Microsoft Sidewinder Preview

Microsoft’s venerable Sidewinder™ brand has been dormant for quite a few years now. With the release of a brand new gaming mouse, the company plans to bring Sidewinder™ back to the forefront of the gaming scene.

In mid-July, I had the opportunity to meet someone I am sure most of
you would like to shake hands with. He is credited with being the
initiative behind the Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 coming back into
production. His name is Kevin Flick and he is the go-to guy in
Microsoft’s PC peripheral division. We met Kevin back when the IME was
re-launching and we ran those awesome promotions for original and new
IMEs on GotFrag Promo.
Back in Spring he contacted us with what he said was “some very fun
news.” This, of course, meant I had to fly out to the GotFrag offices
in New York to meet with him and some other GotFrag familiar faces. Lee
Chen, Trevor Schmidt, and I had dinner with Kevin and discussed many
topics from the art of trash talk to the state of gaming today. Even
with all the comfortable chatter, Kevin would not budge and would only
tell us that he had a new peripheral to show us that was almost two
years in the making. Needless to say, we all had a good time and we
were excited to see this new product.

The
following morning, we all met at the GotFrag offices and got set up for
some serious gaming/abuse time. Kevin did some more talking, but I
wasn’t listening because the white box behind him had my undivided
attention, as it contained the new toy. The game plan was to spend
several hours fragging with the new stuff and give some feedback. There
was still time to change the product before launch and they wanted our
thoughts - this was a new and awesome opportunity for us to influence
the product directly.

Kevin had to keep moving the box he had the product in because I
repeatedly tried to open it. However, he eventually succumbed to my
internal demons, wrapped up his speech to the four of us, and opened
the box. In the custom-cut foam sat three identical mice. Lifting one
out he said “Here it is”, and my initial reaction was one of sadness.
This thing looked incredibly uncomfortable and the side buttons looked
wierd. I was disappointed until he handed it to me and i tried it out.

Kevin and his team wanted to bring something new to the gaming market,
but most of the ideas they were coming up with were already out there.
Razer has the angular, symmetrical market cornered, Logitech had the
curvy, ergonomic market cornered and Microsoft had already seen
tremendous success with the IME 3.0. What was left? They went back to
the drawing board and came up with something just extreme enough with a
slight twist. Kevin noticed my concern and encouraged me to give it a
shot. I obliged, plugged it in, and began my assault on this poor
prototype. More on the performance in a bit.

As far as the others’ initial reactions: by the time each of us had our
hands on the mouse, we didn’t want to give it up. We had small
criticisms and suggestions, but ultimately we felt they had done their
job and done it well. I, of course (it might be in my job description),
attempted to snag one, but this Kevin Flick guy is really sharp… and I
am kind of obvious. At the end of the day we were all very pleased at
Microsoft’s new entry and pretty bummed when Kevin had to run to the
airport…with the mice. A great visit and a fantastic opportunity.

{mospagebreak heading=Introduction&title=The Mouse}
Introducing: The Microsoft Sidewinder Mouse
Sidewinder was a brand name that Microsoft used back in the nineties
for a series of joysticks and gamepads that I believe everyone owned at
one time or another (except you youngins). It was a strong, healthy
brand that eventually was left behind to pursue more consoley
endeavors. Kevin Flick is from part of the team that decided to blow
the dust off that brand and bring it back… in the form of a tank.
Sidewinder is re-entering the market with a very aggressive stance and
some very outlandish improvements on the standard mouse. Here it is,
your very first picture of the Sidewinder Mouse.

As you can see, this mouse means business with very sharp cuts and no
holds barred - it truly makes a statement right of the box. Let me get
into design mode. In a aesthetics standpoint alone, this mouse is
unsure if it’s ugly or pretty I believe that most are going to love or
hate the way it looks. The side buttons alone made me cringe upon first
glance. The biggest thing I have emphasized since my first mouse review
on this site was not only the standard of 5 buttons, but that the side
buttons should be large, easy to get to, and provide a solid click once
depressed. Looking at the Sidewinder, you will see that the side
buttons are two small silver buttons on the side of the mouse, but on
TOP OF EACHOTHER. WHAT!? I mean I don’t intend to affect entire
industries while working at FPSLabs, but I do think that companies
should read around to see what the majority of the press and community
have said forever. They had it perfect with the IME 3.0, what the hell
are they doing? Well… it turns out they’re smart, and I, rockstar,
am… this is hard to say… wrong. Kevin explains it best:

