Microsoft SideWinder X8 Review
February 17, 2011 • Computer Reviews, Peripherals • Comments
Despite their cable-free convenience, wireless mice have a poor acceptance among serious PC gamers as a result of delay and the signal hiccups. feature-heavy Microsoft SideWinder X8 solves that problem with a hybrid design that you can swap almost seamlessly between wired and wireless connection. Throw in increased BlueTrack Microsoft sensor technology, a well-shaped design (for right handed people), and a handful of other functions, and the SideWinder X8 gaming mouse fits comfortably in the elite. Even at the suggested price of $ 99, the SideWinder X8 is a worthy addition to any gamer’s arsenal, but especially when you can find a little as $ 70 at Amazon.
The SideWinder X8 is an attractive, futuristic design that is smooth out the rough edges of a part of previous incarnations of the new generation of Microsoft SideWinder mouse. The X8 comes with a hard angled middle portion encapsulated by an elegant series of curves for each finger resting logical to offer. This design helps your hands fall into a natural grip. Keep the sidewinder in your left hand feels comfortable enough, but the two side buttons on the left side of the mouse were clearly tailored to your right thumb in mind.
Handers will appreciate the layout and design of the two side buttons. Like the earlier Sidewinders, the X8 thumb buttons are stacked, vertical layout. But instead of the older models’ rounded knobs, the X8 buttons on the side of the slope inwards, a crib for your thumb. This design allows you simply rock your thumb up and down to the buttons, to minimize the need for a discreet thumb movement that takes you from the primary control flow. That may sound insignificant to nongamers, but we expect the first-person shooting twitch crowd will approve.

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The X8 has two primary buttons perform as expected, but we do not like the metal scroll wheel. A cross-section of metal edges along the wheels are supposed to get some grip, but they do not get the job done, resulting in a less secure, soft feel to the scroll wheel on other mice.
The button layout, Microsoft SideWinder X8 distinguishes the most unique with its own BlueTrack sensor. BlueTrack debuted in a few Microsoft mice last year, and it offers a better sensitivity and performance than traditional optical or laser mouse. That better performance can make use of the X8 and other BlueTrack mice on a wide range of surfaces, including marble, carpet, wood, or almost everything you can buy cheap software, except for transparent or mirrored glass. Some sites have reported that BlueTrack not get along with a cloth pads, but uses a longer period for the X8 on canvas XTracPads’ RipperXXL mouse pad with no trouble. A wooden desk, a book, and a marble proved as reliable. You also get three different sets of feet for the X8, which you tailor the tactile feel of the mouse which lets you choose the surface.
Perhaps more important to gamers than surface flexibility, the X8 has a fairly wide range of sensitivity of the sensor from 250dpi to 4,000 dpi. That’s a respectable number for a gaming mouse, and while not as high as the more expensive 5600 dpi Razer Mamba, we suspect some gamers will actually push either the mouse so far.
You get three hard knobs in the middle of the X8 to let you switch between DPI settings on the fly, and you can get Microsoft IntelliPoint software used to assign each button a given institution. We come to demand access to dots per inch toggle buttons on gaming mice, but it also occurred to us that pure hardware-based scale, the next logical step. Instead of limiting your three buttons and a fraction of the DPI spectrum at any given time, why not a slider or a secondary wheel that you can choose from a wide range of DPI mouse sensor?

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The X8 is a small LCD screen that informs you about the current DPI setting. This is not necessarily as convenient as it sounds, because the real feature is the ability to change modes, and not display their power. If you ever have doubts about the sensitivity of the X8 level, you know from your preset dpi button assignments, or when you use the mouse. Using the screen as a battery indicator would have been informative, but it gives you clues to assist in recording macros.
The macro-recording process is quite simple. A special button in an alcove to the left of the X8, the record mode. The mini-LCD tells the button you want to assign the macro to push. This may be one of the vertical side buttons, right-click on the button or the scroll-wheel buttons. Then, execute commands for the macro and accept the recording by clicking on the flashing, dedicated macro button. From there you can further macros via the IntelliPoint software. You can universal macros, or make them specific to a particular game or another program.
If the X8 is not as sensitive as the Razer Mamba, the two have much in common that they share a hybrid wired / wireless design. Each model comes with a USB docking station that doubles as a wireless receiver. The two can also connect directly with the mouse to the USB cable for charging and data connectivity, uptime, so you do not lose when your mouse runs out of juice.
As many consumers have grown accustomed to wireless mice, wireless gaming is not without difficulties. The SideWinder X8 communicates with 2.4-GHz wireless signal with a speed of 500MHz polls. We found the X8 wireless response generally adequate during our Team Fortress 2, Dead Space, and Red Alert 2 testing, but it seemed difficult to maintain a clean signal when we ramped up to 4000 dpi sensitivity. We can not be too disappointed, because you can always go to wired mode if you have such a high setting, but in contrast, the Razer mamba and 1000 MHz polling rate showed no such drop-off.

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While the X8 and Razer’s share of the fixed / wireless concept, each has a slightly different design. The X8 is an inline hockey puck-style base with a wired USB cable. To wired mode, you need a second cable that terminates in a magnetic tip that appears in a magnetic host side at the bottom of the mouse relax. The Razer’s base has a removable USB cable with a uniquely designed USB input that pops up from the base and fits into the Mamba below the scroll wheel. We find the magnetic end of the cable from the X8 is a nice solution that Razer’s design does look awkward, if not necessarily a deal-killing mistake. From the cable, the X8 takes about 30 hours on a full charge of its NiMH AA battery.









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