Thursday June 25, 2009
Sidewinder goes wireless
By TAN KIT HOONG
Microsoft cuts the wires in its latest Sidewinder gaming mouse and achieves impressive results.
WHEN we reviewed Microsoft’s Sidewinder gaming mouse a while back, we liked the Stealth-bomber styled mouse but found it to be a good fit only for people with large hands.
Ever since the success of the first version, Microsoft has produced several other wired versions, with the X3 being the budget model and the X5 targeting the mid-range market.
The newest one to join the line is the Sidewinder X8, which sits in the upper range of the Sidewinder series, and features a number of major improvements over the original.
The most major change of the X8 is that it’s wireless — this is a first for a Microsoft gaming product and looking at the current trend, it certainly looks like it won’t be the last.
So how does the Sidewinder X8 perform? Read on.
In the box
Out of its red packaging, the Sidewinder X8 has only two items — the mouse itself and a large hockey-puck sized thing which is not only the 2.4GHz wireless transceiver, but also a cable winder and storage for the various feet.
Feet? Yes, the Sidewinder X8 comes with three sets of feet which give you varying degrees of glide performance on different surfaces.
The other thing that comes with the X8 is a single NiMH rechargeable AA battery — it’s great that Microsoft has chosen a regular AA battery to power the Sidewinder X8 because you can just pop in a new battery and have it work right away if you don’t have the charging cable handy.
However, it’s unlikely you’ll ever run into this situation because the X8’s puck has a magnetic cable that attaches to the bottom of the mouse and allows you to charge the mouse and use it at the same time.
The X8 has a large number of programmable buttons — seven in all: Two thumb buttons, the middle wheel button, the left and right wheel tilt, and of course the left and right mouse buttons.
The three buttons just under the scroll wheel are reserved for DPI settings only, although you can assign any DPI settings to any of these three buttons and these range from as low as 250dpi all the way up to a super-speedy 4,000dpi.
USEFUL: The tiny LCD display shows you the current sensitivity setting as well as charging status when the mouse is connected to the charger. Just like the original Sidewinder, the X8 has a dot-matrix LCD that shows you a variety of information, such as the DPI setting currently in use, as well as the power charging status.
There’s also a macro button right near the front of the mouse which allows you to record a series of keyboard presses and assign it to this button.
It’s all about the feel
With the nitty-gritty aside, just how is the performance and comfort of the Sidewinder X8?
As far as comfort goes, the X8 is a tad large for my hands — with my wrist resting on the table, I can barely reach the scroll wheel with my forefinger and the thumb buttons with my thumb.
However, I’ve tested the mouse on my colleagues with larger hands, and they all report that the X8 is pretty comfortable to use.
So, if you have medium to large-sized hands, the X8 should work for you but people with small hands should look elsewhere as the X8 will not be a comfortable fit at all.
Other than that, this mouse is pretty nice to use — the one big improvement over the previous generation is the inclusion of
Microsoft’s BlueTrack technology that gives you the ability to use the mouse on a variety of surfaces.
Tilt: the scroll wheel on the X8 has gained left and right tilt functions, giving you yet another programmable option While Microsoft doesn’t actually make big claims for BlueTrack technology, I tried using it on a reflective plastic surface, a semi-reflective table and even the rough carpeting in the office and I have to say it worked on all of them.
In fact, I have to say BlueTrack is definitely better at tracking than current laser mice.
This is where the extra feet come in — the three sets of feet give you differing levels of smoothness, i.e. smooth, medium smooth and rough depending on your preference.
I generally like my mouse as smooth as possible so I left it with the smooth feet.
Since the X8 is a gaming mouse, performance when playing games was excellent with very smooth tracking at all times, even when the mouse was lifted slightly off the table during play.
In the time I used it I didn’t have to recharge the mouse at all and I’m liable to believe Microsoft’s claims that you can play for up to 30 hours on a single charge.
Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, this mouse is firmly targeted at gamers with big hands and if you have small hands like mine, then you should just skip the X8.
That being said, if you have large hands the Sidewinder X8 should warrant serious consideration — it’s got all the gaming features you could want and it felt solid enough to withstand some pretty rough use.
Add that to the fact that it’s wireless and has the excellent BlueTrack technology, you get a pretty good package here.
Of course, at RM299, you have to be a serious gamer to consider buying one of these though.
Pros: Many customisable buttons; BlueTrack technology works better than laser technology.
Cons: Only suitable for medium- to large-sized hands.
SIDEWINDER X8 (Microsoft Corp)
Gaming mouse
Maximum resolution: 4,000dpi BlueTrack technology
Image processing: 6.4 megapixels/second
Maximum acceleration: 75G
Maximum speed: 13,000 frames-per-second
Number of buttons: 12 (7 programmable)
Other features: 2.4GHz wireless, replaceable feet supplied.
Price: RM299
Review unit courtesy of Microsoft Malaysia, (03) 2179-6838.
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