Customer Reviews

Microsoft SideWinder X8 Mouse

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This mouse is the best mouse I have owned and I like it better than any Logitech mouse. There I have said it.
To start off with this matches and compliments my Microsoft Sidewinder X6 keyboard. While this mouse is not for small hands, my hand is of normal size and the mouse feels good. The mouse comes with the Intellipoint software where you can really gear the mouse up as you would like. The X8 Mouse is a gaming cordless USB drive mouse with a round disk with one end plugged into a USB slot and then it gives a cord that rolls out from the disk that you attach to the base of the mouse when you want to recharge or use it as a corded mouse. It is the best of both worlds. No more swapping or changing batteries as the mouse can recharge from this method while you use it. When the included AA rechargable battery needs to be recharged the mouse pulsates its red color to let you know that it is time to recharge. There is even an On/Off switch to conserve batteries.
I have put this round disk that contains the wire to run or recharge the mouse out of sight under the opening I have at my desk. I even tested the mouse out on different surfaces form a desk to a rug to a bed and the mouse performs very well without missing a beat. There are different feet for the mouse, but I can not tell that there is much difference in the way the mouse performs or feels, but as stated the movement is fine without changing the feet on the bottom. On the front of the X8 you have three LCDs to change your DPI on the fly. This feature works very well and there is a noticable difference so it conforms to what your needs will be whether you use it for gaming or as just use it as your mouse of choice all of the time. It has up to 4000 DPI. The mouse itself has many buttons that are well laid out. You can customize some of them to fit your needs.
Now I must say that I have stayed away from these Microsoft mice in the past due to the smooth scrolling of the wheel. I can not stand that. It would feel like you have no contol of what you scroll. Well this mouse has detents on the scroll wheel so this dislike I have for other Microsoft mice is no longer an issue with the X8. The scroll wheel is also adjustable with its speed which is a must for me.
There are so may other features that I have not even bothered with as of yet. Yes, this is a Microsoft product, but forget that. The X8 mouse not only looks good, but is comfortable and performs flawlessly with evey feature a mouse can possess. I hope the sturdy feel of the mouse holds up over time, but I am quite pleased with not only the X6 Sidewinder keyboard, but just as pleased with the X8 Sidewinder mouse. At this point I give the X8 Sidewinder Mouse the highest rating.

I've had the Microsoft Sidewinder X8 for about a week now and so far I've been liking it. I previously used a Logitech MX518, and although it wasn't a bad mouse, it started wearing off and felt that it was time to get a new one. My top priorities for a new mouse were decent DPI, fits big hands well and relatively new with up to date technology. Through various reviews and browsing forums I concluded on getting the Microsoft Sidewinder mouse (its precursor). However, just when I was about to purchase the mouse, I heard Microsoft was coming up with an updated version next month. So I waited.

The major differences between the Sidewinder X8 and the Sidewinder are increased DPI (from 2000 to 4000), wireless, and lack of adjustable weights. I was quite surprised to not see adjustable weights but it is not something I worry about. Some gamers might question the wireless on a gaming mice due to lag but Microsoft has stated they did intensive testing and found no difference in latency between wired mouses and the Sidewinder X8.

Installation of the software was a breeze. Once that was completed, I plugged in the USB and as soon as I started using the Sidewinder X8 I noticed a significant tracking improvement over the MX518--it's much more precise and this was at 2000 DPI. The vertical side buttons are as good, if not slightly better than the horizontal ones. I've rarely used them on the MX518, but on the Sidewinder X8 I use it much more often. But they may take awhile getting used to them. The rest of the buttons work great and haven't had a problem with setting up a macro on the macro button. The LCD screen showing the battery metre and DPI is a nice touch as well.

The wireless receiver is shaped like a puck and its charger wire is wrapped around making it very easy to extend. The magnetic end on the charger wire allows it easily to snap on to the mouse. If your battery is dead (which didn't happen for awhile) you can still use the mouse as soon as it attaches. Inside the puck contains two different mouse feet pads in addition to the default ones on the mouse. I tried them all and there is a slight difference between them but opted to leave the default ones on. However, I noticed they easily attract moist and accumulate scratches. I'm afraid that this might disrupt the smooth movements although I have not noticed any so far.

