ROCCAT KONE Pure Core Gaming Mouse

The mouse works fine plug and play yet with the driver the mouse becomes much more useful. The mouse scales to 8200 dpi yet I would never use it at that level. Way too high for me as I won't go any higher than 3000. You can customize 5 DPI settings that can be toggled with the + and - buttons behind the mouse wheel. There are forward/backward buttons on the side. The backwards button is by default used as a toggle to hold for the other buttons to have another function. You can change that as well as any other button. I switched the easy-shift button to the forward button since that is my resting position for my thumb. I mapped the scroll wheel up and down with the easy-shift button down to do next/previous for media players. Easy shift +/- I set to up the system volume up and down. Left/right click with easy-shift I set as button 8/9 which also serve as back and forward at least in Linux, not sure about Windows. The polling rate is consistently at 1000 Hz which you can also lower. There is a sensitivity adjustment which you can toggle it to be able to adjust the x and y axis separately if you're into that. You can create 5 profiles for your mouse and store them in your mouse or backup to file. The profiles stored in the mice can be toggled by whatever you buttons you choose. There is a cool lighted animal thing on the back of the mouse that you can change the color of, have it fade in and out at varying rates, or have it solid on or off, and it also lights up when you click the easy-shift button. Comparing the Linux open source driver to the Windows one, I haven't noticed any difference in functionality. The main difference I noticed was that the Windows one is flashy and busy looking. I prefer the look of the Linux one. It may be grey and look unremarkable, but it is a lot easier to look at for me. The software is robust and I'm very pleased with it. I specifically bought this mouse because of the availability of a proper Linux driver with a competent GUI. The size of the thing is pretty good. I'd say good for medium size hands. If you're hands are only like an inch away from palming a basketball, I think this would be a good size. I'd prefer if it was centimetre longer but it's longer and taller than my previous mouse and a lot more comfortable. The material of the mouse is pretty nice. It's not slippery and even if my hands get a bit sweaty, I can grip it easily. The cord is a braided cable so that should mean it is more robust, less likely to break. I generally never have that issue but it's a nice addition to show their quality. The sound of clicking the left/right buttons isn't horribly loud. This wasn't a problem for me until I bought a Microsoft wireless 3000 bluetrack mouse. That thing clicks way to loud. The scroll wheel wheels with the bumpy groove feeling rather than the silky smooth no feedback rolling which the Microsoft wireless 3000 bluetrack mouse has and I've grown to really dislike. The side buttons click well; they don't feel mushy as they feel just like the left and right mouse buttons. The + and - buttons require more force to push down but they as well aren't mushy and feel good. Overall the mouse feels wonderful and appear to be very well built. A huge upgrade over my ageing budget laser mouse. Years ago I bought a cheap $20 HP 2100 dpi laser mouse. It was serviceable and was the best mouse I had used but that was an upgrade over cheap $5 eBay optical mice and those ball mechanical mice. This mouse though is noticeably more reactive and now I notice how slow my previous mouse felt. On my old mouse I would play and in general use 2100 dpi which would occasionally feel a bit out of control, with this mouse I've lowered it down to 1800 dpi which even also at 2100 dpi feels a lot more consistent and predictable. I haven't experienced any jerky unexpected movement and I'm doing a lot better in CS:GO now. If you're buying Linux or dual-boot Linux with Windows, ROCCAT is the best choice because of the open source drivers. For competitive people that prefer optical, there are Optical versions of most of ROCCAT's mice including this one. It's more expensive but optical is supposed to be better for accuracy. I'm loving this mouse and in the future will probably continue with ROCCAT mice. If they made a keyboard as compact and minimal but with all the expected buttons like the Das Keyboard Model S, I'd be all over that. I've seen keyboards where keys light up momentarily after you push them, that would be pretty awesome to have and actually work with customization on Linux. update: I was on Windows and changed the DPI with the +/- button. When you do that it plays a audio of what DPI it is now at. The voice sounds like it's supposed to sound cool and gravelly voice. My reception on its success is mixed. It did scare initially as I had headphones on.