Laser has always been fine, so long as your sensitivity was high enough. No negative accel on my salmosa using allsop raindrop.

Yeah laser was fine on cloth on high sens, but now it doesn't matter what your sensitivity is or what pad you are using. Laser was useless on pads like steelseries S&S and other rough plastic pads. Salmosa/DA track excellent on most pads, but are lost on Func F30.R and blue Icemat (skipping like crazy at semi-fast movements).

what about tracking on the steelseries sx?? how do lasers track on this?

I really like this pad and want to try a laser mouse but I found some mice to be really picky about picking up on this pad.

Perfect tracking

Salmosa is not a laser mouse

I was commenting on what he had said about the Salmosa.

Oh I see.

I tried the Diamondback 3G (same sensor as salmosa) on a black icemat just now and indeed it skips at considerably low speeds. Those two don't work well together.

jep, that sensor is great

Speed-Link Kudos, Alienware/Dell TactX Mouse (basically a G9x) and the Ozone Smog (stupid name) also have the ADNS-9500

Deathadder does the same job

the 1800 dpi of my DA are barely enough to play str games on 1600*1200 so yes there are people who might need large dpi. Well, 5K is a bit overkill :)

anyway what's the weight of the g9x ? (lightest without the additionnal shape and weights)

?! Are you using a windows sensitivity of 1?

6th notch, and i don't like going higher since it creates pixel skipping :)

fair enough ^^ you must have a really high sensitivity then if you have game sensitivity on maximum :D

there's no ingame modifier :(
that's just for str games, i like being able to click anywhere on the screen without moving my wrist.
for ET i have smth like 40 cm = 360 :) and half for quake

always wondered how's the shape of G9/G9x, some say it pwns, some dislike it.

Depends on the shell/grip. It is a bit on the heavy side with the id grip. The two that come with the mouse have a little bit of angle towards the right side. All the grips are quite wide, the narrowest grip is around mx518 width and has an indent on the pinky side that limits how you can hold the mouse comfortable. It is meant for finger/claw style grip afaik. The medium sized grip is suitable for either finger or palm grip, and is quite wide at the end. Both the grips that come with the mouse are rather square though, and are quite different from any mouse I've tried. There is an after market grip that is palm style only that feels more like a normal ergonomic mouse for right handed people. Bought the extra grip since it wasn't much money compared to the mouse and I think it's very comfortable. Only drawback is that it makes the mouse weigh quite a bit more than the smaller grips.

and how's the mouse without the grips ? does it tend to be like the mx300 ?

It is very small without grips. The smallest grip is not that far off from mx300 in size but has walls like )( instead of () and semi sharp edges on the top. IMO that one is mainly suited to claw/finger grip style players who only have the pinky and thumb on the sides.

how are the drivers for the G9X? i have the regular G9 but gave up on it because I had negative accel when I used OS implementation and positive accel when I used Setpoint implementation.
from what i understood you have to install the drivers for the G9/G9X.

Setpoint defaults to acceleration on. You don't need drivers with G9/G9x as long as you setup the profiles you need. G9x has 100dpi increments instead of 200, which is nice until the lazy developers of SP games start to give proper sensitivity settings. I've set up all the profiles I need and disabled the driver startup. The negative acceleration on the G9 was because the sensor could not keep up with fast movements. G9x is equal or better than the best traditional optical mice when it comes to tracking. If you liked the G9 shape, then I highly recommend the G9x as I've gone through all the pads I have and only found flawless tracking.

cool, thanks for the info. i just picked up a G9X from Fry's. i only have windows 7 x64 installed so hopefully setpoint works with it.

ok, so you need the setpoint software only to set up profiles, but you can uninstall/disable it afterwards or use the g9x without drivers if you don't need profiles? that's good.

Coming from Erk's mouth, you can trust this :)
Will have my SteelSeries Xai at the end of this month! Finally a worthy replacement for my IntelliMouse Optical 1.1

Erk, do you have your Xai yet? Or have you cancelled it for this G9x?

