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- Verified Buyer
Ok I promise to try to keep this review short. I always get carried away!I got my Steelseries Sensei in the mail about a week ago from TigerDirect. My initial impression was very favorable. The packaging was nice, and the mouse's finish is very pretty/different. I am getting bored of all these black mice. The metal looking finish is quite shiny, the mouse also has some very nice details. Braided cables which have a very fine weave. More fine than my Logitech G9. The USB connector is also gold plated. So if your thinking about purchasing one of these I will give you some good and bad points, from a consumer perspective.PROS:Braided cable, I really like these its a sign of craftsmanship.Gold USB connector, another nice touch, does it increase electical conductivity? Dont know, dont care. Craftsmanship.2 DPI settings- that you can switch on the fly and you can program 2 different color LED lights to show you which setting your in. Default is 1600 DPI/3200 DPI I believe. I have mine at 1800/2600. Slower one for browsing faster one for gaming. (A note on DPI, I dont know what the max on this mouse is, I think its 5000 something..but MOST people wont ever go over 3,000 Manufactures like to market themselves for the DPI but it really dosent matter. The quality of lazer and smoothness is more important)and this ones smooth. More smooth than my Logitech and Razer.Software- Not really a pro or con for me, I think the software has too much information/programs. You can do a whole bunch of stuff with your mouse, they say the Sensei has some kind of little computer in it, go read the website if you want all the features but I dont really use any of them. Supposedly one will help you draw straight lines etc.CONS:Custom Color LED's- Dont buy into that whole "make 100000" different type of colors scam. This mouse is only capable of being maybe 6 colors. Different hues of red basically look the same, the preset colors are the ones that work the best, if you tinker around with the color wheel you cant tell the difference. One annoying thing is that there is no White. I wanted white LED's to match my whole Steelseries setup, but the Sensei's White has a light pink/purplish hue. Preset colors are all very vibrant however, just dont bother adjusting the color wheel outcome will be the same.Possible RMA- My mouse's scroll wheel sometimes registers a single click as two. Randomly it appears, I have tried to find out whats wrong with it but to no avail. I have emailed Tigerdirect, and I will write Steelserie's Support also to see what my options are.Ambidextrous setup- I dont like the ambi set up. All you left handed guys, go get a left handed mouse. The Sensei's right side buttons are difficult to click their positioned in the middle of your pinkie/ring finger gap so you dont naturally touch them. Atleast I dont the way I hold my mouse, with my palm on the desk and fingers on the mouse I believe this is called the "claw". So try hitting those buttons when your playing a FPS game. If your ring and pinkey are not touching the mouse their trying to find the side buttons how is your mouse stabilized? How will you have control with only your thumb, index and middle finger holding the mouse? If they moved these two buttons down a little maybe it would be better.Dirty- The metallic plastic finish, although pretty, gets dirty so easily. I am baffled how. I wash my hands before I get on my computer, I also dont eat anything while on my computer and every now and then will use some Purell hand sanitizer on my hands. And yes still this grime has built up on the finish. I wipe it off with a tissue and there is no color so I am unsure whats going on here. Anyways thats the down low, its pretty and shiny but will get dirty.Sidenote- My Steelseries 6GV2 has already been RMA'ed so I am not impressed with Steelseries quality, The only thing that hasnt been RMA'ed is the Mousepad! Their expensive and market themselves to be the best however from my experience I wont be a repeat customer. I WISH I could just exchange the keyboard for a DAS Pro S. And since my Sensei is now acting up I am using my Logitech G9. I also have a Razer Deathaddler, and both of those companies have (in my experience) put out better products than Steelseries.BOTTOM LINE: So if you skipped all that text and want the skinny:Q- "Is this your current favourite mouse?"A- "No, I like the Logitech G9 better because its heavier and feels more natural to me"Q- "I cant decide! Steelseries or Razer?!"A- "I have never owned a Razer keyboard but I have had a Deathaddler for 6 years and that mouse STILL works. My Steelseries is not even two weeks old, and along with its keyboard brother is in the process of being RMA'ed. Razer products are also very shiny and very black, so they will be fingerprint magnets." My experiences with the company)So I hope this helped in any way. I am not saying unboxing videos and reviews are bad but they are indeed overhyped and biased. I thught you guys would like to hear it first from a actual owner. So whatever you decide do some research and talk to actual consumers.Good luck on the mouse hunt!ChrisIMPORTANT UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*********EDIT: 10/14/2011**********As of today I have demoted this mouse to a 2 star product. After I installed the Steelseries Engine I clicked "Steelseries Firmware Repair Tool" thinking it would fix my scroll wheel problem as I read online it might be driver related. This was a fatal mistake, during downloading of the firmware the program crashed. Now my mouse's LED keeps blinking blue. The scroll wheel and side buttons are all inoperable. The Steelseries Engine does not recognize my mouse. Now I