#wireless gaming

Corsiar Wireless PC Gaming

Having extensively used a SteelSeries Sensei in the past I was familiar with the design and took to the mouse like a duck to water. The wireless premium alternative to the Sensei’s predecessor and an alternative to other top end price ranged competitive gaming mice on the market. With a big cost comes the big expectations lets see how we got on.

Design and Features of the Sensei Wireless

The Sensei Wireless comes in two parts (not including the braided charge cable) packed neatly in the orange, slate and black SteelSeries packaging, the mouse itself and the charging dock. The two parts are connected wire wireless pairing using transceivers and are very easy to pair up after updating your firmware thanks to solid on screen instructions using the SteelSeries Software Engine.

The design is very similar to the RAW Sensei only without the chrome finish, the shape is sultry and fits very well in your hand and personally I liked the slate like smooth finish that allows for good grip and comfortable use. The plastic on the sides of the Sensei Wireless has a similar finish and the slightly grippy chalkboard like finish allows for a natural grip feeling from hand moisture without encouraging your hands to become too sweaty. The mouse wheel on the mouse is rubberized and feels christ and button clicks are crisp and definite.

The shape of the Sensei Wireless will allow for ambidextrous use with side buttons being located on both the left and right side of the mouse and all are editable using the Steelseries software. The Sensei’s iconic shape has become somewhat of a favorite amongst a large number of gamers thanks to the combination of the ambidextrous design and comfortable feel. One negative I will point out however, is that this shape does force you to grip the mouse fairly far forward, this is probably not a big deal for a large number of readers but for those of you who prefer to grip your mice further toward the base you will find it difficult and quite frankly a little awkward on this mouse.

The Sensei Wireless in total has eight programmable buttons which quite often I don’t configure personally, but for those of you that do that’s great. Again due to the shape this does mean it is kind of difficult to make use of all these buttons at once due to hand position. Instead, these extra customizable buttons facilitate left or right hands use. Using the software you are able to construct onboard profiles to switch between which is incredible. You can play around with accel, aim, lift, snapping, sensitivity and a number of other key attributes that can affect your game. The big negative and probably my biggest gripe with the Sensei Wireless device as a whole is that there are only two profiles available to play around with, in the Engine 3 software. Really the Sensei Wireless should have a few more profiles to allow you to build your perfect setup for a number of games.

The metal bead blasted accents surrounding the scroll wheel couple up very nicely with the backlit SteelSeries logo and wheel lighting that are the only features that break away from the black finish of the Sensei Wireless and completes the great look of the product. The lighting which is editable using the SteelSeries Engine 3 software give you control over a possible of 16.8 million colors of illumination. The price tag of the Sensei Wireless does hurt itself when looking at the mouse components as a whole, for the price you would expect a slightly more premium feeling product than what you end of, the kind of quality that is certainly present in the charging stand.

The Sensei Wireless can be used wired by plugging the braided charge cable directly into the clip at the top of the mouse or you can choose to go wireless and instead plug the cable into the blasted metal finished Sensei Wireless charging base. This thing has weight and really looks fantastic and works superbly. The battery life of the Sensei Wireless lasts the stated 16 hours life (depending on your settings) comfortably and using the mouse wirelessly does not give you any issues with latency, accuracy or performance which is incredible and 100% puts to bed and concerns I may have had before about using a wireless mouse to game competitively online.

The dock looks modern and using the Engine3 software you can also alter the lighting, my personal setup was to have the base showing battery life represented by the lighting colour while the Sensei Wireless itself was lit up red along with the rest of my command station and it looks pretty damned stonking. This made it easy for me to monitor my mouse battery (green, yellow and red based on battery life) and allows for a personal touch simultaneously. Once my battery was low I simply place the perfectly fitting Sensei on the dock or simply unplug the wire and reconnect the mouse for non-stop gaming fun. This charging dock may not always seem practical but when compared to disposable or rechargeable batteries…it is simply better.

Performance

The Sensei Wireless has a very impressive high-sensitivity laser sensor which has blown me away with its 8,200 adjustable dpi. The Sensei is also able to track a ridiculous 150 inches per second which is incredibly excessive and I love it. The response is set at 1-millisecond and has a 2.4GHz wireless connection that is practically lag free and it certainly felt that way using it. I swapped between other mice and both wireless and wired mode on this Sensei and honestly I was blown away with how good the Sensei Wireless felt and how much control I had once I got my profile set up the way I liked it.As I mentioned about the battery life does last you a full 16 hours if you so wish, this is achieved using the balanced mode setup in Engine 3, you can extend this if you really want up to around 19-20 hours from my personal testing using the battery save mode, however this does mean you need to disable some of the cool

As I mentioned about the battery life does last you a full 16 hours if you so wish, this is achieved using the balanced mode setup in Engine 3, you can extend this if you really want up to around 19-20 hours from my personal testing using the battery save mode, however this does mean you need to disable some of the cool tinkering you can do using the software.

This mouse was a pleasure to use and play with and I had zero problems adapting and using it with any game I tried. I ran the Sensei Wireless through its paces and used it from everything from office work to Overwatch and Quake Arena. The only time I noticed any issue when switching from wired to wireless was when I really tried to almost create a situation where I looked for any lag. During gameplay it is not noticeable, however if that does get your goat you can simply plug in the wire for the best connection possible.

I did test the programmable buttons which can we assigned to keyboard commands and although I don’t often use them for anything other than mundane abilities personally it does open tactical options on the way people map out their keybinds for certain games.

Engine 3 Software

I have mentioned the customization options available to the Sensei Wireless thanks to the Engine 3 SteelSeries software but thats not everything I have to say about it. Yes it allows you to play with the LED light and set up profiles which it does very well, it is also extremely user-friendly unlike other mouse software I have used in the past and it also houses all your SteelSeries devices in the one software such as the M800 Apex I was suing in the office. This is a quality of life plus without a doubt, being easy to install, robust and simple to master allows for the user to get the most of out their Sensei Wireless. It encourages the user to experiment with different settings to find their own setup and also supports Windows and Mac operating systems.

Final Thoughts

The Sensei Wireless might well be my favorite wireless gaming mouse available and although most gamers are distrustful of wireless devices (often for good reason) the SteelSeries Sensei Wireless will put even the most hesitant of gamer at ease. The Sensei Wireless side steps a lof of the pitfalls of other wireless gaming mice with incredible accuracy and solid perforamce and my only issues with the mouse are my preferences on ergonomic design and some of the materials used affecting the build quality and feel. There is no doubt that by using this device your game will improve and even though it will hit your bank balance a little harder than some of the competition is it ultimately worth it.

I am going to give the Sensei Wireless a 9/10, when compared to cheaper wireless options the price adds too much expectation to what is otherwise a fantastic gaming mouse. Lower the price slightly and add one or two more profiles for me to play with and I’d be tempted to give this full marks.

        Pros

Excellent Software Support

SteelSeries Switches feel great

Aim, Accel, Lift and Snapping are awesome

LED lighting is functional and cool

Good customization opportunities

Cons

Expensive

Only two profiles to play with