As mentioned in our Vanguard K08 gaming keyboard review, Creative has always been known for their SoundBlaster line of audio cards and speakers, as well as their recent foray into gaming headsets. Our Sound BlasterX Siege M04 review takes a look at the first gaming mouse from Creative which features programmable buttons and LED lighting functionality.
Specifications
The Sound BlasterX Siege M04 gaming mouse has the following features and specifications:
- Pixart PMW3360 IR LED precision sensor
- 12,000 native DPI
- 1,000 Hz polling rate
- Low 2mm lift off distance
- 32-bit high-speed MCU
- 7 fully programmable buttons
- Dedicated sniper button
- Internal memory
- Ergonomic right-handed design
- All-edge Aurora Reactive Lighting
- 11 independent LED segments
- Fully customizable up to 16.8 million colors
- Assignable lighting profiles
- Omron mechanical switches (left and right primary buttons)
- Up to 50 million clicks
- Programmable 3-level DPI switch
- Non-slide matte surface
- Rubber based textured regions
- Low friction PTFE feet
- Nylon braided USB cable
- Tracking
- Resolution: 200-12,000 DPI
- Max. acceleration: >50g
- Max. speed: >250 ips
- Responsiveness
- USB report rate: 1000 Hz (1ms)
- Microprocessor: 32-bit high-speed MCU
- Dimensions: 135.6 x 67.7x 43.0mm (5.3 x 2.7 x 1.7″)
- Weight
- Without cable: 110g (3.88oz)
- With cable: 143g (5 oz)
What’s in the box
- Sound BlasterX Siege M04 mouse with attached 2.0m USB cable
- Quick Start guide
Design
The Sound BlasterX Siege Mo4 gaming mouse features a fairly sleek design. While not as big and bulky as some other gaming mice, it’s not as small or thin either and the design lies somewhere in the middle. The mouse has a nice height and width to it and is quite comfortable to hold. The top of the mouse has a smooth matte finish, with long left and right mouse buttons — almost the entire length of my fingers. Seated between the mouse buttons is the middle button/scroll wheel which has a nice textured rubber finish and an LED light on either side of the finish. Below the middle button are three LED indicators for showing what DPI you are currently using, and below that a button for toggling quickly between three settings. Just below the left mouse button is the BlasterX icon which, of course, lights up in red when the mouse is plugged in and your computer is on.
There are no buttons on the right side of the mouse and the M04 logo is printed on one of the angled sides near the front. On the left side are three buttons: forward, back, and sniper. The first two are above where your thumb rests, while the sniper button sits just in front of the end of your thumb. In total, this gives you five buttons to customize and use while gaming, which for most games is ample but there are plenty of gaming mice out there with more buttons to provide more options. Both sides have a very nice and comfortable textured grippy overlay for added grip while holding it.
The bottom of the mouse is your typical smooth surfaced finish with four smooth feet for easy sliding. The mouse slides nicely on both wood surfaces and mousepads. Sandwiched between the base and the top portion of the mouse is a thin LED layer which features Creative’s Aurora Reactive Lighting functionality.
Finally, the braided USB cable is permanently attached to the front of the mouse. At 2m in length, it’s definitely long enough for almost any computer setup, although there is quite a bit of excess cable when used with a laptop.
Overall, Creative’s first foray into gaming mice is off to a decent start with its comfortable and easy to use design — not to mention how light it is.
Ease of Use
Like most gaming mice, the Sound BlasterX Siege M04 can be used straight out of the box. The buttons are mapped to standard functions like right, left, and middle click, scrolling up or down, and forward or back. The DPI button toggles between the three default DPI settings of 800, 1600, and 3200 while the sniper button is set by default to 200 DPI. The Polling Rate is set to 1000 by default. Of course, you’ll want to use the Sound Blaster Connect software to customize the mouse and take full advantage of its capabilities.
Software
Like the Vanguard K08 Mechanical Keyboard and Katana sound bar, the Sound BlasterX Seige M04 uses the Sound Blaster Connect software for firmware updates and configuration. With the software, you can enable or disable the lighting, apply one of eight presets or configure your own. In all, there are seven zones you can configure — three on each side and one that travels around the back of the mouse. Unfortunately, the lighting is only for looks and while it looks cool, it would be nice to be able to have it “react” to certain in-game events. That being said, it does look pretty cool when you have the mouse, keyboard, and sound bar all using the same preset.
Secondly, under the Performance section, you can set your three DPI cycle settings from between 100 and 12000 DPI. You can also set the sniper button DPI to between 100 and 12000 as well. Other options available for adjusting are acceleration and deceleration (0-9), polling rate (125 – 1000), lift-off distance (2 or 3 mm), and angle snapping (on or off).
Finally, you can reassign the mouse buttons under the Macros tab. Altogether there are nine areas you can program, including the standard buttons, scroll wheel, and DPI cycle button. Each of these buttons can be assigned a specific keyboard key, mouse function, or can have a recorded macro assigned to it.
The one thing I noticed that was missing from button assignments was your basic media functionality like volume up/down and mute. When gaming, it’s sometimes handy to be able to quickly adjust volume on the fly through the mouse.
Performance
As far as performance goes, the Sound BlasterX Siege M04 is pretty responsive with its Pixart PMW3360 IR LED precision sensor and I had no issues with any of the games I tested. When playing Diablo III or Heroes of the Storm I encountered no lag. I even fired up Rise of the Tomb Raider to test out the sniper button mode and it was actually pretty cool how it slowed the DPI right down when aiming in sniper mode. The sniper button doesn’t act as a toggle, rather you need to hold it down while you want to use the slower DPI. Releasing the button returns the mouse to the currently selected regular DPI.
The mouse also features internal memory so if you use it on a different computer, you don’t need to reconfigure it to your liking.
Price/Value
With an MSRP of $64.99USD, the Sound BlasterX Siege M04 is averagely priced when it comes to gaming mice. You can also receive a bit of a saving if purchased with the Sound BlasterX Vanguard K08 keyboard from the Creative site. In addition, there is a limited edition Sound BlasterX Weapons Crate for $299.99USD which includes the mouse, keyboard, gaming mouse pad, and a few other goodies.
Wrap-up
Having solidified its place in gaming audio, Creative’s first foray into gaming peripherals is off to a great start with the Sound BlasterX Siege M04 gaming mouse.
*We were sent a sample of the Sound BlasterX Siege M04 Gaming Mouse for the purposes of this review.
Last Updated on November 19, 2017.
Comments are closed.