cannot even click the "Firmware Repair Tool" it crashes the second it loads. I have had absolute terrible experience with the Steelseries company. I am a First and LAST time buyer. Christmas I am swapping the Steelseries 6GV2 for a Das or Filco, so if you guys are interested keep your eyes open for it on eBay in December. Nothing wrong with it but from my experience its a walking timebomb. (I will have to say Amazon did a great job with the RMA)Steelseries... You guys make freaking peripherals for Christ sake and (in my experience) fail even at that. For as advance as this Ubr-Mouse is it cant even click or scroll properly. Yes its got a cool finish and shiny lights but probably to hide the $5 Made In China POS that's underneath. I dont even want a RMA I just want this mouse out of my life and my money back. I have been very patient, understanding and optimistic so far but I am 2/2 with steelseries and I just about had it. Like I jokingly said all that remains to be RMA'ed is the mouse pad, watch that rip or something in the coming week. Then I really AM going to tear my hair out.Out of 18 components that make up my workstation these are the only two that have had problems. Go figure, what are the odds? And no I did not buy these from some shady company the Keyboard and Mouse where bought from Amazon by Amazon and Tigerdirect.So if you will excuse me I am going to go rummage for some Scotch and go find someone that will listen to me B**** while comforting me by patting my head. MAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!**********************EDIT 10/31 ********************Item is out of stock from the seller, they have already received my RMA but I dont feel like waiting any longer. I think I will just get a refund instead. With my refund money I do not know whether to try again with another Sensei from Amazon, or to get something entirely different. It is kind of dissapointing because I bought a Steelseries 6GV2 JUST to pair with the sensei mouse, If I was going to go RAT9 or Razer I would have bought a DAS, or BlackWidow keyboard accordingly...Steelseries support has offered to help me get a replacement, however my mouse is already at TigerDirect. My only criticism is that Steelseries support takes too long, I only have a 40 day return window and they take 1 week per response so I was pressed on time.****************************EDIT 11/2/11*******************So TigerDirect issued the refund as they for some reason do not carry the Sensei anymore...Maybe they had a bad batch and got a ton of RMA's who knows. Its kind of not fair because I never asked for a refund, I just wanted a exchange. They gave me a pre paied shipping label and I shipped it back to them and I got a refund MINUS shipping. Item was $90 and I only got $80 back. So at the end of the day after all this hassle they jip me for $10. It is undecided if I am going to try again with another Sensei or not. Conclusion- TigerDirect I wont be buying anything from again, and Steelseries support needs to hurry the heck up with answering questions. I kind of wish I did a RMA through them but they take a week per response.*****************Final Update 11/5/2011****************************Got my new Sensei from Amazon. So far so good. During its RMA period I did miss the Sensei, I guess its just got that kind of charm. After coming back to the Sensei after a 3 week break when I used my G9 I can feel the difference in smoothness. Then again my Logitech was a G9 not a G9X with its new lazer so it was not very fair. I am going to bump this back up to 4 stars. I think the RAT7 might offer what I am looking for in a mouse, I really like the pinky rest idea as my fingers do scrape against the mat. I will compare the mouses to see who gets my 5 star rating and update accordingly.Thanks,ChrisIMPORTANT! 11/9/2011*******************************************************************RE: Once again, I have run into another problem. Ok at this point I am really starting to get ticked off. Just when I thought FINALLY all is done, I get another problem. My mouse for some reason seems to get stuck, the point that is, when I scroll very slowly. Sometimes, not all the time, but enough to annoy you when it does happen. I would just be browsing around online moving my mouse slowly around and I notice my pointer gets snagged, starts to "shake" a little or sometimes refuses to move. If I rapidly move my mouse around it seems to fix the problem. I did some tests, tried to SLOWLY move my mouse in a straight line and it would wobble up and down all over the place. Now personally I am infurated, its a bloody mouse for Christ's sake, that cost $100. It boasts so much ground breaking technology and yet in practicality fails at doing the simplest thing a $5 mouse can do. If I cannot get this resolved soon I will be RMAi-ng the Sensei for the SECOND TIME back to Amazon for a refund. Go ahead and knock me AGAIN for a $10 shipping fee I dont care. If Steelseries support cannot get this fixed in a timely manner I will just buy a RAT7 or another Razer, as the mouse I bought from them 6 years ago still works flawlessly. I am extremely unimpressed from my initial experiences with the Steelseries company. Go ahead and hate fanboys I couldn't care less.Edit- some of you might say, oh thats because the surface is dirty or you need a good mouse pad. Hey guess what I am using a Steelseries QCK+ so shove it fan boys. I have joked around that the MOUSE PAD is the only thing I own from Steelseries that has yet BROKEN upon further inspection the seams wherre my wrist wrests often is beginning to flay but thats another review for another page. I was going to buy a gold and black Steelseries Sibebria V2 for myself on X-mas but that seems very unlikely at the moment.
