The CM Storm range of peripherals debuted 3 years ago, since then we have seen a solid array of products to suit most types of gamer. The Xornet’s is a mouse that Cooler Master hopes will deliver solid performance and low price, we take a look to see how they did.
What’s in the box?
The Xornet is a right handed “Claw Style” mouse; it has left and right click buttons, two buttons, forward and back, on the left side, and a scroll wheel. The Xornet also has two rubber panels on either side for extra grip, this is key for a claw style grip. Finally the mouse has a contoured design to give extra grip for the ring finger.
As the Xornet is aimed at a low price point of £19.99, the accessories are going to be a little light, in fact there are none. You get the mouse and a quick start guide included in the box.
Up Close
The CM Storm Xornet
| Sensor | Avago ADNS-A3050 2000 DPI Optical Sensor |
| Maximum Tracking Speed | 160 IPS |
| Maximum Acceleration | 23 g |
| Polling Rate | 1.0 ms |
| Speed | 6700 FPS |
| Hand | Right Hand Ergonomic |
| Buttons | 5 mouse buttons+ 2 fix function buttons |
| Onboard Memory | 8 Kb |
| Dimensions | (L)107 X (W) 75 X (H) 35 mm / (L) 4.2 X (W) 4 X (H) 1.3 inch |
| Net Weight | 142 g / 0.313 lb |
The Sensor
The Xornet is equipped with an Avago optical sensor, which is a common sensor used in gaming mice. This sensor allows for 3 DPI modes, 500, 1000 and 2000 without the need for software. As with other Avago sensors, the DPI is changeable without software and is not interpolated at all, meaning a fluid and true tracking of the movement made by the gamer. The Xornet has a good acceleration of 160 inches per second with a maximum speed of 23G. While the Xornet has some good specifications, the lower DPI fits in with its pricing, and also doesn’t step on the toes of the CM Spawn. If you are new to gaming mice, 2000 DPI could be more than enough, though it would have been nice to see a little higher DPI. The options of the DPI are somewhat limiting, 400 DPI would have been a better preset in our opinion, and with no software to configure the mouse, these can’t be changed..
Sensor Testing
For our testing, we used a Boogie.Aim mouse pad; this is a thin cloth pad. We also used an Everglide Titan for apples to apples test on tracking speed.
The Inches per second seem very high for a mouse aimed at the £20 price bracket, at 160, that equals nearly 4 metres per second, something a lot of mouse three times the Xornet’s price cannot do. The mouse shipped with the V50 firmware, we updated straight away to the V55.
V55 results
| 500 DPI | 1.5 Mps |
| 1000 DPI | 2.6 Mps |
| 2000 DPI | 3.85 Mps |
As you can see, the improvement is clear in that the newest firmware is the best for pure speed. We also did see some negative acceleration on the earlier firmware. There were also a lot of differences between the 2 mouse pads we tested against. The Titan was nearly 20% slower in speed than the Boogie pad, so the sensor is not the most consistent across different types of cloth. It is hard to recommend a mouse pad for this mouse without testing them all, but the Boogie pad is what we managed to get the best results out of.
Special Features
The Look and Feel
The Xornet is the little brother to the CM Storm Spawn mouse, but it packs a great punch. Like the Spawn, the Xornet is a claw design; this is intended for users with a lighter grip that move the mouse with their fingers instead of the base of their palm. To that end, the Xornet has a unit weight of about 90g without the cable, making it one of the lightest mice available. The Xornet also has 2 rubberised strips along the left and right sides of the mouse for what CM are calling an “anti-slip” design. The shape of the Xornet is also designed for the claw style, with an ergonomic finger placement on the right side of the mouse. The final feature is the buttons; the 2 buttons on the left side make general use in Windows really easy. Underneath the buttons are the excellent Omron switches, they have a small amount of feedback indicate activation, but aren’t too sensitive, such as hair trigger switches.
Claw
The main strength of the Xornet’s overall feel is also its weakness; it’s a claw style mouse. The majority of other mice in the market are palm grip, such as the CM Sentinel, which are larger and have a simple shape. While it is possible to use a palm grip with the Xornet, those who have a claw or fingertip grip are more likely to enjoy this mouse.
Software?
Mice at the top end of the offering from CM Storm have a software suite bundled with the mouse; this is to aid in customising the mouse to the user’s exact specifications. The Xornet does not have any software to make any changes, while this may detract the overall value for some more experience gamers; the Xornet isn’t really aimed at that market. At £20, it offers a simple and easy gaming experience with some higher end features, which is why I think software would actually complicate things for the intended gamer.
Gaming Tests
FPS: This mouse is not feature packed, but the DPI adjustments make a handy tool in our test games, CSS and BF3. Easy switching down DPI to a lower setting make flying jets easier. The claw design can often mean a lighter touch, sniping was actually a little easier. All in all a solid entry level FPS mouse.
RTS: The Xornet performed reasonably well in SC2, the micro switches behind the buttons allow for a high amount of clicks per minute, so the Xornet gets a recommendation in the RTS category.
MMO: Extra buttons would be nice, though as I have mentioned before, those sorts of features wouldn’t be possible at this price point. It would have been nice to customise the buttons as well. Finally, for prolonged play sessions, perhaps the claw grip won’t work for all gamers.
Who is it for?
The Xornet is really for any new gamer with a claw grip in mind. It has aspects of RTS DNA inside, but it is also suited for FPS gamers given the high tracking and acceleration.
Conclusion
The Xornet is a bargain at only £19.99; it has some high end features packed into a small and comfortable package. A simple, easy to use and solid performing mouse, the Xornet is a welcome addition to the CM Storm line of mice.
FPS Gamer Score 7/10
RTS Gamer Score 7/10
MMO Gamer Score 7/10
Overall Score = 7/10
