Review: Microsoft Sidewinder X8

Putting Microsoft's premium wireless gaming mouse under the spotlight.

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By John Gillooly on 5 May, 2009

Despite the tendency for people to cling to old cliches, good quality wireless gaming mice have been around for some time. The demands of gaming are much greater than that of normal desktop use, but the illusion that wireless sucks is a long held belief of many gamers that is just not true.

Current generation wireless mice are pretty much indiscernible from wired versions in terms of performance. What wireless does bring is convenience, and in the case of the Sidewinder X8 from Microsoft, a better design than its corded brethren.

When Microsoft resurrected its Sidewinder brand, it followed the usual path of differentiation from its competitors. Key among this was the inclusion of vertically-, rather than horizontally-arranged thumb buttons. This is perhaps the most wonderfully evolved feature of the X8, which has forgone the awkward round buttons and adopted a much more ergonomic design. The thumb buttons now taper inwards, sitting comfortably under the thumb. Simple upward or downward pressure is all that’s needed to hit the buttons. This involves very little movement at all and is a revelation for those used to having to ‘reach’ the thumb forward to hit the second button.

This fits well into the large, but comfortable body of the mouse. As a former fan of the original IntelliMouse Explorer, with its big shell, this writer appreciates the width of the mouse, which allows for a much more comfortable position than on the narrower offerings from other manufacturers. The design does mean that it leaves our sinister friends out in the cold, as it is highly tailored for right-hand use.

The feature set of the Sidewinder X8 is fairly similar to the competition. There are three buttons behind the scroll wheel to adjust the dots per inch (DPI) for sensitivity, which can each be set in the control panel. The scroll wheel, itself, is big and very clicky. One complaint about Microsoft products in recent years were that the scroll wheels lacked the tactile click that made them more responsive for tasks like weapon selection. If anything, this mouse overcompensates, providing solid clicks when using it for both vertical and horizontal scrolling. I’ve found that this makes the side-scrolling controls a lot more useful in-game than they are on a mouse like the Logitech MX 518, for example.

Of course, most games don’t recognise side scrolling, but this is where the easy-to-customise control panel comes in. Microsoft allows gamers to set up key binds on a per-application basis. So, you can assign normal keystrokes in games where you wish to use the sideways action of the scroll wheel, while still keeping the scrolling functionality for the desktop tasks that it is most useful for.

In fact, all but two buttons can be rebound on a global or per-application basis. First, there is the macro record button. This sits on the left side of the mouse, forward of the thumb buttons, in a position that is an ergonomic nightmare. Thankfully, it can only be used to record keystrokes and mouse clicks as a macro bound to any other mouse button (there is also a manual macro editor in the control panel software). The other unbindable button sits under the palm and opens either the games menu, for those running Vista, or the Windows XP mouse control panel, for the vast majority of PC gamers.

There is definitely some tweaking needed before the Sidewinder X8 is truly comfortable in-game. It is worth playing with the DPI settings to get a sensitivity that works best for you – very few gamers have the kind of twitch control needed to operate at the maximum 4,000 DPI. Once the sensitivity feels comfortable, the next important thing lies within the hockey puck-style receiver unit for the mouse.

Open the top, and there are two spare sets of mouse feet – these have differing amounts of grippiness to the ones attached to the mouse. While there is certainly an air of pretentiousness that comes with tweaking one’s mouse feet, the differing friction is noticeable. It is worth trying out the different feet on your mousing surface of choice in order to find which one imparts the best ‘feel.’

In-game, the X8 is highly responsive. Thanks to the BlueTrack laser technology that Microsoft has included in the mouse, this responsiveness is pretty mousepad-agnostic – any flat, non-glass surface should work well for mousing. In fact, the laser is so precise that it works fine on everything from a head of hair to carpet. But as much as mousing on the floor is possible, a flat desktop or mousepad is still the preferred gaming option.

Battery life is great, Microsoft quotes 30 hours between charges and I was able to subject the mouse to a week of normal use before it ran out of juice. Charging is a breeze – there is a cable that is secured in the base station. Simply unwrapped it and the magnetised plug clips onto the front underside of the mouse. It takes mere seconds before the mouse is charging and you are back to gaming – perfect, considering the annoying habit of mouse batteries dying midway through a crucial clan match or guild raid.

As for the price, at $149.95 RRP, this is at the high end of the market (although the mouse can be found for around $100). But it is a worthy occupier of the high end, thanks to its performance and features, especially considering that there are wired competitors in the same price bracket.

Microsoft has definitely made an impressive product with the X8. It ticks the usual check boxes of accuracy, customisability, sensible battery recharging, and glowing lighting. But more than that, it has a wonderfully tactile scroll wheel and hands down the best thumb buttons this reviewer has encountered over the years. Perhaps the major concern for most people will be the size, which is awesome for a large handed type like myself, but could be annoying in more dainty gaming hands.

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