Black Ops II Mouse
As a fan of SteelSeries’s previous mice including the Xai and the Sensei, when I saw the Black Ops II mouse it was clear right away that they used a combination of the Xai and the Sensei RAW, just like the Diablo III mouse. From what I can tell, this mouse uses the same Avago 9500 sensor that all of the other Xai and Sensei based mice use, this means that you can expect a little negative acceleration, but this is still my preferred sensor due to its feel and the lack of issues that the popular twin eye sensors have. So when it came to testing the mouse’s performance it was exactly as I expected, in fact my first couple rounds in Black Ops II didn’t go very well for me, I stopped and opened up the Black Ops II mouse and saw a noticeable improvement, simply because it’s a design that I have gamed on for years.
The shape and button layout on the Black Ops II Mouse is the exact same as the Xai and Sensei as well. This is the shape that really sets the SteelSeries mice apart from everyone else, because of that I was happy to see they didn’t change it. At first glance the shape doesn’t look like anything at all. That’s what makes it great, without any major gadgets sticking off of it, you have a perfectly balanced shape that works in your left or right hand. Each side of the mouse has two buttons and then you have the CPI adjustment button behind the scroll wheel. The button layout works perfect for me, my thumb lands perfectly in between them and I don’t have to worry about bumping any other buttons like on other mice that pack more on just to market a higher button count.
Much like the Sensei RAW this mouse has lighting on the scroll wheel as well as the back of the mouse and each is adjustable in the software. There isn’t an LCD screen on the bottom of the mouse to drive the costs up as well. Speaking of the lighting, they went with orange lighting on this one. It looks great with the design on the top of the mouse. I would like it a little more if it didn’t have the bright white Black Ops II logo on the trigger, but without it this couldn’t very well be called the Black Ops II Mouse could it?
Last but not least we have the software. This once again uses the SteelSeries Engine but if you want the artwork that matches your mouse you will need to make sure to download the version specific to the Black Ops II Mouse. I hope they change this in the future, I would love to see it build in all of the skins for every mouse/headset or at least allow you to just download the skins and game specific key bindings as well. I know this is an issue that is going to bother me as a reviewer more than the average user, because I am constantly installing new SteelSeries products, but it just seems like the natural progression of their already great software. What if you had the Diablo 3 headset and the Black Ops 2 mouse, you are going to have to pick what theme you run and download it specifically. You can’t just swap out themes.
All in all it’s a great mouse, just like all of the Sensei RAW and the game specific models. If you are a fan of black and orange this would be up your ally, or Call of Duty fans as well. It’s not going to be for everyone, but that is why you have models for multiple games along with vanilla variations as well.