Cancelled it since the date kept getting pushed back. Heard from someone who has the Qpad 5k for review that the xai had problems tracking on some pads while the Qpad 5k worked flawless. Gonna ask him for more info soon, but it is possible that Steelseries did something wrong with the sensor.

how could he have tried the Xai when its not ready yet... maybe it was a prototype.

anyways, I will buy it for sure and see for myself

He gets stuff to review, which is how he got the qpad 5k, even though they don't ship until 20th october. He said there was some pads where it had problems, didn't ask which but assuming it is on rough plastic pads. His comments about the quality of the qpad 5k tracking abilities and the fact that steelseries apparently botched the kinzu (led optical) was what made me order the G9x instead. If you use cloth you should probably be safe as that is where laser has always worked the best.

no I've ordered the rough plastic pad SteelSeries 9HD with it
it has been developed along side the Xai, so should be good

hardware is final since a while, there's a review in a german magazine, they were pretty much impressed but their reviews usually suck :D

I would like to know how much QPAD is in the 5K, the shape/shell clearly isn't

Have you noticed any prediction/correction?

Only if I turn it on. Logitech laser mice do not have prediction, G9x is the first with an option for turning it on. No prediction is overrated anyways IMO.

It is if you're using a decent sensitivity where you have to move the mouse more than 2 inches for a 360. For people who like to sneeze and do a 900, it's pretty handy to not have prediction. Then again, how they can hit the broad side of the moon, twice, in a row at that sensitivity is baffling.

wmo wins

pros and cons vs infrared LED mouses ?

IMO infrared LED sensors are the dumbest marketing trick ever. It causes tracking incompatibilities with certain pads like Blue Icemat and Func F30.R, while red led tracks fine on the same pads. Top speed for the new laser sensor is supposed to top anything ever released, as long as it is set up properly. Can't move the mouse fast enough to make the G9x skip on any surface, but can easily make the DA skip on the pads I mentioned.

oops, I wanted to mean "the old shit we have since years", led thingy, be it infrared, red, whatever. vs laser
so, old laser skipped, new one doesn't, but old tech never had this problem
so far led vs laser looks like crt vs lcd to me, lcd tech gets better but is still behind good old crt tech when it comes to core use ; am I wrong ?

Afaik the new 120hz LCD monitors are as good as CRT if not better for gaming. To my knowledge, no led optical has as good tracking ability and compatibility across different surfaces as the new laser sensor. Laser tracking has always felt smoother and more precise to me and now it can handle insane speeds as well, so IMO laser has now surpassed led optical.

about 120Hz lcd
http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1774000#pid1774000

about laser mouses, needs more sujoy's factual tests

You mean like this? ADNS 9500 is the sensor in G9x and similar or the same that is in QPAD 5k which also has amazing tracking. People put too much stock in Sujoy's mouse test, when it is very flawed. It only tests 1 surface, which gave the DA a great top speed on paper, but it skipped at maybe 0.8 m/s on my preferred surface when I got my own DA.

Thread about new mouse tests http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1741119

thanks
idd this laser sensor looks rock solid, better tahn the so praised µ$ mouse

gotta give sujoy's tests kudos, it was the 1st one ever ; ofc good to see someone improved it

is laser sensor heavier than led's one ?

yeah, MUCH heavier. see me playing: http://plaza.ufl.edu/dwhahn/LaserPhoto5.jpg but it's certainly worth it!

dunno, I tried once the old Logitech MX1000 Laser and it weighted a ton ; maybe because of plutonium inside

i'm pretty sure the weight had nothing to do with it being wireless.


1. spoonfeeding - feeding someone (as a baby) from a spoon
alimentation, feeding - the act of supplying food and nourishment
2. spoonfeeding - teaching in an overly simplified way that discourages independent thought
teaching, pedagogy, instruction - the profession of a teacher; "he prepared for teaching while still in college"; "pedagogy is recognized as an important profession"

hence the plutonium

as good as CRT if not better for gaming

Have you ever played CS on an LCD and had a flashbang go off in your face?

lcd monitors are not as good as crt monitors for fast games.

No problems with g9x here. Great mouse for me :D

How's the weight at it's lightest (without the grips and the additionnal weights) ? Could you compare it with the wmo or the mx518 or the DA or all of em ?

without all that its pretty light. just a tad heavier than ms3.0? tad bit? dunno i workout so its light either way.

Thx. Still don't know if i'll get one or one of those new korean G1 (which is 80% cheaper, lighter, but has prediction and skips on fast moves)

well I don't think you can go wrong with a g9x.. :o

unless you don't like crap shapes.

*in your opinion they are crap shapes.

btw what mouse settings do you use? what dpi/hz? with g9x that is.

i'm using a g9x with 800cpi 500hz. 1680x1050 screen resolution.
os implementation, accel off, angle snapping off.
windows 7 with cheese mouse fix.
no weights installed, comfort grip.

