seen. It feels solid and well put together. Every button has a satisfying click and I never really had a problem accidentally hitting buttons I didn't want to. The pads on the bottom of the mouse felt like it was almost gliding.
Score: 5 out of 5 CoGs
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG5.png
Jeremy says, "This is simply one of the best mice I have ever used, if you want a mouse that can be customized with almost any parameter you like and is built to last, get the Sensei."