ThermalTake's Black gaming mouse fizzles

The casemaker’s making inroads into the eSports market, but can this mouse cut the mustard?

ThermalTake's making a serious effort to break into the serious gaming market. Seriously. The company, better known for its cases and cooling gear, has released a range of keyboards and mice themed to match its bold case designs - but does matte black plastic and red LEDs equal a superior gaming experience?

Well, the looks are certainly there. The Black mouse (really, can Thermaltake not come up with a better name?) features matte and gloss black styling, offset by red lighting on the Tt logo and mousewheel. A braided mouse cable will ensure a non-kink, low-wear future, but it is a touch short at 1.8m long.

The mouse is built around an asymmetrical design that feels good for right handers, but lefties really don't get a look in. There's a moulded and grippy thumb rest to supposedly improve grip and control, but in our use we found our thumb didn't even reach it. Admittedly, we do have smaller than average hands, but given the mouse is actually shorter than our standard Razer test mouse, larger hands are going to find it a little cramped.

Curiously, given how ThermalTake's aimed this mouse at the eSports crowd, there are zero customisation options. Up and down switches allow you to cycle through 400, 800, 2000 and 4000 dpi settings, but you're stuck with that. It's a good range, but the option to fine tune them would be nice. There's also only three buttons in total - not a game breaker for us, but if you love customising your clicks, this may not be the mouse for you.

In actual gaming, the Black's a solid if uninspiring performer. It doesn't impact our completion time of Call of Duty 4's killhouse level, though it certainly feels very good under our hand. That said, there are some bumps in the mouse feet that caused a slight rocking motion in use - we doubt this will be present on every mouse, but it's worth noting.

This is a solid little mouse given its feature set, but given that limited set, it's also a touch pricey. The Sharkoon mouse we recently reviewed is nearly half the price and just as good, for instance. The Black does feature a more premium design, so if you're willing to pay for that, great. But we're not quite convinced.