Having a mouse that fits your gaming setup can be quite difficult. Though going loud and bright can really work, it is sometimes nice to go a little lighter, giving you some longevity. Though the Endgame Gear XM2WE didn't immediately blow me away, it quickly turned into one of my favourite mice.
Almost all of the things I found myself constantly liking about the XM2WE are the most subjective elements of its design. I appreciate how lightweight everything feels, really like the click it makes, and feel it fits great in my hand.
This being said, there is a lot of great competition at its price point, the lack of real dedicated software can let it down a little, and no real grip on the mouse itself can leave it feeling slippier than most.
Table of Contents
First look
The unboxing process for the Endgame Gear XM2WE was pretty minimal, with a small box, one mouse, one wire, and a manual explaining the setup. This rather laid-back approach encourages you to simply pick it up and plug it in.
When you do so, you notice how incredibly light it is, sitting at around 63g. This tiny size makes it a good companion to a light Bluetooth setup. Though the cable adds weight and leaves it feeling a little less usable, it is sturdy and means you never have to charge it. This is a trade-off worth making if you can't be bothered to charge it.
Luckily, with over 35 hours of charge on first use, it doesn't need charging often. This is frankly a fantastic battery life. This cemented my first impressions of the mouse as one that focuses less on flash and more on pure usability. Though it doesn't have any gimmicks to show friends, it puts up an incredibly appealing package for an affordable price.
Long-term commitment
This impression never really faded. The Endgame Gear XM2WE feels great in practice, being light enough to move quickly, but not so light that it distracts. Unfortunately, without a textured top or noticeable grooves to grip, it can be harder to grasp than other mice.
Coming with just the two click buttons, a mouse wheel, and two on the side, there is little room for customisation. This means changing DPI (essentially the mouse's sensitivity) on the fly requires flipping the mouse over and clicking the button on the very bottom. You can remap buttons and adjust the polling rate but it is still pretty basic in use.
Outside of these small gripes, the XM2WE is a near-perfect mouse that feels great and looks surprisingly pretty. In my weeks with it, I've had no cutouts and it has had no noticeable input lag, either plugged in or in the wireless mode. The cord itself is 180cm and feels surprisingly sturdy, making it a great plugged-in mouse too.
The specs
As one would expect from a modern mouse at this price point, it comes with optical switches, though they have a unique element to them with a distinct actuation point. This gives a noticeable click with each hit that feels surprisingly satisfying. Though the website boasts a lifespan of 80 million actuations without a double click, it would take me an awfully long time to test this claim.
The mouse can go all the way up to 19,000 CPI (a more complex way of measuring sensitivity), meaning you can finetune exactly how much the cursor moves when you do. The max speed it can achieve from here is 400 IPS(how much distance you can travel without problems), giving you a surprisingly broad range of motion with it.
Ultimately, while these are a bunch of numbers, they translate in practice to a solid mouse that works in the most twitch-like shooters or slow-paced strategy games. Ultimately, though it doesn't offer the sheer usability of an MMO mouse like the Razer Naga Trinity or the ambidextrous capabilities of the Viper, the Endgame Gear XM2WE does everything else you could want out of a modern mouse.
A sample unit of the Endgame Gear XM2WE was provided by the Gamersware.