Hz: 500
DPI desktop: 1000
DPI ingame: 2000
Weight cartridge removed and wide grip.

Got razer mamba and it definitely has horrible "negative acceleration" (as you ppl call it). Makes it really impossible to play with. Tested on Steel QcK cloth pad. Also it doesn't function at all on plastic pad (Steelseries SP). Sens used is ~20cm/360. Dunno if it would work better on some other pad or not

It is well known that the razer mamba doesn't use an avago sensor. It is the new avago sensor which is used in Logitech G9x, QPAD 5k and Steelseries Xai that is the first laser sensor capable of tracking on a lot of surfaces at high speeds (not found any surfaces that the G9x skips on yet).

just curious, do you still get negative acceleration with your sensitivity if your mouse is set to 800dpi ?

i use 700 dpi with g9x havent gotten any kind of neg accel.

yes but i'm interested in hearing about mamba not g9x

yeah I do, it doesn't seem to matter which DPI I use, still the mouse has trouble to track fast movements. Haven't really tried the really high DPI values though (like over 3000). Also would be nice to know if some more suitable pad would improve the mouse performance

I really like the Xai, good shape and weight.

It performs great on my Talent (@~35cm/360), did only brief tests on some other pads, didn't see any problems.

yeah the G9X is the only new mouse that even remotely interested me. however, i wouldn't pay a 100 dollars for a mouse even though i can afford it as it's not going to improve my aim in any way.

I made some comparison pics between Xai and DA, CH, MX518 and Ikari

[img]http://www.abload.de/img/xaivergleich138ma.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.abload.de/img/xaivergleich2jj44.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.abload.de/img/xaivergleich37jo8.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.abload.de/img/xaivergleich4yw1p.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.abload.de/img/xaivergleich5rkj5.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.abload.de/img/xaivergleich6hkdj.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.abload.de/img/xaivergleich7gw1o.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.abload.de/img/xaivergleich8umx2.jpg[/img]

Thanks nice photos.

hey man, go ahead and write a review. most of us are interested in this mouse.

I'm too lazy for a real review but I can give you my experience after almost 3 months:

Unfortunately I can't compare the Xai with WMO/IMO cause I haven't had one in hand for a long time.

Before the Xai I had a Ikari Laser and a DA before that, my last sens with the Ikari was about 32cm/360° but it got a liitle bit lower with the Xai. I use Claw/Finger Grip.

Shape is great, I can hold the Xai more "relaxed" than the Ikari or DA, surface is very grippy and I can easily lift the Xai, very low lift-off distance is nice.

As expected the Xai is pretty light (under 100g).

Main buttons are pretty stiff, as is the wheel, but get a liitle bitter softer after some time, I really like them that way.

I don't use the sidebuttons much in RtCW/W:ET and I don't play much ET:QW, where I have more need for them, anymore.
With my grip I can't press the side buttons only by rolling my thumb but it would work if I would use palm grip. Still, I can reach them easily, they have a nice feel and I never pressed the wrong one.
The buttons on the "wrong side" don't get in the way, not even with some "simulated" other grips.

What can I say about the sensor performance?
Same experience as erk has with his G9x, precise and never lets me down at high speeds (on a Talent, no probs with brief tests on some other pads.

ExactAim = 0 works fine on my Talent, no issues, imho it feels more direct than with EaxctAim on but that's most likely placebo. :D

Setting up the mouse via LCD works fine and it has its purpose but it would be nice to know if I would like the lesser weight which it would have without the LCD more.
No probs with the software either allthough it can take some time to start.
Advanced macros are dissabled atm but who needs them anyway.
Unfortunately the CPI Button isn't bindable, might be handy.

Overall for me it's an awesome mouse. :)

cheers, I'll be buying one. btw, 3 months or 3 days?

months :D

also, prediction?

you have the option of turning it on/off i believe with the laser mice.

for that you have FreeMove (like the Ikari also has), you can set it from 0 (=off) to 10

nice

"Unfortunately the CPI Button isn't bindable, might be handy."

FUCK :(

does your mouse have slight positive accel(+10% when moving fast or so)?
got xai&g500 atm, both do :S

i'm struggling with g9x..it seems like just my old g9. i dont notice any sensor improvement at all. dunno about positive accel but it seems like the mouse moves too slow. however it could be my windows 7

maybe a little but hardly noticeable, at least it doesn't affect my aim

On a 360 it will maybe be 2 degrees difference between very fast and very slow movement. Not something that is noticeable.