“We
had looked at the mice in gaming today, and while they have worked it
is all small tweaks to what is essentially a productivity mouse. That’s
where the side buttons come from and its designed a bit differently.
For example, your thumb resides on one of the side buttons and if you
need to press the other, it takes movement and effort that should be a
much easier mode of operation. By taking the side buttons and stacking
them on top of each other, we were able to not only have our thumb on
both buttons, but have a faster ability to press either one as we so
choose without accidental presses to the other. While an extreme new
approach, it is one we believe gamers will fully appreciate.”

After playing Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Source, and Quake, I
would have to agree. Side by side the IME 3.0, the DeathAdder, Logitech
MX518, and the Sidewinder each had different feels and to each their
own, but the Sidewinder was my preference in terms of side buttons. If
you have large, masculine hands, the buttons will sit on the pad or the
join of your thumb, and if you have small hands it will sit near the
tip of the thumb. Either way the buttons are highly accessible and
positioned much better not only for speed, but for those with all kinds
of freakish hands.

{mospagebreak title=More Details}

Video: Sidewinder Mouse
The scroll wheel was aluminum and definitely stood out in the design
quite stylishly. Two smooth rings and a textured center gave an ease of
use and a nice solid wheel. The divots were maybe a bit too big for
normal desktop use, but perfect for gaming which is why this mouse
exists.

DPI
switching has become a mainstay in modern gaming mice. This has been
shunned by more traditional players and praised by others. Either way,
I have always felt that the manufacturers hadn’t quite got it right
yet. With other mice, I was always assuming where the DPI was in the
three-setting cycle I had set up. What’s nice about the Sidewinder
mouse is that they have made three discrete buttons for each DPI
setting right up the spine. You can set each of these three buttons to
different DPI settings. The fantastic part about this is that it
removes all the guess work. They are in a location that is not easily
pressed by accident, but at the same time are quite easy to access
quickly so you can still switch “on-the-fly.” DPI switching has been
around for a while and Microsoft has taken it and done it so much
better. Accompany this feature with the LCD screen - the first of its
kind - and you can see the true value. Not only has MS removed the
guess work by creating three separate buttons, but they have included
an LCD right on the mouse. When you press one of your three DPI
buttons, the LCD tells you in clear, easy to read numbers what your DPI
is currently set to. This is backlit by a red LED so you can read it in
the dark of your nerd den. This brings me to the next feature…

Macros
Programmable buttons is another feature that has been around for some
time, but how many mice have allowed you to program these macros while
in-game? To be fair, I have never been one to use mouse macros, but
perhaps I will with this new ease of use. In front of the two silver
side buttons, you will see a subtle button on the side of the mouse
towards the front. This button is your “macro record” button. That’s
right. Hit this baby, hit the button you want to assign the macro to,
perform the actions you want macro’ed, then hit the “macro record”
button again to finish. What’s more? The LCD actually guides you
through this process via icons. The drivers add more functionality to
this feature.

{mospagebreak title=Drivers and More}
Drivers
What we got to play with was a very early beta build of the drivers for
this mouse, so all the functions I will talk about here were not
available at the time but will be available when the mouse ships. One
such feature is the macro editor. When you create a macro in-game, it
will save to the computer under a quick enumerated name. The glory of
the macro editor is that you can not only change the names of your
macros for organizational purposes, but you can make them program or
game specific, change the timings between actions in the macros, and
even add key presses and such to the macro. The editor is fully
featured which really enriches the entire macro functionality. DPI
switching settings can be altered in the drivers and assigned to the
different buttons across the spine of the mouse. The task switch
feature that has been in Microsoft’s mouse drivers for ages remains in
place and is as cool as ever.

