XPG Slingshot Wired Gaming Mouse Review

TweakTown's Rating: 90%

The Bottom Line

A high-performance entry-level gaming mouse from XPG that delivers in all areas. Great customization options and software support meet a featherweight build that is robust and comfortable.

Pros

• + Great optical sensor for an entry-level mouse
• + A featherweight 73 grams
• + Braided cable doesn't get in the way
• + Fully customizable with the intuitive XPG Prime
• + Easy to set up a DPI Clutch button for extra FPS goodness

Cons

• - The honeycomb-like design isn't the most comfortable for productivity
• - No frills in terms of additional design features like side-grips

Should you buy it?

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Introduction & Specification Details and Close-up

The XPG SLINGSHOT is the latest peripheral from ADATA's gaming offshoot XPG, and it's a new gaming mouse aimed at the entry-level market. That means it's designed to offer the sort of performance, customization, and reliability one looks for when looking at a new mouse to play competitive titles with - in addition to being something that won't make a sizable dent on your digital wallet.

Immediately, you can pretty much size up the XPG Slingshot Gaming Mouse as a mouse designed for FPS performance. The Exoskeleton design is of the honeycomb school we've seen in popular featherweight mouse designs, where speed holes shave off extra grams to bring the weight down.

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On this front, the 73-gram weight makes the XPG Slingshot Gaming Mouse something you probably wouldn't have seen in the entry-level space as recent as five years ago. Pair this with the PixArt PMW 3360 optical sensor and switches that come with a nice 20 million click guarantee (and warranty), and we're now at a place where a high-performance gaming mouse doesn't have to start at a certain price point. Plus, there's the added ease of mind knowing that ADATA is a company that delivers a range of storage and memory solutions that excel in several areas.

Of course, a gaming mouse is a very different thing from a stick of DDR5 memory, and no matter the branding, it's the results that matter - which start flowing as soon as you click on that first icon. In the case of the XPG Slingshot Gaming Mouse, it was installing the XPG Prime software, doing a quick little firmware update, and then firing up DOOM Eternal to run some demon-slaying Master Levels at breakneck speed.

Specifications & Close Up

• Product Type: Gaming Mouse
• Interface: Wired/USB Type-A
• Compatibility: Windows
• Sensor: PMW 3360 Optical Sensor
• DPI: 400 - 12000
• IPS: > 250
• Max Acceleration: 50G
• Polling Rate: 1000 Hz
• Switch: 20-million clicks rating
• Buttons: 6
• Lighting: RGB (XPG PRIME Software Support)
• Dimensions: 125 x 69 x 43mm
• Weight: 73 grams
• Warranty: 2 Years

Kosta's Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: MSI MEG X570 UNIFY
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3800X
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition
• Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240R RGB AIO CPU Cooler
• RAM: 32GB (4x8GB) HyperX FURY DDR4 3200MHz
• SSD: Seagate FireCuda 520 SSD 2TB
• Power Supply: Cooler Master V 850W Gold SFX Power Supply
• Case: MPG SEKIRA 500P
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

Design, Sensor, & Software

Design

If there's one peripheral that has just about exhausted all the physical permutations possible, then it's the mouse. There are several shapes and sizes, and on top of this, you can find little flourishes that blend with various types of materials, but the grip and feel choices have remained mostly the same for decades. The XPG Slingshot Gaming Mouse looks and feels familiar in its ergonomic shape and size, supporting a palm grip that is comfortable and decently sized. It's a classic shape and one that instantly feels right at home.

Even though the featherweight 73 grams could have resulted in a little bit of shrinkage, it's the triangle-based honeycomb build that keeps the weight off here. This, in turn, makes the glide smooth when paired with a mousepad. Sporting six buttons, one of which is the DPI switch located underneath the scroll wheel, XPG hasn't made any drastic changes to what you'd expect to find. There aren't any grips, there are holes on the side too, but the matte finish has a nice feel. So do the switches for the left and right clicks.

XPG hasn't provided any details on the style and make of the switches, but as they've got a 20 million click rating, in addition to the product's generous 2-year warranty, our minds were put at ease. Not to mention no real issues popping up after extended usage.

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Although it's not adjustable, the scroll wheel has a great rubberized feel, and it's large and soft enough to have a natural touch great for productivity as well as gaming. This softness extends to the braided cable, which is also impressive for an entry-level offering. Having this sort of cable for a honeycomb-like design is something of a must on account of the lightweight build being something that can make a cable feel more pronounced and even heavy by comparison.

One area where XPG didn't make any significant cuts to save weight comes with the RGB lighting, where both the scroll wheel and the logo on the body light up and offer various out-of-the-box modes in addition to in-depth customization through XPG Prime. There are also color notifications for DPI switching, which is a nice touch.