2 degrees?
using xai I got about 7-8cm from the previous xhair position on my 40cm width crt @ fov 90 while doing full fast 360degrees turn with my pretty low sens (34cm/360 or so) , considering the fishbowl effect i assume that's more than 20 degrees
well ye it's not 10%, but still not 2 degrees at all :/
e: same on g500 fw 1.1

If I load q3dm1 and stand at the rocket launcher and aim at the 50hp, do a slow 270 one way and a fast 270 the other way, I will end up at the lava (behind the 50hp bubble) on the wall between the pillars. It is about 3mm difference on the pad with sens 32cm/360.

i end above the 2 holes in front of the nearest pillar
doing 360 though

any solutions to the positive accel? i guess i'll just go back to my salmosa in the meantime

Would u mind posting a pic with Xai compared to G9x, but without any shape?

sry, I don't have a G9x

how're the side buttons?

I tried to answere that in my post above

just fyi, some guy in a german forum will return his Xai cause for him the right side buttons get in the way (he has glued the button from the inside on his IMO)

yes i also wonder about the side buttons (on the side with the pinky). that's the one of the main concerns i have because i have a G3 and constantly hit the side button with my ring finger. it became so annoying i took it out =]

Man I'm in love =) been waiting for so many years for this shape with a better sensor. Been informed about this project almost a year ago, and now, in 2 days, I will finally recieve it! :D

Btw, I've ordered it with the SteelSeries 9HD mousepad

This gaming surface was researched and developed in parallel with the SteelSeries Xai Laser Mouse to ensure that advanced high definition mice fully benefit from this surface.

I hope you are in love with the mouse and not with me, allthough I would be flattered ^^

i heard only good things about the 9HD but I'm a cloth pad guy

i would like to buy a xai but its just to expensive :(

Can i set the xai to have no accel and 1000hz in drivers, and it actually does both without needing additional fixes? :)

Tempted but i'm not buying a mouse i have to go through hours of pain at lan just so it works how it does at home :(

Xai and G9x have profiles in memory. They save all settings to the mouse. My PSU is broken on my normal computer, but plugged in my G9x on my laptop and all settings were exactly the same. This should work the same way with the Xai as well. Set up the mouse 1 time and you don't need to do it again unless you want some settings that you didn't store to a profile.

Does the xai have an z-index tracking? I ask because I have a Mamba which tracks great on hard pads, but on cloth it sucks because when you press the button the z-index tracking screws with the pointer position.

If the Xai works well on cloth pads i will have to get one!

only the Philips twin-eye sensor has this problems, no such problems with the Xai, works very well on my cloth pads and has a very low lift-off distance (less than 1 CD)

I read somewhere that it doesn't like the Zowie Spawn pad (with older firmware), and I know of 2 guys who have probs on the QcK (afaik they didn't update the firmware yet) but there are much more not having problems with the Xai on a QcK

Hmmm, I may just have to pick one of these up. I purchased a WMO today but my sensitivity (24in/360) appears to be too low even under normal playing conditions (overclocked to 500hz as well). I noticed multiple instances of negative acceleration. Erk, how is the mouse for figertipping/claw grip? Also, can it be used without a shell? Do the two buttons on the left side get in the way when figgertipping?

The smallest shell should be good for claw/finger grip, while the medium sized shell should work fine as well. The id grip, which is aftermarket, is palm only. The mouse can be used without shell if you don't need the sidebuttons. Keep in mind that the mousewheel is too stiff to be used effectively in games, so you would then only have 2 buttons in games. Without the shell, it becomes a very small mouse. I would estimate the smallest shell to be similar in size to a mx300, but with sharper edges and more angles on the shell (quite different as shape). I don't use claw or pure finger grip myself, but a hybrid of palm and finger grip, so can't give you any exact info on how good it is with those grips.. But tbh. I would look to the Steelseries Xai if I was using finger grip only, as it has same sensor and similar features while being ambidextrous

Just to bad the Xai has only 2 or 3 diffrent dpi settings to choose from, (don't forget the G9x has 57 !) . There are still to many games where the sensitivity settings are way to limited. Somehow i don't think that will get any better in the future (more and more console porting.)
Anyway im still kind of curious about the xai. Maybe it would be a better replacement for the G3/mx300 as the G9x, which im using as fingertip mouse (without shape).

