A4Tech X7 Gaming Mouse Review

Sorry, but once again I am late getting a review out. At least I am predictable. Anyhow, I decided to go out and grab a budget gaming mouse to review. There is a lot of mice ( mouses? ) to be found out there, but surprisingly few that fit into my usage parameters. I ended up deciding on the A4Tech X7 triple fire gaming mouse. I had a few others I was looking at. Several considered included the OCZ Equalizer, the OCZ Dominatrix, and the Logitech MX518. In the end because of budget issues I went with the least expensive from A4tech. After some research I found that it had the exact same specs as the OCZ Equalizer. The one advantage the A4tech mouse had, that I liked was a more subdued colour scheme, than the bright blue of the Equalizer. I also tried out the OCZ Dominatrix, and found the shape of the mouse not to my liking. I also tried the MX518, but was unable to find it in the price range.

The A4Tech X7 gaming mouse usually goes for under 40 dollars CAD and comes in a pretty standard plastic packaging. As you can see from the pictures the inner box design uses over the top exciting graphics to make this mouse look 'totally intense'.

Inside is some fairly typical accessories. The mouse itself, with a good and long USB cable. There is a driver mini CD, a PS2 adapter, and replacement slide pads for the bottom. These have already come in handy. Placing one of these on the MX400 mouse I use at work corrected the rocking problem I mentioned in the review for that particular mouse. Now lets take a closer look at the mouse itself.

The mouse itself has a handy little thumb rest which has a nice soft texture to it. Just above you can see the forward and back buttons, which I generally only use in some games, or web browsing. The odd thing I found was that the forward and back buttons were configured for the opposite I was accustomed to with others I'd used. This was easy enough to switch, but strange nonetheless.

The triple fire button is located between the scroll wheel, and the left click button. This is fairly quick to access, unfortunately I didn't find as much use for it in games, or general use as I would have expected. A little bit closer to the back end of the mouse is the DPI adjust button. The DPI button adjusts the DPI of the mouse in the range setting from 600-800-1200-1600-2000-2500DPI. The setting you are select is indicated by a changing back light behind the DPI button itself. On other models pictured on the A4Tech site, the DPI indicator light is on the scroll wheel rather than the DPI button itself. I would have preferred this, but it really isn't all that much of a big deal. I think the best way to do this is the ascending indicator on the Logitech MX518.

The base has slide pads at strategic positions, which do a fine job of creating smooth movement, and keeping even contact with the flat surface.

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