 "SteelSeries Ikari Laser Gaming Mouse")
Gaming peripherals have come a long way with hardcore gamers always looking for the perfect device to master those kills. Be it a headset, surface or mouse, gamers are always on the lookout for the best hardware available in the market to fit their gaming needs.
Steel Series is slowly making its mark in manufacturing quality professional gaming gear. Initially, Steel Series created state of the art gaming headphones and gaming surfaces (mouse pads). Of late they have stepped up to create gaming mice. The company based in Denmark, boasts creating hardware from the inputs of professional gamers.
With their latest entry in the gaming mice category, Steel series claims that the Ikari laser gaming mouse was a result of 15 months of extensive research of ergonomics, motion, grip and player styles. And along with the inputs and suggestions of professional gamers from SK gaming, Fnatic and mibr, they developed, what is now known as the best gaming mouse available.
So does the Ikari live up to what went into its making? Let’s take a look.
Body and Feel
To start off with, I must say, the Steel Series Ikari looks super cool. Shaped like any other gaming mouse, the Ikari packs a five button layout and the smooth matte finish gives the mouse a comfortable feel and grip. The left, right and the centre scroll buttons are accompanied by two thumb buttons and an additional button to adjust the CPI/sensitivity. The two thumb buttons are perfectly placed, the scroll feels smooth and the scroll button has an excellent response. The left and right buttons too are very sensitive.
Considering that the shape and specifications were made with inputs from professional gamers, I was a bit uncomfortable with the right button (right click). The right button is a bit longer than the left button due to its inverted curve and has a marginally raised end. Personally, I found this very uncomfortable for long use. My finger didn’t rest properly on the right button, though the mouse fit perfectly in my palm. The mouse is designed only for the right handed.
Features
The Ikari has four large feet/skates under the mouse. Smooth and evenly balanced, they make the mouse feel fluid on any surface. It also features an LCD screen at the bottom for CPI settings. Ikari is a simple plug and play mouse weighing a mere 400g.
Ikari senses up to 3,200 CPI and lets you store two CPI values in the mouse, which you can toggle with a single click of the CPI button. CPI stands for Counts per inch, which basically has the same functionality as DPI or Dots per inch. The two profiles, High and Low can be toggled by simply pressing the CPI button. The mouse indicates which value you are on through two LEDs found on the left side of the mouse.
Changing the CPI value of high and low is very easy. Press and hold the CPI button until the LCD at the bottom reads Low: xxxx or high: xxxx. Using the scroll wheel so can set the desired CPI value and once again press the CPI button to save. All this can be done without installing the software.
So is this feature useful? Definitely YES.
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Performance
Steel Series claims that the Ikari laser is not meant for FPS games as they say it might have tracking issues on faster hand movement. It will have better use in MMO or RTS games as players require higher precision on a higher sensitivity. On installing the software, you can assign macro to any mouse button, edit the high and low CPI values and adjust Free Move. So what is Free Move? Free Move is a user-defined level of control given to the mouse or kept to yourself for producing precise movements. In simple words, when you try to draw a ‘free hand’ straight line in paint, it’s never straight. With the help of free move, you can draw straighter lines, free hand.
So to prove its claims of being a gaming mouse, there is no better way to check the performance but by playing games. I played a number of adrenalin pumped, fast paced FPS’s like Quake 3, Painkiller, UT3 and CS. The mouse performed extremely well in quake 3 and UT3. I was able to execute all strafes and the mouse had no tracking issues whatsoever. Playing CS with Ikari was a real pleasure. Competent use of the Free Move for aiming was brilliant and the responsive buttons made playing CS an absolute treat. In MMO, RTS and RPG, the mouse performed even well. One really has to play around with the CPI and the Free Move to get the best setting for themselves. This is not by any means a disadvantage. The settings give you a better control and feel, hence resulting in a better gaming experience altogether.
Conclusion
After testing the mouse with so many games, i come back to the issue of the ergonomics of the right button. Using the mouse for consecutive hours, my hand was a bit sore from the experience. But more than this, the Ikari loses out on its price tag. Steel Series Ikari Laser Gaming Mouse sells at Rs. 6,599, which is very overpriced for this mid level mouse.
Specifications for Steel Series Ikari Laser:
• Samples per second: 40.000
• Inches per second: 50
• Counts per inch: 1 - 3.200 (one CPI Steps)
• Acceleration: 20 G
• Sensor data path: True 16 bit
• Lift distance: 1,8 mm (0,07 inch)
• Buttons: 5
• Cord: 2 m / 6,5 ft (braided to improve durability)
• Polling: 1000 Hz
• Gold-plated USB connector
• Measurements: 130 x 83 x 36 mm / 5,1 x 3,3 x 1,4 in
• CPI high/low indicator
• SteelSeries FreeMove Technology
• Large pressure points that reduce friction for optimized glide
• Driverless, plug-and-play feature for LAN gamers
• Operating systems: Win XP/Vista/Win 7/Win 2000/Win 98/Win ME/Mac OSX