w00t, you have almost 5000 CPI settings with the Xai, from 100 to 5001/5040 CPI (1 CPI steps)

you can only toggle between 2 but there are not many people who switch between more than 2 different CPI settings while gaming

Well, that changes everything. Good to know
So would my movements be limited compared to mx300, when i fingertip only? (like my up and down movement is very limited, even with the smaller G9x precision grip)

dunno, I don't have a MX300 but fingertipping wouldn't be a problem for me with Xai and my hands are not that big

consider that the Xai has a weight of 94g (with no cord atached) so it might feel a bit heavy compared to the MX300

heavy? it's been a while but from my memory the mx300 weighed more than the salmosa which is even lighter than the xai. 94g is not a lot and rather will be too light for some in my opinion.

[edit] confusing post... salmosa ~70-80g // xai 94g // mx300 100g+. please correct me if i'm wrong.

thought the MX300 is lighter if you remove the built-in weight

i find the low weight of the Xai very nice but I think you're right that it's too light for some people, on the other hand you can always open it up and glue a piece of metal in ^^

the mx300 had an adjustable weight?!

not really but there was a piece of metal atached

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/logitech-mx-mice,575-6.html

without the weight it should be 70g

ahh yes, i removed that aswell at one point but you can't expect most people to have heard of that let alone remove it.

so in terms of weight: salmosa < xai < mx300. with 94g the xai is among the lighter mouse out there. from your post one could get the impression it's far too heavy or something and that is not the case imo.

I didn't want want people to get that impression and ofc the Xai is one of the lighter mice out there, especially from the newer ones :)

does the wmo really weight 125 grams? how does the xai weight a quarter less (the wmo already feels very light) with being bigger and having an lcd?

do you know how much the wmo weights?

EDIT: nm, its 125 grams according to MS official product documentation for it.

do you know the dimensions of the xai?
EDIT: nm on all my questions, the dimensions can be found on the site. there was something else i was going to ask, but i can't remember now =(

that 125g are with the cord

and the measurements for the other mice mentioned are without the cord? how much is the wmo without the cord then?

afaik something like 79g, IMO 1.1 about 86g

dunno about G9, ask erk

thx alot.

when zealot mentioned 100+ grams for the mx300 he meant with the cord then too i think..

kinda unfair comparing that # to the 94g of the xai

no i didn't. it was a guess based on the mouse i have used in the past.

and so the g9 being calculated at 131g (with no weights) includes the cord as well?

but is heavier due to the lcd..

basic question is the difference between the regular g9 and g9x the sensor? Is the g9 known to be unplayable or something? I am not up on these things, learning as i go along, but i've seen the regular g9 going for much cheaper.

g9 is fine if you use a pad that it likes or if you're mid-high sens. g9x is fine on any pad, any sens.

do you know how much it weights exactly without any weights?

i was able to find 131g with no weights @ logitechs site for the original g9, but thats not the g9x and i'm assuming that's with the cord, not sure.

just read on a japanese site 82g without weights, grips and cord, the grips weight around 25-30g

thanks. that was the g9x right? the 131g would make sense then with the cord.

But i am not sure if that includes a grip of some sort.

Don't have a gram weight, but placing the weights from the weight box in the lid and comparing them to the grips, I would estimate the precision grip is around 15g, wide grip 20g and the id grip 35g.
If bullveyers info is correct then I would guess the mouse is 95-100g with the precision grip, around 100-105g with the wide grip and 115-120g with the id grip.

hey thanks for the info. what makes you say the mwheel is too stiff for games? can it be used as mouse3 still?

You have to apply massive force to the mousewheel button to use it. I would estimate 5 times as much force as you would need on a normal mousewheel button. The scroll is fine though.

if it was softer you'd get a load of "I pressed the button accidentally while scrolling" complaints. I for one like the button just fine.

on the other hand if the button needs to much force there is a good chance that you accidently scroll, which doesn't mean that the G9x wheel isn't fine for many people

I've never had that problem with normal mice which need like 1/5th of the pressure to press down the mouse wheel button, and on most mice the mouse wheel button is already quite a bit stiffer than the rest of the buttons on a mouse.

I'm interested in buying Xai , but i would like to see some reviews first. Can anyone post links to some reviews ? Maybe someone could create new thread here on the forums about Xai.