One problem that has slightly annoyed me involves the grip of the mouse. My hands are on the large side and felt that the mouse would ergonomically accommodate for it. But when I put my hand on the mouse, the index finger on the left click and the middle finger on the right click, my ring finger does not fall into its groove correctly. This causes my ring finger to hit the top of the groove which isn't a good feel. The groove is very linear and the only way for my ring finger to fit nicely into the groove is to move my hand a bit back. But doing so weakens my grip . This whole problem is most likely due to my hand composition as I have not heard any complaints related to that matter. On the contrary, when holding the mouse with the index finger on left click, middle finger on the scroll wheel and the ring finger on the right click, it fits perfectly! My pinky sits flawlessly onto the groove. But is it worth the change?

Concluding:

Pros:
- Incredible tracking with 4000 DPI
- Wireless with great battery life
- Customizable buttons

Cons:
- Not the best mouse feet pads
- Not for small hands
- Questionable grip

*** UPDATE ***
It seems that this mouse has not been the greatest. The BlueTrack is supposed to track on anything, and at a hard soft surface as a desk it did jump a few times. Maybe it can be fixed with a firmware upgrade?

Received in 2 days , pluged in and worked flawlessly, but for my hand size(med-large), this mouse was very uncomfortable. It is a little flatter than I am used too, with no hump in the middle to provide support,and I found my handing gravitating toward the back of the mouse. I had to 'claw' grip this mouse, with thumb and pinky finger having to grip sides of the mouse and it soon became very uncomfortable.

I would suggest you test drive this mouse at a retail store to check for comfort.

I got this mouse with the hope of having more control with my right hand. More buttons that I could program. It's not a bad mouse, but could use some redesigning. I actually prefer my original wireless mouse. the Logitec Logitech MediaPlay Cordless Mouse- Blue. It has two easy-to-target, programable, thumb buttons, and two not so easy to target dedicated volume control buttons. It also has next song/ last song control on the right.
The Sidewinder has two easy-to-target, programable, thumb buttons, and one difficult to target dedicated button. Most of the buttons on this mouse are already predetermined. You have Left, right, and center click, as well as scroll wheel (which is also the center button) that has left/right tilting, and two North/South thumb buttons. You also get a hard to hit thumb button (not sure what it does yet, but it's not programable), and 3 sensitivity setting buttons under your palm along with a second power button. So, in total you get 5 programable buttons (3 finger, 2 thumb). I was hoping for more.
The mouse itself is a bit bulky. I like to hold the mouse with my fingers, and do broad movements with my forearm, and fine movements by resting my palm on the table and moving my fingers around. So I like a little play between the mouse and the boney part of my palm. This has none. It's made for people who like to hold the mouse firmly in their palm.
It's also a bit heavy, and has 3 different feet you can switch out for your style of sliding around.
It's rechargeable.
The sensitivity is a bit strange as well. The left/right sensitivity is a bit less then the North/South. I find that I have to do broader motions to look left and right, but only a slight movement up, will have me looking at the ceiling. This takes some getting used to.
If I re-designed this mouse, I'd make it lighter, less bulky, move the thumb buttons back about an inch, and add 1 or 2 more thumb buttons either in a plus formation, or two over two. I'd also push the mouse theory by adding another button either on the LeftClick, or RightClick part of the mouse that was higher up (about where your second knuckle is) so you could do two different clicks with one finger.
It's not a bad mouse, but could use some reworking.

I'm going to make it short.

1. The mouse itself is a very nice design.
2. I like the blue track technology because it does what it was said on any other reviews by reviewers or personal users.
3. The sensitivity is very amazing and 4000 DPI is wow given a 10+ points on a 5 stars rating. It moves fast as higher the DPI.
4. The mouse tends to wear off somewhat when the days passed by. It depends on the users because heavy users will wear it down pretty fast.

Cons.
1. I hate the size of the mouse because my hands are pretty small.
2. It's irritating after awhile when playing FPS games, sometimes I wanted to throw the mouse due to heavy and not very comfort.
3. The wireless mouse sucks on being wireless unless you don't use it on a dark surface or else it will stop like every 5 seconds, like it's on reserve for I have no idea why!!!! meaning your mouse stop working and you have to press a button to activate it, annoying I say.
4. The right button tends to get sticky or it doesn't connect when pressing during a game to aim or to bring up the scope...you have to press it more than 2 times and sometimes it brings the scope and turn it off..annoying.

