XPG Slingshot Gaming Mouse Review

A Closer Look & Performance

The XPG Slingshot actually looks pretty decent, and while the design isn’t innovative, it’s certainly hitting all the key points for a competitive gaming mouse in 2022. It’s got a classic IntelliMouse ergonomic shape, so it is going to feel pretty familiar and comfortable to hold, which is obviously a good thing.

Down the left side, there are two navigation buttons, pretty standard fair really, but again that’s no bad thing for gaming, just a straightforward and familiar layout here.

The buttons themselves feel nice, and a swift flick of your thumb gives you a responsive click that’s well suited to fast-paced action.

No buttons on the right side, but a nice ergonomic shape that makes it very easy to get a sturdy hold on the mouse even with a light grip. The shape is going to work well for a fingertip or palm grip, so it’s up to you how you want to hold it.

Plus, if you’re using a low DPI lift-off technique, you’ll be glad to see the Slingshot is reasonably lightweight. It’s got an exoskeleton design that cuts down the overall weight. Strangely, XPG do not give the rated weight, so let’s go get the scales out!

With the cable.

With the cable resting off to the side (as close to without the cable I can get it). Not the lightest out there, but still pretty decent overall.

The left and right mouse buttons are all part of the top shell design, rather than being their own mounted panels. I prefer them separate, but I do like the clean lines and ergonomics this format provides. The switches feel pretty decent, with a pleasing light and fast click. Overall, it’s pretty much what you would expect so far, nothing innovative, but no glaring issues either, which is obviously a good thing.

The wheel is a good size, with a light grip coating that makes it nice and easy to control. It’s clickable too, giving you one extra button, but there’s also a profile/DPI button behind that too.

On the underside, you’ll find the PixArt sensor, which is good for up to 12000 DPI. Unfortunately, XPG doesn’t provide the rest of the specifications. However, from my own experience, it should be good for around 250 IPS and 50G acceleration.

The slipmats on the bottom of the Slingshot are quite small, but they work well combined with the overall lightweight design of the mouse, it’s pretty nimble overall. A fast, light and easy-to-move mouse makes this a swift weapon for twitchy and fast-paced gameplay. I’m not much of an FPS gamer these days, but I wish I had these modern FPS mice back in my Quake 3 Arena days, that’s for sure!

Overall, the grip and shape are very good, but as I said before the overall shape and hardware here is pretty common stuff, so the mouse feels very familiar. That’s actually not a bad thing though, you don’t always want something unique, you want something that you don’t need to think about so you can focus on your game.

One thing I do like is the Battleground L gaming mouse pad. Admittedly, I don’t care for the image on it, that’s just not by style at all. Actually, that’s not entirely true, I like the colour choices here, the red and oranges are nice, and obviously match that of the XPG branding. I also like the digital design in the top left.

It’s a good gaming surface though, and the XPG Slingshot glides on it really well, and the overall tracking performance has been superb. As you can see, I ran it through my mouse gauntlet, and it held up great, as I would have expected from a PixArt sensor. There’s no acceleration, no angle snapping, or a prediction, so top marks here.