I only know 2 reviews, one was in a german magazin, they gave the Xai the highest score of all mice ever testet but I don't give that much on reviews from that magazin

the other is some french review:

http://www.erenumerique.fr/steelseries_xai_la...477-1.html

oh and ocmodshop had a preview from PAX09

http://www.ocmodshop.com/ocmodshop.aspx?a=1664

This mouse is far away from mx300(shape). I wish i realized earlier that the kinzu is much smaller than the Xai. Still had this picture(s) in mind.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2522/3836794179_8a51b8612c_o.jpg

http://www.wuji.org.cn/bbs/thread-77563-1-3.html



Brought back to the store after 3 min. Did not even plug it into usb.

wait, the kinzu and the xai are different sizez?? from the pics, the size/shape of the kinzu is perfect as i still love my wmo.. is the size difference a lot??

For sure.

http://i632.photobucket.com/albums/uu48/Pasti...zu--00.jpg

and the 8 sidebuttons make it even worse.

Thanks a lot that really helped.

damn and here i thought i'd finally get my wmo with side buttons. i guess i'll have to hold it first hand to make a final decision before i spend that much cash :/

was it really so big that you didn't think it was even worth trying or couldn't stand it? it is only a couple of millimeters bigger than the wmo (and apparently is lighter).

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2431/3836792935_dd71e4b187_o.jpg

Uh oh, looks like someone was born missing a finger. Simpsons anyone?

Hi,

I currently have the xai and my hitscan has never been this good. (been using deathadder\intellimouse 3.0 up until now)

I was very hesitant after buying the mamba, but it seems the problems the mamba had was due to the inferior phillips ghetto twin sensor (the wireless technology was very good)

The shape feels a bit weird, but the precision is great and the tracking is flawless on all the hardpards ive tried it on (func f30r, s&s and q-pad heaton)

I have only barely tested it on my q-pad ct, but it seemed to do very ok on it in cs

atm I havent fucked around with the exact aim settings on any of the rough surfaces ive been using it on, and im not gonna bother until other people test it.

also, I'm not really sure how running mouse hz to match your refresh rate is gonna change anything.

No doubt, the sensor is one of the best around. My G9x uses the same. Its just about the shape. For the most ppl it will be fine sure thing. If someone would post a tutorial how how the mod one of these mice into a mx300/g1 shape i would be happy ;p

G3 to G1 modding wasn't a problem of course, but 90€ is just to much to mess around.

you prefer the g9x shape over the xai?

kinda irrelevant but could you please post your opinion about qpad heaton ? i've already wore out 2 F30R's already and i can't seem to find a decent replacement, hybrid pads are not my thing.


i've already tried qpad original,qpad ct and noidpad not my taste exactly, i want a rough and fast surface like steelseries SP but definately with more room for my 40cm/360 sens and little bit more comfortable, SP was way too sticky and upleasant for my wrist

Weird, I use func F30R since a couple of years back without being able to make it wear out. Bought the qpad heaton in june out of curiosity if it could replace F30R which is somewhat lacking in size. But by september the qpad was already showing signifiant wear in the middle making it useless. To bad on an otherwise excellent mat.


oh, The Xai is by far the best mouse I tried in a long time replacing the trusty 3.0 (tried ms1.1, DA,Copperhead,MX 510, Xai,Kinzu, salmosa , sense: 50-60 cm / 360)

speaking of mice that use the 9500 sensor, has anyone tried both the G9x and the xai, how do they compare? i plan buying one of them and can't quite decide.

i use finger grip and a cloth pad (talent). i used a modded wingman mouse with 3.0 optics for years but feel like upgrading now. easy to reach side buttons are important for my setup.

does the G9x need its own mouse drivers while the xai doesn't?
(i understand the xai needs software only to save the settings to the onboard memory)

The G9x doesn't need drivers. It needs software to change the profiles (can be deinstalled after).

Im holding the G9x with 3 fingers only (without any of its 2 shapes)
Important for me here is that i still have some space between mouse and palm, so my movement isn't handycapped. (especially when moving to the left).
If i try holding the Xai that way, the space is kinda filled.
For me the G9 was the only option for me after 3-4 years of playing with mx300,G1/G3 (the blue pilot optical was also my first mouse)

Sure the G9x is almost to small, but im able to play with a much lower sensitivity as back then. I remember playing with 6 - 8cm/360° . (Now its ~ 14cm/360°, which is still quite low for me.)

