[section_title title=”Real World Performance”]Real World Performance
As usual for mice, I will split the real world performance side of things into the three sections which I feel deserve equal and thorough mention.
Ergonomics
From an ergonomics point of view, the Strix Claw is a relatively short and tall mouse that is designed for right handed use only. The height means that for claw grippers with large hands it should be comfortable, and it would also facilitate what I should imagine being a pretty good palm grip for more medium sized hands.
As someone with large hands accustomed to using a palm grip I was surprised by how comfortable I found the mouse, the height of it made me end up with a hybrid grip or finger grip as some like to call it where the palm is raised but all of your fingers are in contact with the mouse. This grip was aided by the finger shaped grooves on the right-hand side of the mouse which work really well ergonomically.
The Strix Claw really is a jack of all trades when it comes to grip styles and I can indeed see some being able to use it in a palm grip but for me it is a bit too short and fat for that. Nonetheless though I found the mouse to be pretty comfortable and I think ASUS have done a good job at creating a mouse that a wide variety of people should be able use comfortably.
I’d say claw grippers should seriously consider this mouse, and people who like a palm grip but find ‘full sized’ mice a bit of a handful (I’m not proud of myself for that one) will also be well catered for, which is quite a design achievement if you ask me.
Buttons
The buttons on the Strix claw are all pretty good from a placement point of view, the three side buttons are grouped closely together yet it is still easy to press each one individually due to the DPI clutch having a nice ridge at the top to guide your thumb onto it which is a really good little design touch if you ask me. The DPI buttons are perhaps not the most convenient to press, but they are tucked out the way in the middle so I can’t really find anything to moan about there. The scroll wheel is also pretty good with its rubberised coating provided ample grip, the resistance is good too but personally I would prefer it to have a few fewer notches to give it a more deliberate feel.
Switches are a treat also with the left and right mouse buttons features OMRON D2F-01F switches which are a longer travel variant which make perfect sense in an FPS mouse and give a really nice solid click upon depression. There are no corners cut on the ancillary buttons though, with even the DPI buttons having nice clicky switches; though not an essential requirement I always find that good switches in all buttons really makes a difference to the premium feel of a mouse.
Tracking
As I was expecting, due to the presence of the excellent Avago/Pixart 3310 optical sensor the Strix Claw was a real treat to use for FPS gaming. In multiple long sessions of BF4 I was very pleased with the performance of the sensor and even though the grip style I was using on the mouse wasn’t ideal for me personally it was still a good performer thanks to the lack of acceleration present which helps hit those fast twitch shots. The great tracking was also complimented by a very good amount of adjustment on the lift-off height which meant for my low sensitivity play the Strix Claw was ideal.
It is clear ASUS mean what they say when they talk about providing superior performance, I am deeply grateful to any manufacturer that slots an optical sensor in for a better user experience rather than contributing to the DPI arms race; we can only hope that the more people get their hands on optical sensors the more they will expect them and thus we might see less well designed mice hamstrung with sub-par sensors.
On the next page I’ll wrap up my thoughts on the Strix Claw.
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