INTRODUCTION

The Xai laser mouse comes in a cardboard box, much like any other mouse. The packaging contains the mouse itself, some advertisement and manual but no driver cd of any kind. Also, you will be getting a 3*3cm Steelseries sticker.

The package and its contents. That's all you are getting.



Xai's installation is easy, just plug it into your computer's USB port and Windows will find you the correct drivers. However this is only for basic usage, and the Xai manual actually suggests that you to go to http://www.steelseries.com and download the latest software for your mouse.

So, what kind of mouse are we talking about? Steelseries gives us the following information about Xai on their homepage:



As you might have noticed, Steelseries defines a value for CPI instead of DPI. According to Steelseries' FAQ section, CPI is described the following way:


So if you want to do comparisons against other mice, Xai's CPI means other manufacturers' DPI-values. The other features listed in the specifications are:

FreeMove technology:
A path correction technology that helps you to draw straight lines. I tested the feature using maximum allowed value and it seemed to work ok, it was quite a bit easier to draw (almost) straight line on the desktop.

ExactSens technology:
User adjustable setting for "mouse hardware sensitity". Basically finetuning the values of CPI in steps of one.

ExactRate technology:
User adjustable setting for mouse polling rate ("refreshrate", "usbrate" on hardware level in steps of 1Hz. The values I tested were 500Hz and 1000Hz, DiMouseRateDialog measured the averages being ~500Hz and ~1000Hz. Maybe need to test some random values too.

ExactAim technology:
User adjustable setting for jitter correction and prediction calculations done on hardware level. One should use this if the Xai skips or behaves erratically on some surface. Enabling this feature makes the mouse feel a bit heavy and more stable.

ExactAccel technology:
User adjustable setting for hardware based acceleration. Does the same as the Windows mouse acceleration, but in my opinion smaller movements feel more responsive than with Windows acceleration. Could be a problem with Xai, read more about it at the end of this article.

All of the features described above will make using the Xai feel different with different values. It's up to the user to test and set the values he likes, I personally disable them all. All that I want is accuracy.


The hardware specs look very promising. How about the software side then? As I mentioned before, user does not have to install specific drivers for the Xai to work properly, Windows default drivers will do just fine. However, if you want to use the advanced features of the mouse, you will need to download Xai's control panel software from Steelseries downloads section. Luckily enough, the control panel software is only 8MB, so one won't be wasting too much time downloading it. After you install the software, it starts up and checks your Xai's firmware version. If the firmware is out of date, you can choose to update it or continue using the old firmware. If you choose not to upgrade the firmware, it could mean incompatibility between the mouse settings and the Control panel, so it would be a good idea to update the firmware to match the control panel application whenever available.

Note!

As a sidenote, I experienced some problems after installing the control panel application. The application installed just fine, but when it started to update the firmware it took quite some time, like 10 minutes or so. After the firmware update was done, I got an error message stating firmware update was NOT successful, please try again. At the same time I noticed my Windows found the mouse again and was installing drivers, and after that reboot was required. After the reboot I checked the Xai control panel and it stated that I have both the latest software and the firmware installed (version 1.4.2). Who knows what happened, but I heard something like this happened to Xenic too, so I'm guessing this is some sort of bug in the firmware updating process.


THE SOFTWARE:

Let's take a look at the control panel then. The first page is called button assignments and you can control all the available buttons from there. You can also change the right/left handedness from here.

The first tab of Xai's control panel, useful for defining button functions.



The next tab is called hardware settings. From this page you can finetune the values described earlier in this article to match your taste and needs. Note that you can change the profile between five different profiles here too, so you don't have to use the control panel application always when you want to change some settings. You can also LOAD or SAVE profiles from/to your harddrive, meaning other people can import your profiles for their Xais or vice versa.

Xai's hardware settings tab. Probably the most interesting tab for a player.



Windows settings tab is basically the same you get from Windows control panel, so only thing you can change from here are really the Windows default mouse settings.

Nothing fancy here, move along!



The last tab is called Options and it tells you the Xai control panel application and firmware versions. You can click the links provided here to update the software, and also visit downloads and support sections on Steelseries homepage.

Time for a software update?



There's also a sidepanel for ProGamer Advice (now that sounds a bit hilarious). It's basically like a help page describing a lot of the mouse functions. Worth checking it out if you are unsure whether to use some feature or not, or what values you want you want to use.

Note!

If you don't want to install the control panel software, you can actually configure the Xai using the LCD display on the bottom of the mouse! This way you can have access to the hardware settings shown above, and it's something really welcome.


THE PHYSICAL FEATURES:

The Xai is, in my opinion, a low profile mouse. What I'm trying to say is the fact that the Xai is not as high as some other mice, for example Logitech G5 or mx51*. It's still slightly higher than Logitech G9 but not by much. The length of the mouse is another thing: Xai is shorter than G5/mx51* but longer than G9. Also, the Xai is of ambidextrous design making it viable choice for both right- and left-handed people.

Side profile of the Xai.



The glides on Xai are rather large, but made from a really good material. As I've stated quite a few times, Steelseries makes the best possible mouse glides available today. I can't even begin to describe how huge the difference is between Steelseries glides and Hyperglide glides. How long will they last will be a good question. Unfortunately Steelseries doesn't seem to have glides for the Xai for sale on their website. Well, at least not yet.

The sensor, glides and four Steelseries logos.



I also think the Xai is of very light weight design. Moving the mouse on my Steelseries 9HD mousepad feels almost like moving a feather. The Xai is probably the lightest mouse I've used so far, but it's possible my memory fails me. I don't know if the lightness is good or bad thing for a gamer, as everyone has their own tastes, but it's something I personally like. It's also worth mentioning that you can't add weights to the Xai as you can do with some Logitech mice.


PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:

Not everything is as great as it could be. I have pretty big hands, so I hold mice in certain way. The way I hold the Xai makes me push the sidebuttons on the right side of the mouse almost constantly. Above anything, that is something really annoying. Perhaps it's just me not used to the mouse yet (usually it takes like month for me to get used to different shaped mouse than the previous) but even so I have to give it a "minus" at this point. I'm pretty sure even left-handed people will notice this if they hold the mouse as I do. If so, their problem will be the sidebuttons on the left side of the Xai.

As for the buttons, they feel pretty much ok, but the positioning of the thumb-buttons could be better. Player doesn't need to use too much force to make clicks happen, even though the middle button is slightly stiff. The buttons aren't noisy but they aren't silent either. The mousewheel is actually by far the loudest button of the mouse when using it for scrolling. The sound from scrolling can be a bit like rattling at times, so someone might find it annoying.

As for the settings. I created 5 different profiles. Profiles 1 and 2 have same settings except for the polling rate (500Hz, 1000Hz). Similarly profiles 3 and 4 have same settings except for the polling rate, CPI was increased from 400/800 to 800/1600 compared to the profiles 1 and 2. The fifth profile has 1000Hz polling rate and 5000 CPI accuracy. You can change the profiles during gaming on the fly and it should just work fine. You can also specify two different CPI values for each profile that can be toggled using CPI-button just before middle mouse button.

Now, this is the second thing I'm not so fond of. Why only two settings? What I mean is Logitech G5 and G9 (probably other models too) can toggle between multiple DPI-values. For example I have set 5 different DPI values for G9 (400, 800, 1600, 2400 and 3200 dpi) which I can toggle using the DPI-buttons. Considering the fact that the Xai is more advanced mouse, it should probably have a bit more flexible configuration regarding CPI-values and CPI-button.


DOES IT SKIP?

Using Steelseries 9HD mousepad, no

A few words about 9HD since the testing was done using it. Steelseries 9HD is the latest mousepad Steelseries has to offer, released earlier last year around summer. It is actually built for high precision gaming, meaning the surface is closer to smooth than rough, yet still in between the two surface types. What's special about this mousepad is the fact that it has very constant friction (which is very low by the way). So when you start moving your mouse, it will feel the same as when you are already moving your mouse. The overall glide is very smooth, much like that of Steelseries SX's, but the surface is softer since it's made from plastic. I've also read that the Xai and the 9HD were meant to be used together. Well, sort of, or that's the impression I got from Steelseries. To be honest I think I understand the reason why after testing them both. This is of course a personal opinion, and considering the premium price 9HD costs, I'm not so sure if it can be recommended for everyone.

Other mousepads tested

Steelseries SP, SX, S&S, 5L, QcK+,
Razer eXactmat (both sides)

I didn't notice any kind of problems with those mousepads. SP and S&S felt quite good, the feeling of 5L improved a lot from the last time I had tested it, and eXactmat felt pretty good too. All of the Xai's hardware settings were disabled and I was using 800CPI (sensitivity: 18cm for 360°).


IS THERE ACCELERATION?

I've heard some reports of Xai not being able to disable its hardware based acceleration completely for some reason. Of course I want to test if this is true, so I made up an obstacle course on my desk using Xai's cardboard box and my coffee cup. After this I moved the mouse very slowly from left to right and checked the distance travelled. Then I moved the mouse back to left using fast movement. This is where things became interesting: there certainly is quite a big difference (by big I mean 3-4cm in ~20cm). I actually had noticed exactly the same effect with my other mice too on Windows desktop when the W32mouse handles everything. Therefore we can't conclude the experiment here.

So, it's time to fire up ezQuake using in_mouse 3 (the mighty raw input) and start testing there. As you might know, raw input ignores everything OS-level except the USB data and moves the cursor accordingly. The method I used was to point certain point in the map, then move cursor slowly to another point and mark the distance on the table, then move the mouse to left very fast and see if it hit the starting point. Uninterestingly enough, the difference seen in the another test on the desktop was mostly gone.

However, this kind of testing methodology is far from accurate, so the results can't really be considered to mean anything. To test this properly, I would need a robotic arm programmed to move the mouse a certain distance in different speeds and see how much difference there would be.

This is why I can't make any conclusion about this, but it seems that w32mouse is inaccurate with different speeds even if you have disabled any and all accelerations, but something like raw input is much more accurate. Still, I can't deny the fact that the cursor moves different distances at different especially under Windows desktop, suggesting that there is something unwanted going on.


THE VERDICT:

Steelseries Xai has to be one of the best mice I've tested so far, even with its flaws. It feels really comfortable in my hand, glides like a dream through the mousepad, and has a lot of customizable settings via easy to use control panel. On top of that the Xai has more than enough profiles for your settings. The only downside is the price, 65-80 euros is quite a lot to be spent on a mouse, even if it's this advanced.

Pros:
+ The shape and build
+ The glides
+ Customization options
+ The technology behind the mouse
+ Responsiveness
+ Accuracy

Cons:
- Thumb/sidebuttons are somewhat misplaced
- Mousewheel can be noisy
- The latest firmware (1.4.2) is bugged
- Positive acceleration (fw update needed in the near future)


Thanks go to:

- Louise from Steelseries for sending me the Xai for this review
- Xenic for taking some photos for the review


Updated 21.1:
- Steelseries 9HD info
- Other mousepads tested
- Some minor corrections to the article