Sensor

At the heart of any gaming mouse lies the sensor - the thing that defines accuracy, speed, acceleration, and all that good stuff. Inside the XPG Slingshot Gaming Mouse, you've got the PMW 3360 Optical Sensor, rated at 12,000 DPI with 250 IPS tracking and 50G acceleration. Although a bunch of numbers to some, what you've got is an optical switch - and a good one at that - inside an entry-level mouse. There are more advanced sensors out there, but having something designed specifically for high-speed, high-accuracy gaming is a great fit for the affordability, lightweight build, and overall look.

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One of the bonuses of this sensor is a very low lift cutoff, rated here at 2mm - which can be raised to 3mm via XPG Prime. Plus, the optical accuracy of having infrared LED has been one of the major advances in the gaming mouse space in recent years, so choosing the PMW 3360 sensor for the XPG Slingshot Gaming Mouse was a great move. The accuracy supports several preferences, too, with XPG offering DPI fine-tuning in increments of 100.

Software

Although the XPG Slingshot Gaming Mouse works fine out of the box with RGB and six DPI levels to switch between (400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, 12000), to reconfigure buttons, set up Macros, and drill into the RGB settings and syncing you'll need to install XPG Prime. A Windows app that is easy enough to use with a clean interface that is as intuitive as it is in-depth.

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Case in point, you can not only change the DPI profiles in increments of 100, but you can even have different X/Y DPI settings and set the number of steps from the default 6 to a lower number. For those of us who only use a couple of settings, being able to set up an FPS and 'Everything Else' DPI step was quick and easy. Changing button assignments (labeled 'Keys' in XPG Prime) is similarly intuitive - with the option to set one of the side buttons to become a DPI Clutch button which can be super handy when playing an FPS and aiming down sights. It's a feature worthy of putting on the box and something of a pleasant surprise when we discovered how easy it was to enable.

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Full RGB customization is available in XPG Prime via the hardware makers' CANVAS tool that can sync lighting between multiple XPG devices. Here you've got your usual effects, ranging from Color Cycle to Breathing and one that reacts to Audio. With brightness, speed, and the ability to customize the colors in the Color Cycle, it's a great little tool for messing around with the XPG Slingshot Gaming Mouse's lighting. However, it's worth noting that with only the scroll wheel and logo, you're not getting a light show.

All in all, XPG Prime is an impressive piece of software. It's fast, simple to use, and in-depth in its features. Although it barely makes a dent in terms of CPU usage, it does take up around 250-300 MB of memory even when minimized into the system tray. Which is more than Steam, Discord, and the bloated Xbox app - so something XPG could improve upon going forward.

Gaming Performance and Productivity

Gaming Performance

When you talk about a gaming mouse designed for the competitive market, often you're talking about something to pair with Counter-Strike, Apex Legends, Call of Duty, and Rainbow Six Siege. Although I played a few rounds of Apex Legends with the XPG Slingshot Gaming Mouse, most of the FPS testing was carried out with DOOM Eternal and the breakneck pace of that game's Master Levels.

And it was there where the lightweight build and PMW 3360 Optical Sensor truly impressed - delivering accuracy and smoothness without any issues or stuttering. From swapping weapons in the heat of battle to doing a quick 180 to fire off a few rockets, the XPG Slingshot Gaming Mouse more than lives up to its namesake.

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Being lightweight has the added benefit of being great for a range of titles with mouse input, even when slowing the pace all the way down with something like Age of Empires IV. Where it's more about pointing and clicking and dragging versus rapid-fire movement - that's to be expected, though. Any mouse designed to be lightweight and suitable for FPS titles will perform across the board. And really, this is where it comes down to the 73-gram weight and whether that might be too light for some.

Productivity

Productivity is a different story, and this comes down to how well you gel with the rough and bumpy feel that comes with the honeycomb-like design and lack of comfort options like rubberized side grips. With the PMW 3360 Optical Sensor, great feeling switches, and overall accuracy and customization on offer, using the XPG Slingshot Gaming Mouse for day-to-day tasks, messaging friends on Discord, and typing up emails, is fine but not what you'd call luxurious.

Being lightweight does take away some of the fatigue from moving around a mouse with more heft, and the ergonomic shape doesn't add undue stress, but again - those speed holes aren't the most comfortable thing to grip for hours and hours. Plus, they are susceptible to attracting more dust particles.

Final Thoughts

As an entry-level piece of kit, the XPG Slingshot Gaming Mouse delivers in just about every area. The build is lightweight, featherweight even, which comes in handy when playing competitive titles. The PMW 3360 Optical Sensor is impressively accurate, and XPG Prime lets you customize buttons and set up Macros to suit any application. Even the cable is braided and unobtrusive, and with a 2-year warranty, there's a piece of mind that this will last you quite a while.

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The ergonomic palm grip shape is also classic and familiar enough to remove any sort of adjustment curve that comes with swapping out a peripheral.

All in all, the specs, software, and features add up to create a rather enticing proposition for those looking at something that will perform without costing too much. As the first entry-level gaming mouse from XPG, the hardware maker has delivered a winner.