Creative Fatal1ty 1010 Mouse

Under the guidance of Jonathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel, Creative gives mice a minor tune-up.

What more could you want from a mouse other than being able to plot X and Y co-ordinates and register button input? Quite a lot really, as Apple users learned when they looked down the business end of the Mighty Mouse. Gamers have been enjoying the boundary push that has been made from companies such as Logitech for quite a while now, with the addition of simple features that make major differences to the gaming world.

Creative has thrown its hat into the ring with its Fatality branded peripherals. The branding comes courtesy of Jonathan ‘Fatal1ty’ Wendel, Pro Gamer. Expect to see pro series gaming headsets (headphones) and these mice in stores soon. A Fatality branded X-Fi should already be on the shelves.

Using the mouse feels a little awkward at first, as it doesn’t hug your hand like Microsoft’s Intellimouse-inspired designs. Once your fingers adjust to hanging over the edge of the buttons, your hand comfortably rests on the body while your wrist stays on the mouse pad. Once the mouse feels anchored to your hand, you can start experimenting to find the balance between your twitchy first-person shooting reflexes and the customisable features of the mouse.

You get three weights which click into the middle of the body. You can choose from 3.5, 11 and 26g weights which, combined with your gaming style and the selected sensitivity of the sensor, provide a lot of balance. Two of the weights were a little off when we measured them, reading 2g instead of 3.5g and 24g instead of 26g. You’ll care more about potentially losing them more than weight deviation, but it’s nice to know.

Moving onto the LED-based sensor, you’ll note that it never goes into standby mode, and as such will always respond instantly after you place it on your surface of choice. It can change its sensitivity from 400 counts per inch to 800 and crank all the way up to 1600. Sensitivity can be adjusted through the mostly useless bundled software or by pressing a small, translucent, dual color LED backlit button below the scroll wheel. This can be used to switch from fast twitch run-and-gun mode to sniper mode, for instance.

The backlight on this button serves as a reminder that there are no other reasons that your mouse is responding at a different pace than expected, or if you take your eyes off the game, what sensitivity the mouse is running at. The button cycles through sensitivity settings in order from slowest to highest, and then back to slowest. Unfortunately, even with the software installed, you can’t change the sequence order.

You could be forgiven for thinking that Creative’s marketing department were clutching at straws when you see the low latency of the cable being promoted on the box. The cable is made from lower resistance oxygen-free copper and uses a gold plated USB plug, although this won’t effect the digital signal of any mouse in any way. If nothing else though, it is indicative of the mouse’s solid overall design.

Aside from the packaging hyperbole, which you really need to expect as part of product endorsements, the 1010 mouse leaves a good impression once you get used to it. Lefties need not apply. But you’re used to that by now, surely?