Finally, they’ve added another feature they call the “Quick Turn”.
Basically, you assign this action to a button and once you are in-game,
you hold the assigned button and the right click down while turning
precisely 180 degrees. This action calibrates the Quick Turn and now
when you press the Quick Turn button you will spin 180 degrees. The
same thing can also be done with turns of 90 degrees in magnitude. Most
of us will say this feature is useless, but I found it fun to play with
- in the time it takes the Quick Turn to spin, I could flick my mouse
around about 10 times. Perhaps this feature has improved in the retail
drivers, because it clearly needed work during our initial tests.

In part 2 of this review, when we have had the mouse and official
drivers in house for a thorough test, we will give screen shots and
actually review the features of the drivers.

The features, improvements and innovations don’t stop…
What else could this mouse possibly have to offer? A little black box
comes with the mouse and inside are housed a number of accessories.
This mouse not only offers an interchangeable weight system, but also
an interchangeable feet system. That’s right, this mouse ships with TWO
alternate sets of feet for you to try. The Logitech G5 was one of the
first mice to incorporate an interchangeable weight system. However,
that little tin the weights came in was useless when sitting on your
desk, and some probably even lost the container altogether. Microsoft
on the other hand decided to leave no part of this package a waste. The
lid to this box slides off and at the far end, a groove is cut for your
cord to lay in. The lid is then slid back into place over the cord and
effectively your extra weights and feet become a cable anchor for your
mouse cord.

The weight cartridge fits so seamlessly into the design that the only
thing that gives it away is the button on the bottom of the mouse. Push
this and the cartridge ejects from the side of the mouse allowing you
to make changes until you find just the right amount of weight. Great
implementation and large, easy-to-work-with weights make this a great
improvement over other systems.

The interchangeable feet have three different surfaces. There are
black, gray and white discs ranging from slow to fast, respectively.
This allows the gamer to even further customize his experience and have
exactly the mouse he wants. Five feet can fit on the bottom of the
mouse and five of each style are included. This is a fantastic
innovation and is perfect for the gamer market. We are extremely picky
when it comes to our peripherals and we each have our own tastes.
Microsoft has made it possible for us to get nice, large gaming feet
while at the same time allowing us to choose how much resistance we
would like.

Until Part 2…
I have to say that my first experience with this mouse in July was
extremely positive. Every single person in the office who played with
this mouse LOVED their experience with it. When the promised driver
features are combined with the physical options on the mouse, the
customization is nearly endless. This mouse was designed to be a crowd
pleaser and I have no doubt in my mind that it will be. While these are
my impressions from New York, I reserve full judgment until I have the
final product in my hands for review. This is to ensure that I am able
to run it through the gaming gauntlet that only we at FPSLabs can truly
bring to you. It will a torturous event for this poor mouse, but based
on what I have seen so far, I can’t see any reason it won’t pass with
flying colors. Microsoft presents a true champion to herald the return
of Sidewinder.

Addendum
A couple things I forgot to touch on:

The shape of the mouse, I can’t believe I didn’t share this with you
guys. Well, its quite obvious that the shape is very different. The
most obvious part of this radical new design is the peak of the mouse
is not in the center like the majority of today’s gaming mice, but in
the back. While my first thought was that this was going to be
extremely uncomfortable, it actually was and yielded more control over
the mouse than the comparison mice I had brought with. On this trip, I
brought the G5, DeathAdder, and IME3.0 to compare the mouse to. The
unique shape was fantastic. The other guys who tried this mouse and
loved it were Jason Coene, Lee Chen, and Trevor “Midway” Schmidt. All
these guys, including myself couldn’t get over how something so
different and questionable performed so well and was actually better
than what we were all used to. The final test and the true review will
be when they send us one of the final product units

I would also like to add that this is, in fact, a laser mouse. Here are some specs directly from the website:

RESOLUTION: 2000 dpi

IMAGE PROCESSING: 7080 frames per second

MAX ACCELERATION: 20 G

MAX SPEED: 45 inches per second

USB REPORTING: 500 Hz

In Part 2 of this review, we will be testing a number of things as
usual with our gaming mice reviews. As part of this I will ask
Microsoft some questions on their laser engine to see what they have
done with their proprietary engine to bring it up to gaming grade.
What’s more is we can actually see how this laser engine performs once
we have it in the lab.

Stay tuned for Part 2 in the next week or so.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Support FPSLabs! Share and Enjoy: