Cooler Master Storm Recon & Skorpion Review

INTERNALS AND CUSTOMIZATION

The buttons are important, but so is the sensor. The Recon is powered by an Avigo optical sensor, more precisely the Avigo 3090 model, which is supposedly the most cutting-edge version in the market right now. The Xornet uses a Storm Tactical optical sensor, whereas the Sentinel Advance uses a Storm Tactical twin-laser sensor. Optical or laser, the differences are miniscule and more influenced by subjectivity rather than objectivity. Chances are you are not aware of which your mouse uses, and that is how it should be as both are virtually identical. The important fact is that the Recon works like the Sentinel and Xornet, and just as splendidly. I had no problems of jittery movement or tracking failure; it continues to work flawlessly.

Even though the Avigo 3090 is new, it is capped to 4000 dpi. Although it is double the 2000 dpi offered by the Xornet, it is less than the 5600 dpi present in the dated Sentinel Advance. Chances are you will not use anything close to 5600 (I use 3800 myself), but it is a big feature if you play “twitch” games like Quake, Tribes: Ascend, and Call of Duty just to name a few. Not a big downside, but rather a note if you do consider using over 4000 dpi.

The dpi controlling in the Recon is unique to that of the Xornet and Sentinel; it is actually melded with the LED lighting. The Xornet has no lighting whatsoever. The Sentinel Advance does, and has its own lighting button to change colours and profiles in one go (which gives it the extra button over the Xornet). The Recon designing lets go of the separate lighting button, so when the user changes dpi using the buttons, the colours and profiles change as well.

This is a neat way to incorporate the two features, but ultimately a little bit restrictive when compared to the method found in the Sentinel. If you have to change dpi on the fly and retain the same colour, you would have to do it for all dpi settings if you want the same colour throughout, regardless of which dpi you set. This would also mean you would have to change the colours back in case you want to change them. The Sentinel on the other hand can change colours and dpi interchangeably. This is more of a personal issue, for if you do not care about the colours then it will not matter at all.

When I first opened the packaging, I thought the Recon would not have the ability to modify it. The Xornet does not (not through Cooler Master at least), and while I can understand that, it would have been an odd emission for the Recon considering that the Sentinel has its own software and drivers. Visiting Cooler Master’s website, I was pleasantly satisfied finding the new Storm Recon software suite:

The utility allows the user to configure the Recon to their hearts desire. In fact, you can fully customize the entire mouse, including the buttons, dpi settings, profiles, and custom colouring. As with all Cooler Master mice I have used, every single button is programmable and customizable, which is a huge plus.