Get Anker® CG100 8200 DPI High Precision Programmable Laser Gaming Mouse for PC, 9 Programmable Buttons, Weight Tuning Cartridges, Omron Micro Switches

CUSTOMER REVIEW



I bought this on a whim, mostly because the price looked good. My Logitech MX518 was just getting to be a couple of years old, and I figured if I didn't like the Anker I can always go back since there's nothing wrong with the MX518.



First let me say that I'm happy with the Anker mouse. It's comfortable and smooth and even fits my hand very similarly to my previous Logitech mouse.



Now let me say that you're getting what you pay for here. There's nothing really wrong with the Anker mouse, and in fact for the price it's not bad at all. But... when I got the package open and checked out the product itself I noticed that the teflon feet were already peeling off, and the rubber for the thumb grip was peeling back. This was remedied simply by pressing these pieces back in to place, but seems to me like quality assurance kinda let this slip by. Back to the thumb grip, it doesn't really help you ( I should say me) grip anything. I actually feel my thumb sliding down or up the side of the mouse quite often.



Unpacked the mouse itself is very light, good thing the weights are included. However, even with all 8 weights in place it still feels lighter than my MX518, but certainly still comfortable. The weight cartridge, on the underside of the mouse when open, leaves gaps big enough to easily drop one of the weights inside the actual mouse body itself. When installed the weights are held in place and feel pretty sturdy.



The buttons feel good, everything is pretty ergonomic and natural feeling. If I had a complaint there it would be that the thumb buttons seems a bit too easy to hit on accident when simply moving the mouse to the right. After I got used to it I hit these buttons a lot less on accident. I don't like the mouse wheel at all, feels almost like a lid on a plastic bottle to me, but it's movement is precise.



I do like the 4 lights next to the left finger button. These lights indicate your DPI so after some use you can begin to see where you've got it set. Personally I'll probably never use 8000 dpi, I'm not a twitch gamer. But it's very easy to cycle through dpi settings, another similarity to my MX518 I like.



The software is pretty comprehensive. Keep in mind you have to download this from IAnker.com there is no install disk included with your package, perhaps Anker will change this later on but it seems kind of a waste of a disk for a 20meg piece of software. The problem Ive had here (and it's a big one) is in some games the key binding doesn't work in the typical way. I.E. click to change then press the key or mouse button you'd like to change it to. Instead you've got to reassign that mouse button through the mouse software to whatever the default key would be on your keyboard. An example would be, I want to change let's say my crouch key from "C" to "Mouse 6". I have to tab out of the game, open the mouse software, find mouse button six and reassign it to "C" on my keyboard for "mouse 6" to perform that operation. This doesn't happen very often, but it could be pretty inconvenient if you had a set of controls you wanted to completely re-map.



The light settings are pretty vibrant though you're only able to change the light color on the mouse logo. The presets look good but the software also allows you to change colors in a 16m color mode. There's even a check button for the light to "breathe", basically it just fades in and out every second or so. Sounds great if that's important to you except that everything aside from the presets tend to look nothing like what your custom color option may be. Personally this means almost nothing, but aesthetically it's a great touch if you can make the color you want the way you like it.



So overall, aside from my giving this three stars and seeming to pick this mouse apart, I'm pretty happy with it. The motion is smooth, the fit is comfortable, the clicks aren't super loud, the optical camera and laser is very accurate, the software is pretty solid, and the price is right. Could it have benefited from a little bit more quality? Sure, but you'd be paying $60 or $70 instead of $40. It's good for the price. I'm not a fan of Razer or Steelseries or most high end brands. I like Logitech and that's about it, but if Anker keeps going with gaming mice I could see this one being a very high quality and sought after product.



UPDATE: 3/4/13

Since I posted the original review, Anker has contacted me and offered to replace the mouse for free if I wished. This wasn't necessary as far as I was concerned but I thank them for taking the time to address me personally, it speaks volumes of a company to do so. Support was very friendly and even stated that observations and suggestions I've made would be brought up to development staff. Particularly the issue with mapping mouse buttons through the mouse software, and the potentially large problem with gaps in the weight cartridge big enough to drop a weight into the mouse body. Support even said they'd touch base with me again when there's a positive solution at hand.



For the time being I'm going to keep the three star rating as this is product review. When I hear from support again about a solution I will certainly update the star rating. It says a lot to me that Anker is taking development of their products seriously enough to personally contact consumers who have had concerns. I'd also like to re-state for anyone who's reading this that overall I'm happy with the Anker mouse. This isn't a bad product, just needs a little tweaking and Anker seems to care about that.