Written by Profi | 29 September 2012
Posted in Articles - Reviews

Gaming division of Cooler Master CM Storm provided us their brand new optical mouse Recon, which is on its way to shops. We have reviewed couple products from CM Storm before, such as keyboard CM Trigger and headset CM Sonuz and those not so expensive products impressed us a lot. Let’s see what feelings we will have after reviewing CM Storm Recon.

Specifications:

• Avago ADNS 3090 optical sensor with 800-4000 DPI
• On-The-Fly DPI, Lift-Off-Distance and USB polling rate adjustments
• Omron (Japan) micro switches
• Polling rate: 1000 Hz / 1ms response time
• Onboard memory: 32KB
• Buttons: 9
• Multicolor LED-Zones (wheel, logo and DPI buttons)
• Dimensions (W x H x D): 64.4 x 116.4 x 42 mm/ 2.53 x 4.58 x 1.65 inches
• Weight: 139 g / 0.31 lbs

Unboxing

As all CM Storm’s products, box of the Recon has stylish design with brand red-black-white colors. Four top features mentioned in front of the box. 


Behind the box we can find all Specifications in details.
It is an interesting idea from designers to make the box as a book, where we can “read” more details about the features and overview mouse itself.


“Book” is just for reading, if we would like to extract the mouse from the box, we can do it from top cover.
Inside the box there are mouse and Quick Start Guide.

The Mouse

When I read as a feature “Super Grip coated body”, I thought it’s a usual marketing sentence without any valuable feature behind, but when I took CM Storm Recon in my hand I changed my mind. The material of the mouse is really soft to touch.


Another bonus at the first look – its matte! No any single glossy element. Forget about fingerprints. This matte mouse could make a great pro duet with CM Storm Trigger keyboard.


Mouse CM Storm Recon has ambidextrous design which can be used by both left and right handed users with the same ease.


Apart traditional buttons, there are 6 additional buttons: 2 on top and 2 on each side. Buttons are located in “dead zones” for hand, so you can’t push them by mistake.


Cable is 1.5m long and its USB connector is gold-plated. Need to mention a special cap for USB connector. It’s really great when manufacturer paying attention to each detail of his product.

Software

As all modern gaming products, CM Storm Recon comes without CD with software. You need to go to official website and download it from there. The manufacturers just making sure that user will use latest version of software with all bug fixes and newest features.

Mouse is plug-and-play and absolutely workable without installing the software. It has pre-assigned default profile which can be used as it is by many users.

Installation of the software is pretty simple. After installation we can see main window with 6 tabs.

CM Storm Recon comes with embedded default profile which is not possible to modify. Because of this, I am recommending you to start from Profile tab.

You can create a huge number of profiles inside this tab with custom logo if you want to, but only 5 profiles could be copied to mouse’s memory. Certainly, you can move/remove profiles between PC and mouse.


In first tab Buttons, we can assign functions to all 9 buttons. Just click on any button and assign desired function. It could be mouse function, keyboard key, macro command, advanced functions or you can disable button entirely. Additionally, in right column we can see actual assigned buttons.


Besides this, we can customize playback options as well. Each click could run command one time, N-time or you can loop it entirely.


In case of assigning new function to Recon, relevant button in right panel will have red color which means “assignment done, but it’s not recorded to Recon’s memory yet”. After clicking on Apply button, all customized buttons will have white color.


For all hardcore gamers the most important tab is the “Sensor”. Definitely they will be impressed by opportunities to customize their “weapon”.

In upper section they can assign 4 dpi levels in range 800-4000 and easily switch between them with dpi buttons on the mouse. Besides this, they can adjust USB poll rate in range 125-1000.

Also, there is an unique feature with possibility to adjust lift-of-distance! Now you can tune-up the distance between mouse and surface from which sensor will stop detecting the move. Awesome!

And it’s not over yet. In lower section you can adjust OS’es sensitivity and double-click speed. Interesting idea to create “Double Click Test Area” where you can test the double-click speed without leaving the software.

In the final, there is option to adjust “Button Response Time” in range 5-32ms.

As you can see, you can tune-up the Recon in each and every possible way. Awesome job done by CM Storm’s designers and engineers.


Glow tab is about “wow” effect. There are 3 LED zones: Wheel area, DPI buttons and CM Storm logo. Just click on LED area and select from right column the desired color for this zone. You can select from pre-defined colors or by inserting the RGB color code.

Also, there are three LED modes: continuous, flash on profile switch, and rapid fire.

Despite to mentioned wow-effect, these LED zones could be very useful as well. Just assign different colors to each profile and you will easily understand what profile your mouse is currently using.


It looks very stylish. Especially in the dark room.


You can assign different colors to the LED zones or turn off some/all of them.


In Macros’ tab we can easily record macro-combinations of keys and mouse-clicks in 6 easy steps:

1. Press New button
2. Assign the name to macro-command
3. Select delay between the actions
4. Press Record button
5. Tune-up recorded command
6. Save
Profit!

After this you can assign recorded macro-command to any button from the first tab Buttons.


Last tab is Support. There you can find link to official website, general information related to it and get information about your CM Storm Recon hardware and software version.

Conclusion:

Mouse has mid-size with ambidextrous design. As all modern mices it’s supporting plug-n-play, connect it to PC and you’re done.

Mouse comes with pre-installed default profile, so even without installing the CM Storm software you can go ahead with existing settings. Certainly with installed software you will have much more options and functions to customize.

I liked its coated body from the very beginning. With such material you hand will not slip and slide after couple hours of working/playing. It’s a big pleasure just to touch this mouse.

Not too many manufacturers using matte materials nowadays and it’s good that CM Storm among them. Glossy materials looking good and stylish at first look, but after short period of time you will see all your all fingerprints in details. Matte materials are more useful from this point of view.

Another advantage is big number of dedicated buttons. Special thanks for buttons on right side of CM Storm Recon. All my mices have side-buttons. Moreover, I can’t work without side buttons, but for unknown reasons almost all manufacturers adding side buttons for left side only. In some cases it’s not enough. For example, in my current mouse one button closing tab in Internet Browser, and another side button minimizing active window. With CM Storm Recon I additionally assigned on right-side buttons PageUp and PageDown which is made my work faster and convenient.

In my review of CM Storm Trigger I mentioned that software could be friendlier and I expected same situation with software for Recon, but there are huge improvements. The software is very fast and intuitive. You can customize almost everything, save and store up to 5 profiles for every purposes and situation.

Hardcore gamers will be happy with Sensor tab of software. Huge number of customizing options are guarantee that you’ll get from mouse exactly what you want.

Need to mention unique Lift-Of-Distance feature. You can customize distance from which your sensor will stop react. So, regardless to surface which you’re using, you can achieve desired results.

Three independent LED zones are adding not only “wow”-effect, but could be very useful from terms of indicating your current profile. Me personally using different profiles for routine works and games and such “indicator” is very handy.

There is no complains after the tests in games, office and design software. Mouse is very precise and responsive. CM Storm claims that optical sensor Avago 3090 is best sensor available in market, well, there is no any single reason to doubt.

Pros:

• Body is rubber coated and matte
• Top optical sensor
• Great customizing options
• Big number of dedicated buttons
• Possibility to store in mouse’s memory up to 5 profiles and 36 macro-commands
• 3 independent LED zones
• Friendly and intuitive software
• Possibility to change on-fly DPI, USB polling rate and unique Lift-Of-Distance option

Cons:

• Cable is not rubber coated

Notes:

Size and ambidextrous design of the mouse in completely subjective and because of this we didn’t include them to Pros nor to Cons.