Cougar Iron Grey Edition 550M Gaming Mouse Review

Peter Donnell / 9 years ago

Final Thoughts

Price

The Cougar 550M Optical Gaming Mouse is available in Iron Grey or Metallic Blue from Overclockers UK for just £41.99. Unfortunately, I could not find stock at a preferred US retailer at the time of writing.

Overview

The Cougar range is full of surprises and the 550M is no exception. While it’s not the greatest gaming mouse in the world, as subjective as that rating would be, it’s certainly a strong contender in its respective price range, where it goes head to head with the likes of the Shogun Bros Ballista MK-1, DeathAdder Respawn, SteelSeries Kana and CM Storm Mizar. There’s no shortage of “fairly decent” mice in this price range and it’s hard to pick a clear winner in terms of performance.

Fortunately, the Cougar 550M does have some stand-out features, such as its unique design and great build quality. This price range is often dominated by thinner plastic construction and that’s certainly not the case with the 550M. The tough body of the mouse is nicely finished, it features a metal pass through mid-chassis component, has a good weight to it, has huge slip-mats, RGB lighting and a braided cable; It may be affordable, but there’s certainly a focus on build quality here.

The desktop software is also a cut above the rest, with a clean layout that’s as appealing to the pros among us as it would be the newbie gamers. The added bonus is that the UIX software is compatible with all Cougar products, meaning you won’t need multiple pieces of software for multiple products.

Pros

Great build quality
Nice aesthetics
Excellent UIX software
Competitive price
RGB lighting

Cons

Tiny bit of angle snapping at higher DPI settings

“The Cougar 550M is a strong contender in the low-to-mid budget market. It has a good range of features, excellent build quality and a unique design that more than justify the retail price. If you’re looking for a good mouse for work and gaming, you’ll love what the 550M has to offer.”