Hardware Microsoft Sidewinder Mouse

Thanks Joe, I'll not waste my time w/ Mr. Ugly. I saw it again @ Fry's last night and it's absolutely hideous for a mouse. It looks like a rat!

 

Alright alright...

I have had it with the bashing of this mouse and especially by those who have never touched it. Which is probably most of you. This is not that bad of mouse, it's great actually. It is really all about preference most of the time.....

I beta tested this mouse for oh...a month awhile back and was completely surprised at the level of research and care that went into making this mouse. Little things like all the suggestions not to have a tilt wheel were actually taken seriously and put into many a survey. When I was first handed the mouse. Yeah it looked really goofy. I was like "No way is this the final design". Jeesh. I was wrong. Tonight I was handed the mouse for free for participating.

The back and forward buttons are great, the construction is amazingly solid. This mouse also simply has the most amazing scroll wheel ever. It's heavy, solid, doesn't slip, and all at the same time has that satisfying "click" but can be super fast if your browsing documents. The DPI on the fly is just as good as the G5 series from Logitech and so is the weight system. One advantage over the G5 though is that the laser or whatever it is, is in the center of where it is positioned. This is one thing that Razer has always had right. The mouse feels a little odd in my palm with that slight hump in the back but it's not annoying or painful. And the advantage of how it's ergonomically designed is that I can use my whole hand or my fingers. It also has support for your pinky which is great. The ability to somewhat customize the DPI is way nice (using intellimouse though) and then the teflon pads being interchangeable is awesome. Hopefully the will sell replacements. This is a very nice feature. Any of you guys go through the experience of buying and installing new ones? Bleh. Damn corepad!

This is my mouse of preference so far unless I find something annoying (as I just really started using it) I was surprised by the final product. Of course I would have never bought this mouse because the G5 revision 2 is pretty much the same thing. But I like this guy more. The scroll wheel is the best, and it's glide is faster on my mouse surface of choice.

I stress this:

If your looking at the G5 take a look at the sidewinder too. It does look a little odd but it performs just as well, and has some extra goodies like the tie-down to hold the extra feet and weights. The G5 has that nice rope chord though....So I mean if aesthetics are everything (yeah I am kinda guilty here...typing on an Enermax aurora) then I guess this mouse sucks for you.

This is a solid mouse. The mice that I have owned are:

- G5
- G5 rev.2
- MX518
- G9 Laser (This and the sidewinder win I think for most new hated mouse lol)
- G3
- Lots of Intellimouse's I currently have the 3.0 edition.
- MS track mouse. The one with the ball in the middle.
- Razer Boomslang
- Razer Viper
- Razer Krait
- Razer Diamondback
- Razer DeathAdder
- Razer Copperhead
- Razer/Micrsoft Habu


I list all that just to show you where I am coming from. I don't have the largest hands though. So keep that in mind.
And you bet your ass I will want my hands on the new Razer Lachesis! The anniversary edition of the boomslang, meh I will pass. My brother and I both buy mice. So thats why the list is large. He still uses the diamond back and prefers it over all. lol.

To the reviewer: I think giving a lower score over the software is kinda wack. Razer has software and so does Logitech. Razer has the worst drivers and software ever and Logitech is really bad in comparison to MS's simple intellipoint solution. The nice part about intellipoint is that it is built into the UI for mouse configuration in windows. It's nothing extra and doesn't have a little annoying icon in the system tray. Also you only need the software if you want to set up those macros or change the DPI thats it so you do not have to use it. The G5 you needed software to use the scroll wheel tilt. With out it, it wouldn't scroll for me. Or with the razer mice..bah don't even get me started on the razer software.

I will admit that I am in the same camp with most of you; in that the Logitech G5 and MX518 have been the best mice ever. Razer makes great mice but they do one aspect great but REALLY screw up something else. Whether it was the position of the buttons or how your fingers are angled etc.

The sidewinder has come a little late. But don't judge a book by it's cover. Again if you are looking at the G5 look at the sidewinder. They really are that similar. Find out which one feels better. The biggest downfall is how this mouse looks, but you get used to it. And your not really staring at it, your staring at your monitor. It really isn't ugly in your hand, or on your desk. But blown up with a white background uhm, Yeah it really isn't art.

 

Changing mouse pads blow. My MX518's def slicker w/ the hyperglides, but now it's uneven.

Do you prefer laser or led? How's the tracking compared w/ the DeathAdder vs MX518? Does your hand feel comfy and cool like the MX or sweaty and warm like the DA?

Thanks!

 

at my first glance, this mouse was look so unconfortable w/ its huge sized (especialy at the rear end section), but after a few week using this mouse, i felt it was better design than thin & low rear end of the razer's cooperhead, considered my finger is longer than average length, so i could grabbed the mouse entirely w/ my palm even though i often controlling the mouse w/ my finger too, but i've no longer dealing w/ my wrist fatique anymore which so oftenly occured w/ the cooperhead.

the dpi switching method is the briliant breakthrough from microsoft, considered we wont using all available choice of sensivity through a game, it only left 3 dpi preset button w/ 3 different sensitivity setting which could be customished at your own favour, just like cooperhead, the customized setting will remembered and you can moving this sidewinder mouse to another rig without loosing your favourite configuration.

my only complain is the design of its mousefeet which consisted of 5 removable feet, even they gave 3 set of a different material, i dont feel the sidewinder w/ all 5 feet installed is confortable w/ my thermaltake taichi M2 mousepad, so i decided to give it a try installing only 3 mouse feet and its works great w/ my mouse controlling behaviour, thanks to microsoft for the removable mousefeet design, it was not only the material which can be customable but the amount of the mousefeet is customable too...

overall.....this was a great mouse for me, but i dont want to recommend sidewinder mouse to anyone w/ short fingers, especialy to anyone one w/ dwarf sized finger....LOL =))

 

I would like to have your opinion about this mouse to. What do people think about this mouse compared to the Ikari. The Sidewinder gets 6 compared to Ikari's 10.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/01/06/steel_series_ikari_mouse_and_sp_mousemat/2

What do you guys think?

 

Use of Tools

well, uhm, i wouldnt think i'm a noob, i've used a normal basic MS optical mouse for over 4 years now, i just got the SW for xmas from my GF and i really don't think that it's for "noob" in general, everybody gets used to thier tools, if you've been using a G5/9 for a while now your obviously used to your controls and the feel of the mouse, -like i'm now getting used to the SW-

On a serious note.... i'll take anyone on with my Basic MS optical mouse in any game...