SteelSeries Xai Laser Gaming Mouse

6 Review to this product

• 

  Kellie Rogers
  January 6th, 2010 on 1:31 am

  Rating

  What a disappointment! This mouse is too complicated for it’s own good. You need drivers to make the buttons on the side work, but the software is messed up. It makes my computer screen go black and freeze so I have to restart. Many other people have had similar problems and no one knows how to fix it. SteelSeries is impossible to get a hold of and won’t respond to several attempts at emailing. Poor product and customer service.
• 

  Kenneth Keuntak Lee
  February 7th, 2010 on 3:59 pm

  Rating

  Of all the mice I have went through – Logitech mini optical, MX510, G5 laser – this suits me the best. You can also save up to five different mouse settings so that you can change whenever you need to. Plug-n-play gets my vote. If you need mouse driver, simply go to SteelSeries website and download. That’s what I did, just to make sure if it was different as to Windows mouse settings. Other than gamma and brightness settings, nothing was different.

  Since XAI is for both left and right-hand users, I just wished that it didn’t have extra four buttons on each side of the mouse just like Kinzu. Maybe it is just me because I never use those buttons. Other than that, it is a great mouse for FPS.

  Overall, this is a go-getter.
• 

  KL
  March 12th, 2010 on 9:15 am

  Rating

  I am a big fan of ambidextrous mouse, and Xai is a great replacement for the Logitech G3 that I’ve used for a long time.

  Pluses:
  
  - very smooth tracking and movement
  
  - mouse settings mostly configurable thru the LCD and without driver
  
  - 4 side buttons that are customizable, including macros (using driver software)
  
  - customization is stored on-board, up to 5 profiles, so no need to have driver software on all your computers
  
  - Can be comfortably used for both claw/palm grip
  
  - Has rubber coating that feels very nice and comfortable to the touch
  
  - Buttons are well built and nice clicks with good feedbacks yet not too firm
  
  - Good quality teflon feet for gliding

  Possible cons that I don’t mind:
  
  - some may say the middle wheel is too stiff to scroll
  
  - some may get annoyed by the placement of side buttons, though I find them well placed and un-obtrusive.

  Cons:
  
  - Slightly buggy on firmware upgrade**

  **When I ran the firmware upgrade, it returned an error message warning that the firmware has NOT been upgraded. After which, the mouse becomes irresponsive. Un-plugging and re-plugging in the mouse makes it work again and the software says the firmware is up-to-date. Weird. It did scare me that I may have “bricked” the mouse for a moment. Knock off one star.
• 

  artvandalay
  April 2nd, 2010 on 2:40 am

  Rating

  pros:
  
  Glides nice
  
  nice shape/size

  Cons:
  
  extra side buttons are useless, due to softwares lack of ability to customize
  
  buggy crappy firmware and software

  Seriously, you can buy a 19.99 logitech mouse that will allow you to fully map any button to any keyboard button, but this 90$ mouse cant.
  
  Theres four side buttons, and since theres really no other options but “left click, right click, middle click, ie forward, ie backward, tilt left, tilt right, or mouse whell up/down, these buttons are usless.

  Im a gamer, this mouse is for gamers. gamers tend to like to use programs like ventrilo or team speak. I wanted the extra buttons so I could use them to key-up in ventrilo, but it just wont work without proper customization.

  DO NOT BUY THIS MOUSE
• 

  Jason M.
  April 20th, 2010 on 6:52 pm

  Rating

  After years of service, my Logitech G5 needed a replacement. As much as I’ve enjoyed Logitech’s lineup over the years, their products have gotten bloated with features and their software imposing…2 things that I consider real negatives.

  So, for my next gaming/work mouse, I narrowed my search criteria to simpler design and lighter software, which lead me to the Xai and Razer DeathAdder. I’m still not confident in the response and stability of wireless for gaming, so I didn’t consider the Razer Mamba. After A/B testing each device locally, it turned out to be an easy choice…the Xai. For me, the ambidextrous design and steeper slope of the front made the Xai much more comfortable. The slight difference in slope affected my index and middle fingers enough to where clicking the buttons on the DeathAdder required effort and cramped my hand while in a rest position. If you use a “claw” grip, this should not be an issue. Additionally, I found the ergonomic shape of the DeathAdder to be more uncomfortable in a rest position than the Xai. The slight bias to the left side was enough to throw off my wrist. The Xai didn’t affect my natural hand position one bit, which is a pleasant change as more and more designs are dictating how you should hold a mouse.

  As for the software, I haven’t compared the uncompressed file sizes against Logitech’s, but the SteelSeries management app isn’t overweight with garbage. It’s pretty simple and straight to the point.

  I haven’t experienced any issues with the hardware or software, and the mouse has been under heavy use with work and games for some time now. This is probably the best mouse I’ve owned to date.

  OS: Windows 7
  
  System: AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE, 4 GB DDR3, ATI Radeon HD 5770, MSI microATX mobo
• 

  Kevin Fields
  May 9th, 2010 on 6:33 pm

  Rating

  I’ve really enjoyed this mouse but several times a day it cuts out or does weird things. Still love it tho