EDIT:
Forgot to add that if ur searching for a mouse with extra buttons, the G9x is a good choice. Pressing the dpi buttons (rebind with setpoint) is almost as easy as pressing left right mouse
+aiming is not affected, which is often the case with sidebuttons.

Thanks for your advice. That space between mouse and palm is exactly my problem too. Most modern mice have a high, rounded shape (think MX500 series) that fits well if you´re palming the mouse, but when you´re used with finger grip on a low shape like my wingman, your palm will push against the mouse´s back every time. The xai looks very similar to the intellimouse, which is very popular of course, but i´m more nimble with flatter shapes.

Also the side buttons. I need 3 easy to press buttons (fire, forward, secondary fire) and don´t feel like changing after having played like this for the last 12 years. You got my point exactly. So, if pressing side buttons doesn´t throw off your aim and the G9x doesn´t bloat your system with extra software, i guess i´ll give it a try.

in that case you'll be perfectly happy with xai. it's even lower than a wmo. edit: you won't be happy with the xai, it's shit.

well, i´ll try them both and see. with mice having same sensor it´s entirely a matter of shape and ergonomics.

weight is also a factor, i prefer light mice.

smaller then WMO? to small!!!!!

the xai is slightly bigger than the wmo :o

then not bad! :D

Steelseries Xai

- Measurements: 125,5 x 68,3 x 38,7 mm

Wheel Mouse Optical

- Measurements: 124 x 66.6 x 39.6 mm

What a shame that none of you will get any better after shelling out your hard earned cash!

whats the point of cash?

Well you're American so I guess for you it means buying fried dough and useless knick knacks.

hey don't knock fried dough
shit owns

It's hard to believe mkeiy is 23..

i got a steelseries xai a few days ago and notice skipping. i never thought my sens is particularly low.

anyone experienced or heard about skipping with the xai? :(

i think it has the same sensor as my g9x and I dont get any skipping at all. Im a low sensi user?

I don't have skipping problems, what mouse pad do you use?

using goliathus speed edition.

Was already mentioned in http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1767413#pid1767413

Got the XAI mouse and I have some tracking issues.
I'm using QcK+ and goliathus (speed edition), and same problems on those two pads.

CPI : 800
Polling Rate : 500Hz
ExactAim : 0
Freemove : 0
HW accel : 0
Pointer speed : 6

I'm using a goliathus speed edition too, and exactly the same mouse settings apart from 450 cpi.

perhaps cloth pads are it's nemesis.

i have tracking issues too (tried on qck heavy and everglide titan fnatic) :(

i'm using a cloth pad too, goliathus speed.

i can't believe my WMO tracks flawlessly but a brand new mouse with the latest technology doesn't

i'm going to try lowering my sens and upping my dpi like suggested by the anonymous guy below.

there is new software/firmware beta out btw:
http://cdn.steelseries.com/mice/Steelseries_X...0_beta.exe

if this doesn't help, i'll try that thing with upping dpi (i'm using 400 now)

Actually there is no firmware update with this version, so it will change nothing with the tracking issues :/

EDIT : Ok, my bad, I didn't install the new version properly, now FW is updated :D.
wait & see.

Just finished my quakelive games and I had severals big issues with the 1.3.20 version, randomly the xai completly skipped the tracking.
Sometimes I was aiming a guy with the lightning-gun and suddenly just after, I was aiming the ground :/
And severals times and totally randomly too, my mouse wheel up was activated.
Thx steelseries for those greatful versions :/

i had that in hand at a friend yesterday and lol
what a low quality piece of shit.

yeah, i tried 1.4.2 firmware today, it didn't help at all :(

Well, i just got my Xai yesterday and so far i have no problem at all with it. (firmware 1.3.20)
I am using it @400 CPI & 1000hz and it tracks flawlessly on my QCK+ heavy.
I have none of the problems others have experienced with their Xais. Even though I am kind of high sens player (4 sens and 1 accel in QL) i did some testing with very low sensitivity (1.5 @400 cpi) and i have neither positive nor negative acceleration whatever. So i guess i just lucky and hopefully SteelSeries will fix all remaining issues coz i think when this mouse just works it rocks ;)

I had some small tracking issues on my q-pad, but that was mostly uneven parts on the pad\scratches or grains of dust.

Tracking seemed pretty consistant, allthough the q-pad is horrible for tracking (I suspect this had to do with the print that is on the pad and the mix of dark\bright colors?). (it has a a coating that p much remove uneveness found on other cloth pads)

To the people experiencing skipping after doing a firmware update, try lowering ingame sense and upping dpi as this might have to do with the downscaling of dpi on the mouse.