Summary:

Overall the mouse is fine, but there are some small glitches. On the other hand, if you have small hands or a pretty high temper when things are irritating or annoying, please look for another gaming mouse...I was about to throw that thing. You tell me how irritating it is. For others, it is OK mouse if your hands are too big and you need a monster to fit then this is a mouse you should look into because it is very uncomfortable due to the size and the weight for small hands.

Overpriced, poor batt life, dicsontinued by microsoft so no support upon calling about charging battery issues, and not comfortable compared to the logitech g700 if you have standard length fingers--IF ya got long alien fingers this mouse is for you.

I recently purchased this mouse to replace my Logitech 518. So far I really like it and love the vertical thumb buttons as opposed to the more common horizontal thumb buttons. I only have one possiable major concern. I have found while playing BF:BC2 that if you click the right mouse button on the edge closest to the center of the mouse, the button sticks. Now this as any FPS gamer can tell you can be fatal and a major problem when playing games that require quick button presses. I don't know if anyone else has had this issue and if you click the right mouse button anywhere else it works fine, only if you click it on the edge next to the center of the mouse.

It was a really long way for me to decide which mouse should I buy. Suddenly I came across this one. The mouse is great. It has 2 dedicated buttons for macros and customized actions, but all its 12 buttons, icluding click and scroll are full programable. Let's go by parts. The comfort is great, especially when you have big hands. WARNING: Don't try to use this mouse if you are left-handed. It's really comfortable for people who use the right hand, but definitely not for left handed people. It has 3 sets of feet which allow the user to choose the one that feels better. (They have (not so) different surfaces)
The scroll is very accurate. Not only up and down, but left and right too. The sensibility goes from 250dpi to 4000dpi. A very good range. It has 3 dpi switching buttons, on-the-fly. Well, now the best part. Wireless and batteries ! Microsoft had me on this feature. The battery is very good, I played for a week without problems, but the best about the mouse is that you never have to change batteries or stop playing to charge. You just have to conect it to the wire (magnetic, really cool) and you have a wired mouse AND you are charging the battery. You never have to stop. About the Blue Track technology, it really works in almost all surfaces and really well. Some reviews say it doesn't work well on cloth pads. Not true for me. I use it with a Mantis Control, and it's fine.
Well, thank you for reading my review. Forgive me for my poor english, I've probably made several mistakes since the beginning of the review.

I'll begin this review by stating an opinion: "gaming" these days is a loaded term. It is a label often applied to many products in order to justify a (sometimes) 150% increase in cost, and sometimes more than that. I've found that many products that have this label applied to it to be SORELY lacking, and most people that buy them seem to do so SOLELY because it says it's a "gaming" product. So, with that in mind, here's the review:

Mice are one of the few things I'll justify spending a bit more on. I say "a bit more" as in "more than the 2 button $[...] mice you used to find in schools." I don't however, fall for the frequent traps the industry seems to be laying for customers these days (see above). In fact, I'm one of those people who rarely ever upgrades anything, unless it breaks or needs upgrading to continue to function. I've been a PC gamer since I was a kid, but have only purchased 3 mice (in order of progression): a Micrsoft Intellimouse optical (these used to be all the rage) that I paid a whopping $[...] shipped for on Ebay, a Logitech G5 2142 edition mouse that I paid $[...] for on eBay, and this Microsoft Sidewinder X8 that I purchased on Amazon for $[...]ish. In point of fact, I only purchased this because my trusty old Logitech was starting to wear from having the cord wound and unwound from moving it all the time, and figured a replacement was in order.

I checked out a cousin's Razer (I think it was a Mamba, but it was wired), which seemed kind of nice, until you look at the price of them. Sure, they had more buttons than my old Logitech, but cost over twice as much, and didn't seem to perform much better than the Logitech. Obviously, they were taken out of contention. So off to Google I went, and much to my surprise, Microsoft had produced a (wireless) gaming mouse, which according to most of the reviews I've read was a fairly decent product. I also have a 360, and while I am more than a little annoyed that it has been back to the factory thrice, I figured a company that has been in the video game and computer industry as long as Microsoft has might know what it's doing. For the most part, I was right.

