Cooler Master has entered the gaming mice market last year, perhaps in a shy way, but definitely unexpectedly. After a very successful debut model, they've decided to stick to the route, and a year later, we've got the successor, named Inferno. At first glance, it seems that all troubles that plagued the first iteration (if any) have been rectified, giving us a seemingly fantastic mouse.
Spartan is the best word for describing the packaging of Cooler Master's Inferno. The box, mouse, installation CD – what more do you really need? No carrying pouches and the like this time around. The small box, large just enough to carry the two previously mentioned components, is dominantly red and black. Indicative, as it turned out, since as soon as you connect the mouse to the PC via USB, the mouse will start glowing red.
 |
 |
Inferno looks “wicked” at first (journalist standards restrain us from using a more picturesque term), and we secretly hoped that it would be the way it performs as well. The first positive thing is that the mouse is fully functional right after connecting it to a USB port – no additional drivers are required for enabling advanced functions. Furthermore, a plethora of buttons at pretty much ideal positions state clearly that this is no ordinary mouse. The standard back & forward keys are there, with the “Storm Tactics Multiplier Key” right behind them, the key that'll enable you to assign any of the 32 unique functions it offers. The red LED indicators are placed right above, five of them in fact, giving feedback on the currently selected DPI sensitivity setting. The central part, behind the wide scroll wheel (twice the width of an ordinary one), houses an entire three buttons, two of which are programmable as the user desires, while the third one is in charge of on-the-fly profile selection, the profiles themselves being saved on 128 KB of available memory inside the mouse itself. The scroll is, in a word, fantastic – it's been a while since we've seen a scroll wheel with this sort of precision. The ends of the left and right mouse buttons contain Rapid Fire Tactical and Advanced MacroPro buttons. The mouse buttons themselves are perfectly fast and precise as well. The very front of the mouse, in the section where the mouse is connected to the cable, there are several horizontal openings (similar to ventilation ones), where the red light diffuses from the inside; this can be turned off if needed. Although most of the mouse body is rubber-coated – in order to provide a better grip – the back of the mouse is glossy, and contains a Storm logo, also with red lighting, which can be turned off as well if needed. The bottom is reserved for a double laser sensor with a maximum sensitivity of 4000 DPI, which is more than enough for any conceivable scenario.
