Cooler Master. Enclosures, coolers, fans, even PSUs. All of these, segments where they set new standards, one might say. However, about two years ago, they bit well into another major market segment - gaming mice. They went in very offensively, with the intention of presenting the Cooler Master Storm series to the widest gaming audience, particularly the Sentinel model, the heir to which we’re now reviewing. At first sight, one might ask - so where are the advancements? But let’s have a more thorough look...
We’ve just mentioned the Sentinel model, the predecessor of this one. Well, the new one has kept the name, adding “Z3RO-G” to the name, and quite understandably, as there is very little visual difference between the two. As for colour, grey is dominant here, but that’s about the most striking difference as far as the visuals go. The likeable OLED display signalling the currently selected DPI value (or your clan logo/mouse profile) has been kept. LEDs are all around the place here as well, which leaves numerous options for customisation using the accompanying software. An entire seven colours is at your disposal for this. Behind the aforementioned OLED display, there are two buttons to change mouse sensitivity on-the-fly, and in front of it, the exceptionally precise two-way scroll wheel, as well as a profile selection button (created by you). Of course, the standard left and right mouse buttons have fantastic response and are very precise and “quick”. For a mouse in this price range, back and forward buttons are a given, and they’re situated perfectly, being right at the fingertip, with an excellent, quiet press.
As this mouse is ergonomically adjusted to right-handed users, there’s a thumb rest under the back/forward buttons; not only does it improve on the visual impression, but it actually has an ergonomic purpose, with the thumb perfectly resting as supposed to, therefore raising the ergonomics grade of this mouse to the highest. Personalisation doesn’t end with colour choice, though - you have five weights on the bottom, each weighing 4.5 grams, so that you can customise the weight of the mouse as a whole. The factory configuration for the mouse is with all weights placed inside the mouse, probably because there’s no weight-carrying box or bag, as is the case with Logitech’s G9x. Running all this is a double laser sensor with a resolution of 5600 DPI, which guarantees maximum precision, at least on paper.
The production quality is the best possible; the mouse doesn’t become slippery even after hours of use, instead keeping the perfect grip. Its sheer size seems to favour users with big hands.
