Overall
So after it’s all said and done is the Sensei an improvement over the Xai? The ARM alone is a major improvement but the improved scroll wheel and software also are nice. They kept everything that was great about the Xai and improved on the rest.
The only thing that bothers me about the Sensei is its use of lighting. To be fair, I love lighting on most of my products including mice. The problem I have with is Steel Series’s history. More than once we have sat down with Kim Rom and others from SteelSeries and had them explain (very convincingly) how they are different than Razer because they focus on the features that professional gamers need to win and they avoid the use of and unneeded lighting and flashy features. Because of that the Xai was very subtle and only had the one white light. Please don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed programing the LanOC colors onto the Sensei and think it’s a very attractive mouse. It’s just the use of lighting, although not bad, feels out of place on a SteelSeries product. In a way I feel like they jumped the shark.
Even with that opinion, it’s clear that the Sensei is an amazing mouse with absolutely no issues at all. I can’t wait to load up our LanOC Reviews profile and take it out to a few LANs before the end of this year. You couldn’t ask for a better replacement for the Xai. Job well done SteelSeries, you really have your work cut out for when you try to improve on this one in the future.