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Mionix Saiph 3200 Gaming Mouse
Submitted by jwhitakr on Mon, 09/07/2009 - 09:53.
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When it comes to FPS (first person shooter) games, you are only as good as your last frag. Keeping your skills in top playing condition require high precision hardware, which includes a high resolution mouse that can pinpoint a pixel at 1920 x 1200 resolution in a millisecond flat. The only thing you should have to worry about is your own speed and skill. Today we're going to take a look at the Mionix Saiph 3200 to see if it qualifies as a truly high performance gaming mouse ready to take you to the top of your game.
Design
The Mionix Saiph 3200, named after the sixth brightest star in the constellation Orion, comes packaged in a black box which is very easy to open without damaging the mouse inside, unlike some plastic packages that you have to cut open. The only thing in the box is the mouse. There are no driver discs, manual or warranty card. Just the product. The mouse works perfectly out of the box with Windows Vista and XP both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions. If you find that you need the driver you can find the current driver at the manufacturer's web site located here.
The mouse uses laser technology instead of infrared for high precision tracking. It sports 6 buttons and seventh built into the scroll wheel. Two buttons directly behind the scroll wheel are for raising or lowering the dpi on the fly, no special drivers are needed and you have seven steps of dpi adjustment at your fingertips.
On the bottom of the mouse is a compartment that houses nine little weights weighing 3gr each. These can be removed one at a time to find the perfect weight for your preference. The mouse is 215gr with all the weights in and 185gr with none.
Features
• Unique ergonomic design brings you more pleasant gaming
• Equipped with the latest 3200 dpi laser technology
• In-game dpi adjustment with 7 dpi-steps
• Weight tuning system adjustable from 185g to 215g
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| Retail box | Overhead View | Open Box |
Performance
Upon plugging the mouse into a USB 2.0 port, the computer instantly recognizes it as a mouse and it begins working in about 1 second. All the buttons serve a function out of the box except the two thumb buttons, which must be programmed. First impression was how well the mouse fits the hand and at a very natural position. After a few minutes of finding a preferred weight and dpi resolution, we popped in an old favorite to test drive the mouse.
First game we played was CounterStrike: Source and the mouse performed very well making accurate first person shooting. The scroll wheel is also very smooth but still let you feel the individual gear teeth which made changing weapons quick and accurate as well. Considering the age of the game, the Saiph 3200 is probably the best mouse I personally have ever used with CounterStrike: Source.
The second game we tried was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Again the mouse performed admirably enabling great dexterity and fast direction changes. Games like Oblivion require you to think fast and react, the mouse shouldn't be your bottleneck and with Saiph 3200, it isn't. We were able to turn our character a complete 360° with controlled accuracy in under a second without missing a hit in battle. That's pretty good.
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| Top view | View in the Dark | Side view |
Last we tried the game Left 4 Dead. This game demands nerve, skill and speed but above all you need an accurate mouse. The headshots are counted and at the end of the game it tells who got the most and what percentage of shots were headshots. Shooting a zombie in the head at 50 yards or more is hard even with a scope, but if your mouse can't seem to pinpoint that little 3 pixel target, you got problems. With the Saiph 3200, we were getting headshots at 75 yards with no problem. Headshot percentages were an average of 45% over the course of the four different scenarios, that is an significant improvement over the previous best of 39%.
Mionix Saiph 3200 Gaming Mouse
The Mionix Saiph 3200 is a very well designed high performance gaming mouse that uses some of the latest mouse technology to give the user a very controlled gaming experience. The weight system is absolutely brilliant in design and gives each user even more control over their gaming experience. The mouse movement is fluid and precise and to top it all off, it is a really cool looking mouse to boot. One last note; it has a 2 year warranty.
While it is not an inexpensive device with a retail price of 59€ (about $80 USD), this is an outstanding gaming mouse. Nice job, Mionix.
Pros: Excellent laser tracking, 7-step dpi adjustment on-the-fly, natural hand position, adjustable weight system.
Cons: Pricey, no driver disc, no manual, no wireless model available.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
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