You're using the QPAD CT? I have the white version and the Xai runs flawlessly on the surface. However some positive acceleration might exist! But mayb it's fixed with the latest firmware update.

For the people with positive acceleration on the g500/g9x. http://forums.logitech.com/t5/G-Series-Mice/I...true#M4677

I have the original g9 since march, and there are two huge problems with it:

- the grips start to get loose, so the whole thing rattles and squeaks while I move it around. VERY UNCOMFORTABLE. I haven't changed the grips around very often and handle my stuff generally carefully.
Afaik they didn't change anything with the grip mechanism from g9-g9x.

- the extremely useful tilting wheel also rattles in both scrolling modes

Mine does that a little, but only with the fat grip. My mouse wheel is loose too, but I don't find it annoying or notice it at all.

To fix the grips, just put some putty or something in between, like that blue shit for posters.

I actually returned two before I found one that was perfectly snug with both grips, and its remained perfect to this day.

This, unfortunately, seems to the way of this mouse. Have to rummage until you find a good one.

Go Go Quality Control!

have the G9X atm with win 7 64bit cheese m fix
angle snapping off and accel = 0 in setpoint
windows sens @ 6/11

on high DPIs (over 3000DPI) with the QCK the tracking is really irregular causing spirals and lots of jaggies. This occurs during slow movement of the mice in windows paint.

below 3000DPI tracking becomes more consistant, less jaggies and no spirals at all.

Ordered an puretrak Complexity pad, maybe its time to retire this 1 year old steelseries QCK.

I'm getting an Xai for Xmas tomorrow. Paired with their 9HD mat. I'll come back with my impressions if anyone cares.

I have a G9x, and its excellent, but I just can't get with its ergonomics and that's a shame.

The Xai will, hopefully, end my nearly year-long search for a new mouse. I've tried many mice and returned all of them for one reason or another:

Ikari
G500
Mamba
Death Adder
Lachesis
X8
At least one or two more that can't seem to remember.

I'm hoping the Xai is a lot like the Ikari, but diff sensor and shape (and more robust software).

I've had the Xai for a few weeks now and think its excellent. My ability to accurately and effortlessly track opponents is much improved over the G9x, due to its more comfortable and natural ergonomics.

That said, I'm likely going to return it because the left/right mouse buttons are too stiff for my tastes. For me, this is a major shortfall. I had hoped the buttons would be as light as the Ikari, but they are not.

If you like stiff buttons, then this a great mouse and should definitely be on your short list.

Other issues (that are not deal-breakers to me, but may be to you):

The macro feature is plain broken. Causes lock-ups, crashes. I can get to work my closing/re-opening the software, bug its buggy as hell. Also, you cannot assign a single-keystroke to be held, like to Run. It just wont work. Ikari has the same issue. I use a 3rd party program handle this, which uses some resources and is not LAN friendly.

Also, I often hit the opposite side buttons inadvertently. Would probably have to disable them, which is a shame.

If you don't care about these negatives, then get this mouse. It really is fantastic and I'm very bummed that its not working out for me.

anyone got the qpad 5k?

kind of OT: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/06/mad-catz-a...blend-hum/
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/...ewsLang=en

Now imagine wannabe's going - whats your mouse settings

And you go:

800 dpi, 7.34 turns of top knob to the left, rear knobs in the forward position, 9 turns of the lower knob and right side in position alpha and palm area measuring in at the 4th notch.

Yay for that

Next thing we have is you buy a mouse open it up and there are a ton of lego bricks inside.

will be way too heavy

wtf is that

Hello.
Should also look me lately some anomalies in the mouse Ace Edge 3200, which is a copy of Ozone, Smog, etc.. and has the same sensor, Avago 9500, but strangely enough, the maximum DPI that appears on the manufacturer's website is 3600:
"Avago © 9500 high-end laser sensor 450/900/1800/3600DPI. Up to 5040DPI virtual."
Avago page:
"Selectable resolution up to 5040cpi with 90 counts step size.
Puzzling.
It seems that once again we are dealing with interpolation A4tech habit.

regards
nietopyrz

hi
thoughts you are interested. but resolution no point it has.

When playing can just use sensitivity that is lower, possibly better? I use microsoft, really good! me i have top aim. thanks