EVGA’s first mouse, the Torq, was my daily driver for years. I love that mouse and still have it. When I was offered the opportunity to review their new mouse, the X17, I jumped at the chance. This mouse is a pretty interesting little device, with some new features you probably didn’t even know you needed.
First, the mouse has 3 sensors on it. There’s the standard sensor, the Pixart 3389, that tells the computer where to move the pointer on the screen, but the other 2 are what is called LOD sensors. These particular sensors, working with the main sensor, will detect the Lift Off Distance (LOD) from the surface you are using. The idea behind this is that the EVGA’s 3D Array Tech algorithm can detect the mouse being lifted as little 0.4 mm to help achieve the shortest most accurate lift-off distance when making corrections for position. The combination of these three sensors may make this mouse the most accurate mouse on the market.
The mouse’s design, to me, is a thing of beauty. It’s a bit different than what you see in most gaming mice these days, but it felt very comfortable in my hand. For what it’s worth, I use a palm grip on my mouse, where my palm is physically sitting on the back end of the mouse. The sniper button is in an odd position, or at least not a position I have been used to using Corsair mice these last couple years. It takes some getting used to moving your thumb up to click on that button, but once you do it becomes second nature. The forward and back buttons sitting beneath your thumb naturally was a little interesting to get used to, especially as I tend to utilize them in games. But it was pretty easy to adapt to as well.
Combine the LODs with the 8000 Hz polling rate and you have a killer mouse if there’s ever been one. 8K polling is still relatively new, and there aren’t many mice or devices out there achieving that rate right now. So if you would like something quick and accurate, this the mouse to get. If weight is a concern, the mouse does come with five 5g weights for you to add onto the base weight of 106g (she’s pretty heavy by some standards).
Of course, no mouse or peripheral these days comes without software, and the X17 is no different. It is an RGB mouse, and if you want to control the pretty colors you would download EVGA’s Unleash software. Personally, I found the software to be cumbersome, clunky, and taking way too much in system resources, but if you want utilize that polling rate, you will need the software.
My only gripe with this mouse, and hopefully this serves to help some, are the skates on the bottom. I used a hard surface mouse pad, and this thing is noisy out of the box. Just pushing it across the pad with one finger produced a scrape that could be heard across the room. It was distracting while playing, so I eventually had to put the mouse down. I had to switch over to a soft, cloth mousepad to solve the issue. I imagine that with use over time, this problem will solve itself. It’s just a little disappointing to have to change my mouse surface in order to enjoy the use of this mouse.
Overall, I loved my time with EVGA X17, but it likely won’t remain my daily driver. It has a lot of features, but it’s an excellent mouse, but the noise from the skates gets me, and I’d rather keep my mouse surface than move to a new mouse. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give this mouse a try. If you run a soft surface pad, or don’t mind the scrape until the skates break in, this is a beast of a mouse to go with. EVGA is ahead of the game on this mouse, let’s see how long it takes the industry to catch up.
4 stars out of 5
