MSI Clutch GM10 Optical Gaming Mouse Review – No Side Buttons?

Peter Donnell / 6 years ago

Final Thoughts

How Much Does it Cost?

The MSI Clutch GM10 is available now for a very wallet-friendly £22. There’s actually a lot of competition even at this price range, many of which come with all of the buttons. However, that’s not the point of the GM10. If you want a mouse with no side buttons, there are not many options out there. If you do want side buttons, check out the rest of the MSI range. It’s a niche market to have the buttons off, but it does exist and I think £22 isn’t going to have anyone crying over it either.

Overview

MSI has never sent me a mouse to review that I didn’t love. The GM10 clearly isn’t built for me or the types of games I enjoy either, but what time I have had with it, it’s been a brilliant mouse that’s really and honestly hard to fault. I do miss the side buttons for day to day work and browsing. However, I can’t mark the GM10 down for this. It was built for gaming, and that’s where it really shines. Albeit in specific game types, as an MMO mouse this is not.

Performance

The sensor is the real star of the show here, and it’s certainly one of the best optical sensors on the market at this price range. It’ll hold its own against £50+ models when it comes to competitive gaming. It tracks without angle snapping or jitter, and you could do a lot worse for the money. For FPS and MOBA gaming, accuracy is everything and you’ll find no issues here.

The LMB and RMB switches are super light and fast to use, with a nice tactile click that’s great for gaming too. The mouse wheel is a little sluggish, but again that seems to be by design. It makes smaller and more accurate adjustments a breeze, where it may be a little tiring to use to scroll through Facebook all day.

Build Quality

The GM10 is very lightweight, but it doesn’t feel cheap in the slightest. There’s a light texture to the top panel that’s very comfortable and feels every bit as good as more premium and expensive models like the GM60. The “dragon scale” hard plastic sides have good grip to them too. However, those who have sweaty gamer hands may prefer something with rubber grip texture, not plastic. Overall though, the mouse feels very rigid and well made, which is more than I can say about some mice at this price.

Should I Buy One?

This isn’t your one size fits all mouse. This is a mouse I would have specifically for eSports or LAN gaming tournaments and nothing else. I would still have my bigger feature packed “gaming” mouse for everything else. It’s like having trainers for most sports, but then having a set of running shoes for the 100m sprint. At this price, it’s hardly a burden to the wallet to have it as a second mouse for a specific task either. If you’re that niche, you’ll love what it has to offer, for everyone else though, it may be a little too focused.