Here I am again, finally stepping into the 21st century. I recently got broadband Internet for the first time, getting my first cell phone and cutting my land line at the same time. I bought a plasma television and a DVD recorder for my living room. After all this wonderful new tech, I realized that I needed to upgrade what is arguably one of the most-used pieces of hardware in my home: my mouse. For this, I turned to the people at Cyber Snipa...more.
I recall I thought I was bleeding edge when I bought a mouse with a wheel. It clicked and acted as a third button! Only recently did I realize just how ridiculous it was to keep using it. Thanks to modders and gamers like us, there are a huge variety of mice for us to choose from; everything from old-school ball mice to optical to laser, a hundred different shapes to fit your hand, mice for lefties and righties, mice that fit both, mice with lights and switches and just about as many buttons as you can ask. Really, some of the options available in a mouse today are just silly, but you know what? That's OK. I can do silly with the best.
To start on my new journey of comfort and control, I chose the Silencer laser mouse from Cyber Snipa. From the research I did, it seemed to have all of the features I was looking for and then some, and the price was reasonable as well, not surprising coming from Xoxide.
Shipping was quick, as I've come to expect from these guys, and the package arrived in fine shape. Opening it up, I knew right away that I this was not the generic mouse I had been using:
The package includes the Silencer mouse, instruction manual, software disc, weights, and a second grip for the right side of the mouse, offering a different shape and feel for the user.
Of course as soon as the thing was out of the box I had to wrap my hand around it, and the fit is amazing. I have large hands, and the recent trend in mice seems to be toward the subatomic, so the size of the Silencer was a large factor in my decision.
The top of the Silencer includes the wheel, which has a superb feel to it, with a soft rubber grip embedded in the center of it and a good solid click on the downward stroke, as well as the side-scrolling feature. The wheel has positive detents in it, so it's not free-wheeling, but they are exceptionally well done, easy to scroll over but also solid enough to do their job. The main buttons on the mouse are also nearly perfect, having enough travel to feel solid but making very little noise when used. The downward curve on each button is nice as well, and the texture doesn't slip but also doesn't feel sticky.
Also on the top are two buttons: Mode and Lift. I'll get more into the Mode button in a bit, but the Lift button's usefulness is questionable to me. According to the manual, by pressing and holding this button while moving the mouse around on the mousing surface the height at which the mouse disengages when it is lifted is "optimized". Note that it can't be adjusted or controlled, merely set to what someone decided was optimal. Again, I'm not sure how useful this feature is, but then again I don't use the 5000 DPI setting either. Perhaps the cyborgs with the eyesight and reflexes to use settings like that will find the Lift feature handy.
The left side is a little more complex. Right above the thumb are forward and back buttons, very useful in web browsing and viewing and sorting pictures. These are harder to depress than the standard buttons, but that's as it should be. Along with their placement on a sharp ridge above the thumb, this will help prevent accidental activation.
Also on the left side, down low at the bottom of the mouse is a DPI selector switch. There are four settings available; 400, 800, 1600 and 3200 by default, but this can be set as high as 5000 DPI. That's way too touchy for me, but the range is excellent. This is one of those features that I never thought about but now that I have it I use it a lot. There are four blue indicator bars clearly visible just below the left button to show you which DPI setting you are currently in.
The other feature on the left side ties in with the Mode button I mentioned earlier. The Silencer will store up to seven different profiles in its on-board memory, each represented by a mode. When the Mode button is pressed, a small light in front of the DPI-setting indicator changes color to indicate which mode is currently active. These modes can store an incredible array of macro scripts, all user-recordable and customizable to the smallest degree. Movement, duration, key up, key down, click commands, mouse button release commands, scrolling commands, and even the number of times to run each macro when activated; all of these are available with the Silencer. Custom DPI settings can be saved to each of the four available "slots" on the DPI switch, from 100 to the aforementioned insane 5000. The DPI can even be set for the X and Y axes independently. This is truly a mouse to make your own.
Another way to customize your Silencer mouse from Cyber Snipa is weight. It comes with an internal removable tray that holds up to six weights, included in their own canister. Each weight is 4.9 grams, so a total of 29.4 grams can be added to the overall weight of the mouse. I personally found it too heavy with any of the weights in place but again, this mouse is all about the individual.
The last customizing option on this mouse is the right-hand grip. It ships with two: one seen in the initial pic with a simple curve, and a second with a two-step shape to support the fingers individually. To be honest I wasn't completely certain that this mouse was for me until I added this second grip. The difference was immediate. It just fits my hand better.
Notice the white strip below the Cyber Snipa name? That's a red LED. It's a very bright red LED, and it pulsates, dimming down to nothing and back to full brightness every five seconds. It's destractingly bright, but thankfully when the mouse is in use your hand will be in the way. It does look cool pulsating on your desk, if you're into that kind of thing.
Of course with all of these customizable options, there has to be software, both to make it all work and to allow the user to mange the dizzying array of possibilities presented. The folks at Cyber Snipa have done an excellent job here. The software installs quickly, doesn't seem to slow down startup at all, and is both beautiful and very easy to use. The instruction manual follows these same lines, printed in clear English with very good illustrations. A couple of screenshots of the included software:
How does the Silencer laser gaming mouse stack up for me?
Pros:- Comfortable
- Responsive
- Intuitive controls
- Incredibly customizable
- Switch-on-the-fly DPI adjustment
Cons:
Verdict:
The Silencer laser mouse from Cyber Snipa is one of the best tools I've had the pleasure of using. Its size, design and potential for customization make it an easy choice.
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