User Review Cooler Master STORM Recon Review

COOLER MASTER STORM RECON REVIEW

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First picture, courtesy the product page

Recently Cooler Master fleshed out their STORM line-up of gaming peripherals further by adding couple of mice and keyboards, one of these is the Cooler Master STORM Recon.

The Cooler Master STORM Recon is an ambidextrously laid out mice, which means it can be used by all gamers irrespective of their hand-bias. The mouse also boasts a few extra functions at its price point, so let us see whether the recce proceeds as planned or is uncovered by its competition.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

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I love mug-shots


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Show some spine

With a glance at the mouse it is clear the ambidextrous credentials, the mouse does not feature any tell-tale thumb indent or cleft that give away your hand-oriented mice. The other place your eyes are drawn to is the aggressively designed scroll-wheel, which is large, chunky and features a programmable backlight. Apart from that the mouse looks the part of a gaming mice by being peppered with a number of programmable secondary keys.

The mouse by the virtue of its design and size is suited for a claw or fingertip-grip, small hands should manage to palm it but it does not feel natural to me.

For the uninitiated about mice grip, please refer this excellent guide by Razer.

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Stand alone, stand tall

The Recon sits low on the surface, it features a narrow, streamlined design which distinguishes it from its competitors. The mouse maintains its width almost throughout its length save for a slight waist like constriction about midway its body. There are no contoured thumb rests as mentioned, instead appropriately your thumb and the little finger sit on two banks of programmable keys opposite each other (two each side, in all four), ostensibly to manipulate them effortlessly. Just behind the scroll wheel the mouse features two more keys pre-programmed to cycle between the various dpi sensitivities (by default).

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Snuggly mouse-ling
The box for the Recon is a standard hollow cuboid affair with its front face turned into a flap that shields the mouse from the elements which can be opened for display and demo purposes. The mouse sits inside the hollow and should be easy to demo with a claw / fingertip-grip before purchase and the flap reverse details various features such as the high-sensitivity optical sensor coupled with a dpi on the fly system, Omron Micro Switches (only on the left / right-click button), the backlit scroll-wheel, six extra programmable buttons, superior anti-slip coat (also pleasant to touch). The back of the box further elaborates on these details and the side left flank describes the contents, system requirements, exhorts you to visit the CMstorm page and the customary Made in China epiphany.

The mouse is a three piece design, these can be broadly divided into top-shell with soft-touch grip, the base of the shell and finally the hard matte plastic flanks of the mouse. The side and top programmable buttons are made of the same hard material as the flanks.

One of the points that I liked about the packaging and shows the STORM team’s attention to detail is the inclusion of a plastic shield for the USB head which can be used to prevent debris from lodging while the Recon is not plugged into a system or while travelling.

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Now see this, attention to detail.

Disclaimer – I tried using the Recon in a a rudimentary fashion with my left hand and the design functions, if anything my lack of fine motor skills impaired the performance of the device.

*The mouse carries a 2 year replacement-warranty as do all Cooler Master peripherals.

ERGONOMICS & BUILD

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I tried to do an ouroboros, CLOSE ENOUGH!

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Lined up on the disposal. Alles klar!


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Down low.

Being an ambidextrous design, the mouse is presented with a mirror layout of buttons to facilitate this nature of operation. The extra programmable buttons are not placed hap hazardously and anyone should acclimatise within a week or two to operating the mouse with fluency, time only improving on this. That said it does take some time adjusting your finger movement to operate the keys placed behind the scroll wheel.

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Claw-grip


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Finger-tip grip

Build quality is one of the strongest pillar of the Recon, Cooler Master have retained this while experimenting with the material used in construct. Gone is the anti-slip texture on the flanks, replaced by a hard, matte plastic of a pleasing grain texture. The top has a subdued arch and the entire shell plus main left and right buttons have a nice anti-slip grip finish. The top has been provided this grip because the mouse has been aimed at an audience that shall use a fingertip / claw posture to grasp the device. The scroll wheel is one of the largest I have seen in contemporary designs and has a nice tactile response to it both while scrolling and clicking. Unfortunately the buttons placed behind it feel a bit jarring and are positioned too shallow vis-á-vis the scroll wheel.

The bottom of the mouse is composed of a simple glossy black piece with three feet and a sticker carrying various details like the S/N of the mouse, compliance to various environmental standards and the mandatory ‘Made in China’ proclamation. In the centre of the mouse offset towards the rear the Avago 3090 optical sensor peaks out. Like any self-respecting gaming peripherals the sensor never sleeps to prevent actuation lag whilst idling.


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Bottoms up.

The Recon strikes a balance at its price point, offering enough over its competition while being open to both right-handers as well as the ubiquitous Southpaw gamer. The cable is 1.8 metres long and comes sheathed in good quality plastic that isn’t too bendy or brittle and should do fine in humid as well as sultry climes. Overall it carries on the tradition of fine build quality that I have experienced with Cooler Master STORM’s past offerings and should satisfy everyone save the quintessential nit-picker.

