Review: CoolerMaster Spawn Gaming Mouse.

Gaming Mice are kind of like headphones in the sense that everybody’s hands and feeling of comfort are different. No to mention, the way you actually grip the mouse is a big factor in choosing a mouse too. Whether it be palm, claw, or a mixture somewhere in between, there are dozens of options for the avid gamer.

Today we’re going to take a look at CoolerMaster’s Spawn gaming mouse, that despite having “only” 3500 dpi and relatively low button count, still offers plenty of utility. But as is similar with many other areas of life, more does not always equal better.

The Specs

  • Sensor: 3500 DPI Storm Tactical Optical Sensor
  • Maximum tracking speed: 60 IPS
  • Polling time: 1.0ms
  • Speed measurement: 6400 fps
  • Maximum acceleration: 20g
  • Onboard memory: 32kb
  • User programmable buttons: 7
  • Dimensions: (W) 75.5 X (H) 110 X (D) 35 mm | (W) 3 X (H) 4.3 X (D) 1.3 inch
  • Weight: 142 g / 0.313 lb

Even after a solid 3 years of heavy PC gaming, we’re still not exactly sure what type of hand grip we are. Some times we’ll let our fingers relax a bit with a more palm based grip. Other times we’ll claw our way through each and every Team Deathmatch. It changes from game to game and month to month. Part of it could be the most we’re using at the time and us adapting to it. Regardless, the Spawn is by far one of the shorter mice we’ve used.

At first, the heavily clawed grip turned us off, but only for a minute. After a few matches of BF3 we were actually happy with how much “lighter” our hand felt, which in turn let us quickly whip around to catch creepers lurking behind us in an attempt to score an easy kill. More often than not, they lost and we won.

Speaking of “lightness”, we’ll note that the Spawn is in fact a very light mouse. Most of that can likely be attributed to the use of mostly plastics and of course, the small footprint. But that’s not a bad thing. As we already mentioned, the lightness made our hand movements at least seem faster, and we noticed less hand fatigue after a couple 2+ hour gaming sessions.

The left and right mouse buttons feel a tad cheap in our opinion, but offer up a nice amount of travel and *click*. Likewise, the DPI buttons underneath the scroll wheel are also a bit cheap in feel, though feature a bit shorter travel ultimately making them feel nicer to use. Our most favorite button, ironically, is the scroll wheel; it has a nice weighted feel to it and very specific notches for precise scrolling. On the flip side, for something such as scrolling through a long web page, we found the weighted, non-freely spinning wheel to be a bit of a choice. But let’s be real. This is a gaming mouse first with everything else coming second. The only buttons we really didn’t care to use at all were the thumb buttons. The left/right finger buttons felt border line too soft and clicky. The thumb buttons go above and beyond and come across feeling like they were transplanted from a $10 mouse that you’d receive with your typical big box retailer PC purchase. If we had our way, we would would have made them a tad stiffer and with much less button travel.

Aside from the comfortable grip of the mouse overall, we have to give CoolerMaster props fro putting the soft rubber wrap around the sides of the mouse where your thumb, ring and pinky fingers lie. It is just the right amount — not too soft and not too grippy. But the nicest part about the soft rubber grip (and the mouse body overall) is that it doesn’t get slimy or slick after multi-hour gaming sessions. We’re not typically one to get overly sweaty hands, but did try using a damp paper towel to simulate such a person. Even after applying sudo-sweat, the Spawn didn’t feel like a wet noodle in fast action sequences during gameplay.

If we move past the grip aspect of the Spawn and dive into the brain of the (miniature) beast, we’re presented with a 3500 DPI Storm Tactical Optical Sensor. Some may lament the fact that it isn’t a higher precision laser which not only offers much faster tracking but also tracking on more surfaces, we’ll argue such things aren’t necessarily needed by most gamers. For instance, 3500 dpi in your typical FPS is insane. Seriously. How do you even see what’s happening when you’re flinging a mouse around at that setting? In order to make the mouse usable at 3500 dpi we literally had to turn down mouse sensitivity inside of whatever game we were playing, completely negating any dpi increase we applied on the mouse itself. As for the optical laser’s ability to track on multiple surfaces, we’ll also point out that a majority of gamers have some sort of special section on their desk covered with a gaming mouse pad of some type. In short: the optical sensor is plenty capable.

Software

For gamers who live and die by the macro, the Spawn may not be your best choice as far as gaming mice are concerned. There’s a left/right, dpi up/down and scroll wheel which can also scroll side to side and be clicked down as a button itself — all pretty simple. But the utility in the Spawn isn’t in 70+ buttons/macros. It’s in its simplicity and speed. Truth be told, if you want a mouse for two dozen different pre-programmed actions for your favorite MMO, get an MMO gaming mouse. Razr’s Naga is a perfect choice for something like that.

That said, the Spawn’s software is relatively simple. You can adjust polling rates, dpi settings and ranges, apply pre-made or custom macros, and update the Spawn’s firmware via a built-in software update function.

The Spawn, like many other gaming mice, allows you to store profiles on the mouse itself, which can be a big timesaver if your frequent a lot of LAN parties or gaming locations where software to configure your mouse isn’t available.

Conclusion

You’re either going to love or hate the CoolerMaster Spawn mostly because of it’s grip. If you’re the type of gamer that holds your mouse like an eagle gripping a fish. Welcome. This is your mouse. But if instead you’re the type who uses a much more relaxed fit, you’re going to find yourself halfway up the Spawn’s cord searching for the buttons. That said, you’ve got to know what kind of grip you are, or if you’re like us, at least open to trying something different.

While we can’t call the Spawn the best or most comfortable mouse in our stable, it is certainly a mouse worth checking out. Ultimately, we feel the few gripes about buttons as well as the slightly-too-high $39.99 price tag cause the Spawn to fall a tad short. Still, it’s a mouse you might just want to try out.

Buy: CoolerMaster Spawn Gaming Mouse

Gadgetsteria’s Rating (Average): 7

  • Comfort: 8
  • Features: 6
  • Value 7