High skilled, high profile eSports teams are sometimes....actually scrap that, ALWAYS used to push the latest peripheral or hardware and its totally obvious that they are either reading from a script or that they have truely sold their souls for some free shit!
Now, as I type this on my Logitech G15 keyboard in conjunction with my logitech G9 mouse, gliding effortlessly across my Steelseries Icemat and listening to the Steps back catalogue on my Speedlink Medusa 5.1 headset, I can whole heartedly tell you that I have no "tainted" allegiance to any company, manufacturer or supplier.

With all those ducks in a row, lets get on with the job at hand.

Introduction & general points of interest.

The Steelseries Kinzu on first appearances is a dainty little mouse that is reasonably unassuming. Although shallow and narrow for the likes of my farmer hands, it is still very comfortable considering I do not actually rest my hand on a mouse when playing and rely more on my thumb and little finger to manipulate a mouse generally. Asthetically, the design is clean, uncluttered and functional with composite grip coatings and a nylon braided cord. This mouse is ambidextrous which Steelseries boasts as one of its selling points, this of course means the Kinzu has no side buttons and relies on the traditional M1, M2 design with a clickable scrollwheel.
The Kinzu of course is an Optical Sensor mouse and not a Laser, which other reviews claim will endear it to the Logitech MX518 diehards. It is believed in some circles that Optical Sensors are more suited to FPS gaming than Laser Sensors, but personally I believe that it is a matter of individual choice and that with time anyone can get used to anything.




Mouse settings and specification.

Firstly this mouse is truely "Plug and Play" with no drivers required and preset setting profiles as default which are stored on the mouse itself. Although it is possible to download utility drivers for the Kinzu, these are not necessary and changing the profile settings that come as default is not recommended.
The profiles are easily swapped "on the fly" using the dedicated button behind the mousewheel. Should you loose track of which of the 3 profiles you are on, after holding the profile swap button for 2 seconds to change, the profile is confirmed by an LED indicator which flashes times the corresponding profile. The default settings are simply a 800cpi standard setup, a 3200cpi high Sens. and a Left handed setup on the standard 800cpi sens.

More information on the complete list of technical specifications can be found HERE on the Steelseries website.


Weight, movement and response.

The Kinzu is actually a well balanced mouse in terms of weight, centre of gravity and travel ease/resistance across a mat. I tried it out on both the 800cpi and the 3200cpi settings on my own Icemat and the Steelseries 9HD supplied with the mouse for the purposes of this review. I was actually surprised how well it behaved especially considering I am used to using my Logitech G9 with all the maximum weights added.
The polyethylene feet, which are larger than most other stock mouse feet I have seen, really do help to not only give the Kinzu a smooth travel action across multiple types of mouse mats, but also give excellent stability due the fact that they ARE MASSIVE relative to this small mouse. Although these feet are obviously designed to be compatible with the full range of mats on the market, as the Steelseries 9HD gaming surface was developed in parallel with the Xai and Kinzu range, it is lamented that the best performance in terms of control and tracking will be achieved with said mat.




Conclusions.

The Kinzu is a simple, modest and no frills looking mouse, but it doesn't compromise on the functionality required for its purpose. In a market that has as of late been dominated with the flashing lights, weights, contoured shapes and customation of all of the above, Steelseries with the Kinzu and indeed its bigger brother (by 7% apparently), the Xai have decided to cut out all the bull and indeed cost of all these added luxuries and cosmetic advancements to give a gaming mouse thats built for purpose and value for money. With the Kinzu costing between £20-25 depending on where you buy it, it is a relatively risk free purchase for someone who wishes to have a high spec mouse without all the light shows and customisable extras.

Posted by Blair Mayne in KGL Product Reviews on Wednesday 03 February @ 20:19