PLUG & PLAY

The Recon can be used out of the box. To change functions and assign macros to the programmable keys, the latest driver package has to be downloaded from the product’s page on the STORM site as the box is bereft of any driver disc. The software package is surprisingly light totalling ~14MB in all.

Apart from the driver updates the Recon shall get firmware bumps during its lifetime. The light driver set is surprisingly well thought out compared to other (heavier) STORM range peripheral driver packages. Although the colour scheme is heavily daubed with Red and Black the overall usability is much higher and clearly segregated into five tabs.

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Creating macros and assigning keyboard functions is a really simple and intuitive. The driver even features less known options like L.o.D. (lift off distance) and the polling rate of the mouse, both which I have not fiddled with. These can be adjusted w.r.t. to the dpi sensitivity of the optic sensor and each other.

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The latest driver pack of the mouse is from late 2012. It can be downloaded from here (under SUPPORT).

The following titles were used to test the mouse --

FPS – BioShock INFINITE / METRO 2033 / Spec Ops THE LINE / War Thunder – For these games, macros have to be assigned ad hoc to profiles which then have to be cycled manually to get desired settings in respective game. The mouse behaves well in all scenarios, although I suggest turning off mouse acceleration wherever possible and toning down the mouse sensitivity in-game or reducing the dpi in-case you find the mouse movement twitchy.

Out of all the FPS titles, War Thunder was the only one for which I dedicated a profile mapped and completely optimised for its controls. It is a F2P simulator that has enough button combinations to give healthy competition to MMO’s and I mapped the most often used keyboard functions onto the mouse for ease of access and simpler game-play

RPG – The Witcher 2 – For playing The Witcher I left the mouse settings at default as I am proficient enough to play with keyboard and mouse. More adventurous types can experiment with keyboard functions liaised to certain buttons and dpi settings adjusted to taste.

Indie – Mark of The Ninja – Mark of The Ninja is a rather mouse heavy indie title that uses a combination of mouse clicks and movements to trigger in-game actions. Again most of the mouse settings were left as is although I did map certain keyboard functions to test the mouse, these were on an ad-hoc basis.

Please note that unlike most popular gaming device drivers Cooler Master drivers do not bundle any custom macro sets / custom button schemes.

FINAL WORDS: RECON ROLLING OUT

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Ready to roll

Till now I had been rather wary of Cooler Master STORM peripherals not because they were bad but they did not do anything different from the plethora of other options on the market.

The Recon is a comprehensive package which removes chinks like unfriendly drivers and pigeon-holed design concepts whilst melding them with the build quality that I cannot praise enough (in most cases). Along with the aggressive price that Cooler Master India is gunning for the Recon I consider it an option that should be looked at strongly in the sub ~3000/- price range.

FOR
Build quality and finish par excellence, nice variation in sensor sensitivity, well thought out driver package, aggressive pricing.

AGAINST
Narrow size might be a hindrance to large hands accustomed to Palm-grip, extra-switches can feel mushy and need some acclimatisation to use.

I would like to thank Cooler Master India for providing the review sample and support for this endeavour.
 
I got to spend a few minutes with the CM Recon at BYOC 2013 while going through some setup changes and i kinda liked the shape/grip/hold. The chunky design/shape let the back touch the center of my palm, like i prefer it to give that palm-filling feel though it was partly claw, partly palmed with my awkward/casual grip. :p
Would like to spend a few rounds in BF3 MP (assault and recon) with it to be sure i want to buy one. :)
(presently using MX518 for daily stuff which are about to give up anyday now and gaming is G9X is not with me, G9X for gaming (loved the trigger-happy soft click on it) i.e. when i played last whenever that was :(, 2x DA to be gifted away- good mice that i just couldn't adapt to.)
 
I will layout my experience in the simplest of terms

- My hands are big and it took me sometime to get adjusted to the new mouse.

- Sensitivity wise its good.

- I mostly play TF2 (50% of time with @Aplha17 ) and in my experience my aim got lot precise with this mouse.

- LED colours :D

- Build is pretty good and surface finish is what I love the most.
Regarding this I can quote a daily example. Sometimes when my roommate is busy on call I have to make the tadka which i do in between spawn times of the games. During that most of the instances I get oil on my hands and i still try to play game after spawning. My fingers do not slip even covered completely in oil.

- Packaging is wonderful and the cord is pretty good quality.

- Finally I never regretted buying this mouse and I do not hesitate to recommend this to others.
 
I hope cooler master's build quality is better than razer counterparts, my death adder is dying currently :arghh:

So i am thinking of replacing it with either corsair or cooler master offerings, btw nice review.
 
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