CM Storm Recon Review

Gaming prowess and a back-to-basics aesthetic mark the CM Storm Recon( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) as a gaming mouse worth considering for any gamer that wants a high-quality mouse at a reasonable price. Though priced like the Roccat Lua Tri-Button Gaming Mouse($84.87 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), the inexpensive CM Storm Recon is a solid gaming mouse, with a comfortable ambidextrous design, a decent feature set, and solid gaming performance.

Design and Features
The CM Storm Recon features an ambidextrous design, with right and left mouse buttons, a ratcheting clickable scroll wheel, and forward and back browser buttons on either side, suitable for right or left handed use. The side panels are a dark grey, with a lightly textured plastic surface. Slight contouring on the sides makes for more comfortable thumb placement.

The Recon measures 1.65 by 2.53 by 4.58 inches (HWD), so it sits a bit higher than the low-slung Razer Taipan. The ambidextrous design is sculpted to provide a fairly ergonomic experience, and the mouse weighs 4.9 ounces, though there’s no way to adjust the weight as there is in the Editors’ Choice Corsair Vengeance M65( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window).

The mouse has a black soft-touch rubberized finish, with glowing accents—the CM Storm logo on the palmrest, the scroll wheel, and the DPI adjustment buttons—that cycle through three colors (Red, Green, Blue). The colors indicate the four sensitivity presets, with no color for slowest, then red, green, and blue for the fastest.

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The Recon features an optical sensor that will work with most surfaces, and features 800 to 4000 DPI resolution. The mouse also senses and corrects for lifting from the mousing surface, be it a mousepad or bar tabletop.

The one problem with the ambidextrous design is that the thumb buttons are a bit too easy to click unintentionally on the opposite side. It’s a common problem on ambidextrous mice, but some competitors give you the alternative of disabling the thumb buttons depending on your selection of dominant hand. The Recon connects with a USB 2.0 connection, and has a 6-foot cable to provide plenty of length and freedom of movement.

The Recon offers plug-and-play functionality in both Windows and Mac environments, but Windows users also have the option of downloading an additional software package to adjust the mouse settings more to your liking. The software was fairly straightforward—almost bare-bones—letting you adjust the sensitivity, the DPI levels for the four sensitivity settings, as well as letting you remap the mouse buttons, record and assign macro commands (up to 36 total), and save as many as five different profiles. CM Storm covers the Recon with a one-year warranty on parts and labor.

Performance
The CM Storm Recon performed well in both mundane office use and during heated combat. Whether it was something basic, like navigating spreadsheets or running-and-gunning in Team Fortress 2 or Battlefield 4, the Recon offered smooth, accurate tracking. The lift-off detection worked quite well, reducing the number of interruptions caused by the occasional overly enthusiastic gesture.

Playing shooters like Battlefield 4, the Recon’s adjustable DPI was extremely helpful as you switch between close- and long-range weapons, and transition from open areas to enclosed indoor scenarios. The placement of the DPI buttons is a bit awkward, requiring pulling back with your index finger to make adjustments—the Corsair M65 has a more comfortable thumb button for sensitivity adjustment—but otherwise it was a helpful feature.

Conclusion
With its basic ambidextrous design, comfortable feel and solid performance, the CM Storm Recon is a well-made gaming mouse. Price-wise, it’s also more budget friendly, putting it closer to the Roccat Lua Tri-Button Gaming Mouse than the more expensive Corsair Vengeance M65. That said, the Lua has it beat on the pricing front, and the Vengeance M65 offers a more comfortable (though not ambidextrous) design, and as such retain their Editors’ Choice titles. That said, the CM Storm Recon does find a happy medium between the two and is highly recommended for left-handed gamers.