Sharkoon Drakonia Gaming Mouse Review

Product: Drakonia Gaming Mouse

Manufacturer: Sharkoon

Price: £24.99

Aside from a keyboard, the other side of a gamer’s repertoire is the trusty mouse, always there when you need it, pointing at enemies, selecting items that you may want to use either now or at a later time, wherever you find a PC gamer their mouse won’t be far behind them. That being said, a disturbingly small amount of gamers seem to have mice that are capable of performing the task at hand with an adequate display of speed and performance. This can sometimes be due to the cost that’s often associated with acquiring a high-end gaming mouse, but that doesn’t have to be the case, as the Drakonia from Sharkoon has shown.

The Drakonia gaming mouse is ergonomically sculpted to fit into the right hand of any gamer. Unfortunately there’s no left handed model of the Drakonia but the mouse can be used in the left hand, it’s a little bit more uncomfortable but it isn’t impossible, as it almost is with the Cyborg R.A.T. 9 that we reviewed a short while ago. As well as the shape of the Drakonia fitting extremely well in the palm of any right handed gamer, the mouse is made to run a little bit smoother through the use of a weight system. This is something that almost comes as standard with gaming mice of the current generation but you’d be hard pushed to find it inside a mouse that’s so competitively priced. The weight system consists of six weights which can be added or removed until the device is at the right weight for each individual user. The weights don’t seem to alter the weight of the mouse a whole lot, a little bit more customisation, or heavier weights would have been nice, but to have it at all in a £25 gaming mouse is nothing to be sniffed at.

Sharkoon’s gaming mouse is wired so you don’t have to worry about running out of batteries while you’re at the top of the leaderboard in your favourite Deathmatch First Person Shooter. The USB cable connecting the mouse to your PC is a braided cable, wrapped in cotton in an attempt to prevent tangling. It doesn’t always work as intended but having something there that can prevent tangling is always a good thing, especially if you intend to use the device on a portable gaming rig such as an Alienware gaming laptop.

As with just about every gaming mouse on the planet, there are a plethora of buttons adorning the surface of the device, eleven in total, all of which can be controlled from the software that’s included when you purchase the mouse. It doesn’t really make sense to reconfigure the left mouse click to put the computer to sleep but if that’s something that you want to do then there’s nothing stopping you on the software side; I can’t imaging it being easy to use though. Another aspect of a gaming mouse that’s often included, even though it makes absolutely difference to anything at all, is the ability to change the colour of the light that’s being emitted. This can all be done from the software that’s included with the mouse, and there are a whole multitude of colours to choose from too, not that it makes any difference but if you’re the type of gamer who has neon lights going all the way through their top of the range gaming rig, then you might want to change the colour of your mouse to match it.

If you’re looking for a top quality gaming mouse then there’s one thing that you undoubtedly look for above all else, the ability to change the DPI setting on the fly. This is the setting that determines how far across the screen the mouse point will go in relation to how far you’re moving the mouse itself across the desk. By default, the switch underneath the mouse wheel is set to move the DPI up and down, so it’s easily within reach if you happen to boot up a game that doesn’t seem to be as responsive as you’d like. No more routing through the control menus searching for the ‘Mouse Sensitivity’ option, hoping that it goes high enough for your liking, the setting that makes your gaming experience perfect is literally at the tip of your fingers.

A gaming mouse is nothing without a decent surface to move across, the Drakonia Gaming Mouse Mat is just what every gamer needs. Compared to a standard mouse mat, the mouse mat is enormous, almost twice the size, so you can move as far as you need without the worry of slipping off of the mat. The surface itself is as smooth as glass yet as flexible as a normal mouse mat that people may already be used to, moving the Drakonia Gaming Mouse across the Drakonia Mouse Mat is like moving across a cloud. The mouse mat isn’t necessary to get a decent gaming experience, the mouse itself does everything you’d want, but combining the two together is something just that little bit more special.

FEATURES:

• Avago 9500 Laser sensor
• 11 programmable buttons+4-way scroll wheel
• LEDs for DPI indication
• Internal memory for user profiles
• Gold-plated USB connector
• Cable with textile sheathing
• Weight Tuning System
• Ergonomic design
• Rubberized surface for maximum grip
• Configuration software included
• Supported operating systems: Windows XP/Vista/7 (32 and 64 bit)

SPECIFICATIONS:

• Max. DPI: 5,000
• Max. acceleration: 30G
• Mouse weight max: 150g (w/o cable)
• Dimensions (L x W x H): 126 x 88,1 x 41,8 mm
• Sensor: Laser
• Connector: USB2.0 (gold-plated)
• Cable length: 180 cm (textile sheathing)
• Max. FPS: 11,750
• Max. IPS: 150
• Number of buttons: 11
• DPI indication: LEDs
• Scroll wheel left/right: Yes
• Mouse feet: 4, plastic
• Illumination: Yes, configurable via software
• Chip: Avago ADNS-9500
• Lifting sensitivity: 1-5 mm
• Weight Tuning System: Yes (6x 5 g)

VERDICT: The Drakonia Gaming Mouse isn’t the best gaming mouse that you can get your hands on, but it’s certainly one of the best at its particular price point. If you’re a gamer with a budget, but you still want to get your hands on a gaming mouse that has the potential of seeing you through many, many hours of glorious gaming, then you could do much worse than the £25 mouse from Sharkoon. If you’re a PC user who likes to play video games then you should go out and get one now; you won’t regret it.