CM Storm Xornet 2000 DPI Gaming Mouse Review

CM Storm never sleep and are always releasing new and improved version of their products.

Today is a new and certainly impressive looking mouse although it isn’t specifically an upgrade to a previous product. It is in fact fairly similar to their very popular CM Storm Spawn but with a few key differences, that some might consider make it the little brother of the family.

Primarily, this mouse has a 2000DPI CM Storm Tactical Sensor, which is lower than the 3500DPI of the CM Storm Spawn although admittedly the design, as is the case with claw-grip gaming mice, is very similar. The CM Storm Xornet does however have a lower profile shape and is as such quite a lot flatter across the top of the mouse.

Turning to the mouse itself, which we think looks pretty swish. From the top we can see the CM Storm logo and numerous buttons.

From the left-hand side we can see the forward and back buttons that we now expect on all gaming and even most everyday mice.

The Xornet logo certainly looks good, and you can see that each side features a rubber material to provide lots of grip without sweat building up.

On the top of the mouse there is a scroll wheel which has a very precise feel while not being too clunky. On top of this we have two on-the-fly DPI buttons, so that you can increase or decrease the DPI without going into any software or driver pages.

The bottom of the mouse looks fairly standard, and features the CM Storm Tactical Sensor as seen on other CM Storm mice, but this time in a 2000 max DPI form.

[/wpcol_1half] [wpcol_1half_end id=”” class=”” style=””]

Normally with most gaming products from a well established brand like CM Storm we would expect to find that their are drivers available for the product. In the case of the Xornet, they just don’t exist.

While there are lots of advantages of being able to tweak every little feature in the software, we are not always convinced whether for a mouse it is truly necessary, and in fact there are lots of advantages to a mouse that has been designed to be used without drivers.

For instance the implementation of the on-the-fly DPI switching on the Xornet makes it all too easy to make this adjustment without breaking out of a game, and we do stop and ask, what else do you want to be able to adjust? Quite frankly, the answer, unless you are a professional gamer, is very little.

In terms of comfort, once you are used to a claw-grip style mouse you will certainly not find this mouse uncomfortable to use. We certainly found that the rubber material on either side of the mouse really helps it to be gripped exactly how you want.

The positioning of the buttons, like the CM Storm Spawn are just about right, although personally I do find the ‘lower DPI’ button to be a bit of a stretch without dramatically changing hand position but this is to be expected and is the same with nearly all mice on the market.

Performance wise, we are always impressed with the CM Storm mice, especially with regards to the tactical sensor, which even in its cut-down version produces impressive results and is unbelievably smooth on all surfaces. A 2000 DPI sensor, while being lower than the new gaming mouse average, it is certainly more than enough for most games and gaming styles.

It certainly doesn’t hinder the performance in most games, although most gamers do certainly seem to favour the higher DPI settings and so may be accustomed to expecting more. We do however find the on-the-fly adjustments perfect for everyday use as well, as it allows us to have the precision while using programs like Adobe Photoshop and the speed when navigating across the desktop, it certainly gives you a good compromise and the best of both worlds.

Although there are gaming mice out there that can certainly rival this mouse, including its popular brother the CM Storm Spawn, we feel that it is certainly a very competitive mouse. It has been designed for professional FPS gamers, and this really shows in terms of the performance and the build quality.

The most staggering point, is that this mouse can be had for around the £20 mark, which is pretty cheap for a mouse that delivers so much more than your standard everyday Microsoft mouse. Admittedly, it doesn’t have the drivers, and has a slightly lower DPI when compared with its brother, the CM Storm Spawn, but it is at least £10 cheaper and as such is certainly extremely good value for money.