As we mentioned earlier, SteelSeries direct us to their website to download the ‘SteelSeries Engine' software rather than include it on a software CD. Including download, the installation process takes less than five minutes. The software is available for both Windows and OS X.
When we open the software, we are initially presented with the button assignment page. We are able to configure the functions of the left, right and middle mouse buttons. There is also an inbuilt macro recorder which lets us configure custom macros for the different buttons. There is also an option to switch the mouse to ‘left-handed mode' which automatically swaps the mouse buttons around.
Clicking on the ‘Settings' tab at the top of the page brings up another page which lets us adjust the sensitivity and polling rate of the mouse. SteelSeries use the acronym ‘CPI' rather than the more generally used ‘DPI' for sensitivity which stands for counts per inch rather than dots per inch but they essentially mean the same thing. We are able to configure two different CPI levels on this page which are switchable using the button behind the mouse wheel. Each of these can be set to 400, 800, 1600 or 3200 CPI.
The third page of the software allows us to set different configuration profiles to automatically activate when certain applications are launched. The profiles can easily be configured on any page of the software as the left hand sidebar stays the same. On the fourth and final page of the software we are able to view some statistics about the usage of the mouse.
Silver is definately nicer looking. my sensei in silver however is starting to look grotty now.
I need a new mouse, but this seems about the right price point for me. I was looking at some of the high end mice and they are over £100 now? WTF!