In addition to launching the Challenger Edge membrane gaming keyboard earlier this week, Tt eSports, a division of Thermaltake, injected a new entry into its Level 10 family of gaming mice, the Level 10 M Advanced Laser Gaming Mouse. While the name seems rather long for a peripheral, what makes it stand out in the crowded gaming mouse market is that it sports an Avago 9800 laser sensor capable of up to a crazy 16,000 DPI.
Now, if you’re new to the gaming mouse market and have no idea what we’re talking about, just remember that the higher the number, the more sensitive the mouse movement can get. DPI simply means dots per inch, and when you crank that number up, the cursor flies across the screen even when your actual hand movement is minimal. Lower that sensor speed, and you have to swipe in huge loops to make any headway.
DPI is important in PC gaming, especially when players love to hide in bushes or rooftops and take the heads off their enemies with one sniper shot. And because this mouse relies on a laser sensor, the peripheral can be used on just about any surface, unlike optical sensors that seemingly demand a flat surface with a solid color. Thus, the new mouse not only provides high precision, but it should track your every hand move without any hiccups.
The specifications of the new Tt eSports mouse show that owners can adjust the sensitivity on-the-fly by simply hitting a button: 400, 800, 1,600, 3,200, and higher. This allows the gamer to have an extremely precise aim in one instant, and then quickly switch to more general, less-precise movement a moment later. This mouse is intelligently powered by an ARM-based 32-bit micro-controller, with 64KB of flash memory.
The new mouse uses high-quality switches supplied by Omron, a company widely known for its durable, reliable products. These switches promise a lifetime of 50 million clicks. For the general consumer, that means you’ll likely never see a switch failure.
The new mouse should stand out thanks to a unique honeycomb design to keep the user’s hand cool during long marathons. There’s no built-in fan, but this design should be somewhat better than sweating on a full hard shell that offers absolutely no ventilation. There’s also a re-designed right side grip (nope, not for you, lefties), a base-plate mounted on the left, a 2D-Steering Axis system for adjusting the peripheral’s angle and height, and an overall lighter weight when compared to the previous Level 10 M mouse.
Finally, the new mouse comes packed with a neat RGB illumination system that supports 16.8 million colors. Because the mouse contains 256K of on-board memory, customers can load up the company’s dedicated software on a PC and program colors and lighting effects on three separate zones residing on the peripheral. That said, lighting configurations, macros, DPI adjustments, and up to five separate profiles can be saved directly to the mouse.
The Level 10 M Advanced Laser Gaming Mouse isn’t all that expensive, costing a surprising $70. It’s available now in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Australia.