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First Impressions

I must admit, until I got this out of the box and plugged in, I was a little disappointed by the appearance which seemed a little bland and nothing much to shout about. Personally, I’m big on my customisable buttons adorning the mouse, (albeit not too many meaning you are virtually holding a hand-sized keyboard!) but with the Kinzu, SteelSeries really have gone back to the basics – the generic three buttons are supplemented by just one extra profile changer. Nevertheless, after a few days use I was forced to eat my words, because this button proved to make all the difference when in-game (more on this late).

All this aside, the mouse has a surprisingly nice feel to it, and the brushed, smooth finish is actually great to hold. I was also impressed by how light the mouse was, you can barely feel it in your hand, and while obviously opinions on this vary by user, SteelSeries have done an excellent job in this respect. Also, even though it doesn’t look that impressive at first, it has some kind of understated desirability about it, not the in your face kind of thing which some gamers prefer, but one which wouldn’t look to out of place on a businessman’s desk even.

Compared to most gaming mice, it is, however, rather small, which could present problems for those with larger hands. Unfortunately this is not helped by the fact that the mouse is relatively shallow, so with my long, piano-hands I found that the grip took me a little while to get used to.

Movement-wise, the mouse glides across all surfaces I tried with ease (ranging from a wooden desktop, mouse mat and even jeans), and this is aided by the special polyethylene feet on the bottom of the mouse. How these fare after extensive use I cannot say, but there are replacements available on the net should these get worn down.

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2. Razer Abyssus Gaming Mouse @ ocaholic
3. SteelSeries NP+ @ LanOC Review
4. Steelseries Announces Sudden Attack Ikari Laser Mouse and QCK Mass Mousepad
5. Xtracpads Ripper XXL Gaming Mouse Pad Review

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