E
ndgame Gear is a brand-new addition
to the peripheral world, but it’s a
company that comes with plenty of
pedigree. It’s part of the Caseking group of
brands, which includes the retailers Caseking
and Overclockers UK, as well as the chair
companies noblechairs and Nitro Concepts.
The XM1 mouse itself takes a less-is-more
approach to the lightweight mouse style.
There’s no RGB lighting, no extra buttons and
generally no frills. It just offers the basics in as
light a case as possible, and it most certainly is
light, weighing in at just 70g.
Its shape is more suited to claw and palm
grips than fingertip use. The main hump of the
mouse sits towards the back, and the rear of
the mouse is markedly wider than the front. As
a result, it tends to fill the area under your palm,
restricting movement when using a fingertip
grip. Its relatively small size also compounds
thisrestriction,meaningthatgamerswithlarge hands may not find a grip style that quite
works with the XM1.
Adding to the sense that this mouse isn’t
well suited to fingertip grip styles is the fact
that the sides are aggressively angled in
towards the bottom of the mouse. In theory
this angle helps to aid grip, as it ensures the
mouse can’t slip out from beneath your
fingers. However, while it certainly prevents
the mouse sliding downwards, the angle is
steep enough to mean that the mouse slides
upwards when you use it with a fingertip grip.
In terms of buttons, you get just left, right,
scroll wheel and forward/back thumb buttons,
but underneath the mouse, you’ll also find a DPI
button. Tap it and you can cycle through up to
four DPI levels, with the LEDs above indicating
which level you’ve selected. The levels for each
mode can be set in the XM1’s software, along
with the function of each button. It’s a basic
button selection but it’s enough for playing first-
person shooters, which is the main focus of
mice such as the XM1.
Meanwhile, the cable is a conventional
unbraided type that arrives full of kinks, so it
lies untidily on the desk. However, it’s slightly
more flexible than some mouse cables, so it
doesn’t affect the feel of the mouse if you use
it with a cord bungie.
As for the overall quality of the mouse, it
looks and feels quite cheap, and the matt
surface shines up quickly. However, it feels
solid enough, and the left and right buttons are
excellent. That said, we did find the side
buttons to be a bit too flexible in our testing,
requiring a stronger push than some of the
buttons on the competition. Tracking
performance is solid as well. The Pixart
PWM3389 is a tried and true 16,000dpi optical
sensor and we found the XM1 performed
flawlessly in game testing.Conclusion
The XM1 is a solid first attempt at a gaming
mouse from Endgame Gear. It offers all the
essentials and great performance in a very
lightweight package. The slightly back-heavy
and wide shape doesn’t make it ideal for fingertip
grips, though, and while it’s certainly cheaper
than some, you can get more features for less.ENDGAMEGEAR XM1 /£54inc VAT
SUPPLIER overclockers.co.ukVERDICT
Great performance, but its shape isn’t the
most unversally appealing and it’s not a
standout bargain.DESIGN
14 / 20
PERFORMANCE
24 / 30FEATURES
14 / 20
VALUE
24 / 30OVERALLSCORE
76
SPEC
Weight
70g
Dimensions (mm)
122 x 66 x 38
Sensor
Pixart PWM3389 (16,000dpi optical)
Buttons
Five (left, right, scroll wheel, back, forward)
Cable
1.8m, conventional rubber
Extras
DPI and report rate buttons on baseENDGAME
+ Very light
+ Good for claw grip
+ Grippy surfaceINFINITY WAR- Very basic feature set
- Shape not ideal
for fingertip grip - No lightweight cable