GGL Wire

Upon its announcement, many dismissed the new Microsoft Sidewinder Mouse as an ugly, gimmick-ridden excuse for a pointing device. The mouse certainly has its quirks, but is it good enough to replace your current gaming mouse?

We put the Sidewinder through its paces to find out.

The Shape and Feel

Coming in at 2.98×5.07in (75.7×106.33mm), the Sidewinder is large and in charge. Its elongated body will pose a problem for wrist-mouse users, so let’s just come out and say this now: If you like to use your wrist (instead of your arm) to move your mouse around, and have average size hands, pass on the Sidewinder. You won’t be able to reach the mouse wheel or side buttons.

The back of the Sidewinder has a distinct hump that’s designed to fit into your palm. I find the palm grip uncomfortable to begin with, so whether or not the hump is good will depend on your definition of a good grip. I can’t give a mouse a bad review for something I just arbitrarily don’t like, after all…

On top, the Sidewinder features a mostly texture-less plastic, but the sides are composed of a slightly rubberized plastic to aid your grip. This is becoming standard on gaming mice so I’m definitely not surprised.

Underneath, we see the sensor placed near the front, surrounded by five interchangeable mouse feet. The Sidewinder comes with three different sets of feet, all offering a different level of friction.

One last note on the shape of the Sidewinder: Its odd slopes and jagged corners serve absolutely no purpose. It’s certainly visually striking, but I can’t see the need for these sort of mouse designs. My hand spends its time on the mouse, obscuring the view. Hard corners, lights, and electrode side buttons are totally useless.

The good news is that they don’t hinder performance in any way, either. They just make everyone go “0mg that mouse is ugly!”

Buttons

Five regular buttons is the standard for gaming mice, and the Sidewinder adheres to that standard. The two main buttons offer a nice, solid click to them, and can be triggered well towards the back of the mouse. Again, like many gaming mice, the Sidewinder’s top is one single piece, so you don’t know where the buttons end–if you practice some more esoteric grips, you’ll like the ability to trigger the buttons from the rear.

The side buttons resemble Frankenstein monster-style electrodes jutting out of the side of the mouse. They’re set up this way to make it hard to hit them accidentally, and Microsoft certainly succeeded at that. Unfortunately, the small surface used to trigger the side buttons makes them hard to hit in general. Their placement, too, ensures that only arm-grip users will be able to use them.

Thankfully, the mousewheel doesn’t tilt from side to side. Tiltwheels are good for scrolling, but when it comes to gaming, they make it hard to hit the wheel button itself. Good job, MS!

The Sidewinder’s configurable DPI buttons sit just behind the wheel. With three buttons in all, you can switch back and forth to your heart’s content. When you do switch, the built-in LCD changes, displaying your current setting. You should be able to tell just by the speed what setting you’re on, but hey, there it is.

Drivers

At this point, Microsoft’s Intellipoint drivers should be familiar to just about everyone. They haven’t changed much; the only addition is a “Sensitivity” tab that allows you to configure your DPI settings. As always, the Intellipoint drivers let you independently bind each of the five main mouse buttons to a number of actions or single keypresses.

Make sure you don’t accidentally set one of the buttons to trigger a macro, or else your computer will go nuts and start typing words and clicking on its own. For a minute there, I thought I was in Poltergeist VI.

There’s not much new in the driver arena here, so let’s move on to the real meat and potatoes of the review.

Misc.

The Sidewinder comes with its own cord controlling device. The case for the weights and replacement feet doubles as a wire management tool–just route the cord through the case and close it. It’s heavy enough on its own that your cord shouldn’t be tangled up with anything in the future.

Courage Under Fire

Unfortunately, I have some bad news to report. Despite its alleged max acceleration of 20G and max speed of 45in/s, the mouse will skip if flung across the mousepad. I tested the Sidewinder using my standard Razer Mantis Speed pad, which is a rebranded Everglide cloth mat.

In reality, it’s doubtful that those who use medium/high sensitivities will ever move the mouse fast enough to make it skip in game. I never ran into the issue in-game, and I use a medium sensitivity while playing FPS titles.

Despite the odd shape of the Sidewinder, it’s still usable (just not optimal) for wrist-mouse players. I was pleasantly surprised with the control, and I think it has something to do with the sensor placement. The further toward the palm the sensor is, the more arm motions you need to use. If the sensor is far away from the palm, wrist articulation can be used to great effect. That’s what’s going on here.

In terms of accessories, the default hard plastic feet (black) are adequate, but aren’t as smooth as traditional teflon. In the end, the grey and white feet didn’t feel much different to me, but were noisier (again, on a cloth pad). I, like most players, prefer a large amount of teflon on the mouse, and I was disappointed that the mouse doesn’t come with any.

I preferred not to use any of the optional weights in the Sidewinder, because they go into the right side of the mouse in the rear. It just felt a little bit off-center for me with the weights. I’ll come out and say that I’ve never been a big fan of weighted mice anyway, so that worked out well.

Overall, I feel the Sidewinder is a great mouse for users who put their palm directly on the mouse. I don’t like the looks, but that’s a minor concern–I never find myself admiring any mouse. Ultimately, a mouse is useful only if it’s comfortable, and the Sidewinder will be most comfortable to players who really manhandle the mouse in-game.