So about a week after I ordered the mouse, I received it, and immediately set to work unboxing and installing it. One of the first things I liked about it was that it's a sharp looking mouse. The color of the mouse (and the "puck" that it connects to) is in a Black/Grey/Silver motif. The LED's visible on the mouse are a nice red color, and it really gives off a vibe of power (for lack of a better word). The mouse is a wireless/wired hybrid, and functions well in both modes. The reason I called it a hybrid is that unlike some other products, this mouse can be used while it is charging, as the charging interface magnetically connects to the bottom front of the mouse, and doesn't require you to put the mouse in the cradle to charge it. So long story short: When it's wireless, it's wireless. When it's charging, it acts (and looks) very similar to a conventional corded mouse. +1 on this design feature.

Another aspect I like is that the battery that the mouse uses isn't integral to the mouse itself. Anyone familiar with portable electronics will immediately realize that the weakest aspect in said devices is the battery. Batteries in comparison to the devices themselves are relatively short-lived, with many devices going through several batteries in the life of the product (Cell phones, I'm looking at you!) The X8 uses a humble NiMH AA battery, and includes one with the mouse. +1 on this design feature.

One of the two complaints I had is this: The Logitech G5 I had that preceded this mouse provided an ample platform for my huge mitts (XXL sized gloves), and I never had any issues with comfort. The X8 I have issues with. To me, it seems like there should be more mouse to the right of the right mouse button than there actually is. I know that's a strange way of describing it, but it's all I've got. I use my Index and Middle fingers to operate the buttons on the mouse, and move my index finger over to the wheel as needed. My ring and pinky fingers hang off the side of the mouse, and feel...strange, for lack of a better word. I blame this feeling in large part to adjusting to a different set of ergonomics over the old Logitech I had. After a few weeks however, most of this feeling has gone away. It still annoys me from time to time, however.

The only other complaint I had with the mouse is that there have been several instances where the cursor on the screen lags for a few seconds. It has occurred I think 3 times since I bought the mouse, so it isn't a huge issue. I have to admit however, that due to the rarity of the occurrence I haven't exactly been observant of other factors that may have influenced it. I only know that I never had these kinds of issues with the old Logitech. Having said that however: (to paraphrase Spock): "When you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left, however unlikely, must be the truth."

Something else interesting to note: I an attempt to figure out if there was any delay in the switching between the wired and wireless modes, I conducted a couple of tests. Both in games and just surfing the web, I moved the mouse rapidly, and in the middle of doing so, disconnected the mouse from the charging cable. There was no delay, or noticeable lag in the motion of the mouse. My initial belief (before having conducted the test) was the the mouse functioned in a wireless mode only when disconnected from the puck, and functioned as a traditional wired (IE USB) mouse when it was connected. The results of my humble experiment lead me to believe that the mouse functions wirelessly 100% of the time, and the cable is used only to charge the mouse. Since I don't have any tools to test this theory, I can't be 100% sure, but it warrants some further thought or research on the topic. This might also explain the issues I was having above, seeing as thought we live an increasingly wireless world, and I'm in range of about 6 wireless access points, and probably 30 cell phones at any given time, any one of which could have potentially interfered with wireless signals.

The X8 has many more features that have been covered in both the product description, as well as other reviews, and I didn't feel like reiterating what has already been said. Suffice it to say that this product is a well-built, for the most part well designed, and very all around solid product for the money. You won't be disappointed.

Overall: Great mouse. Amazing for ~1 year, then the middle-click stopped working.

Pros:
Good comfort, fits great even on small hands.
Thumb buttons are great.
The whole design of the mouse really works well.
On the fly DPI buttons work well - each one is customizable.

Cons:
Scroll wheel is a little ratchety - not a big issue, but a bit annoying.
Button in the middle of the mouse just opens the Windows Game Center - and you can't change it. Not a huge issue since it's covered up by your palm.
This mouse is completely unusable if you're left-handed.

The middle-click broke after about a year. I have to right-click links and click 'Open Link in New Tab.' This doesn't seem to happen for most people, but I thought it was worth mentioning. I called Microsoft Replacement Parts and they're giving me a full refund for the mouse. I think I'm going to get a R.A.T. 7.

Is it worth the money? If you want a high quality gaming mouse, go for this or a R.A.T. 7 or 9. If all you do is check your email, you should be fine with a $2 budget mouse.