NZXT Avatar S Gaming Mouse Review

Final ThoughtsThe Avatar S, as we know is NZXT’s second outing into the mouse section of the market. Don’t let the lack of products put you off though, that doesn’t mean that we don’t have a good performing mouse on our hands.

The performance of the mouse throughout testing was very impressive. We didn’t suffer any problems while using the mouse in our gaming and general usage situations. The features were very useful especially the LED colour indicating the current DPI settings which was put to good use when playing as a sniper in a FPS game.

The layout of the mouse is decent. The button layout is symmetrical which helps with the attractiveness of the mouse although it doesn’t help when you are left searching for the forward button.

As for settings, they are very good for the most part. The different DPI settings were very useful when gaming and so was the ability to control the polling rate. Being able to to save up to 5 profiles all with different settings is a great feature. Allowing the user to change the LED settings and the orientation of the mouse depending on which hand they use is also a thoughtful addition showing that NZXT really have designed this mouse with the customer in mind. On the negative side of things though, the method in which DPI settings are switched is poor. There is nothing wrong with the logic behind it, as it is easy to carry out and remember, but the fact that it causes the window you are using to receive the ‘go back’ message is frustrating especially if you did end up losing comments or writing on websites. It would have been good if NZXT could have blocked the ‘go back’ message while DPI switching is taking place to avoid any unnecessary problems.

Overall, we think that NZXT have yet again done themselves proud. The Avatar S is a brilliant mouse with plenty of features, great gaming performance and some of the best aesthetics on the market. Considering the fact that this is only the second mouse that they have released makes the product that little bit more special. There are some minor problems which slightly tarnish our overall opinion towards the mouse, but let’s hope that NZXT can fix some of the problems with their upcoming mice because we can’t wait to see what they release in the future.

Pros:

• Very attractive
• Good gaming performance
• Lots of customizable features
• Good software support
• Comfortable even for big hands

Cons:

• Sometimes frustrating DPI switching method
  
• ​Awkward positioning of side button