Sharkoon DarkGlider Mouse and Mousepad

Testing and Impressions

The shape of the DarkGlider mouse is the first thing you notice about it, and it takes some getting used to. The area below the back and forward buttons on the side, where I expected to find a thumb-shaped depression, instead had a bulge that pushed my thumb out and forward a bit. Once I got used to that, though, I fell rather naturally into a claw grip, with thumb, ring and little fingers grasping the mouse on the sides, and index and middle fingers poised atop the main two buttons. If you like playing with medium-to-high sensitivity, i.e. 1200 DPI and above, this grip gives you some extra control.

The ceramic feet give this mouse an extremely smooth glide on just about any mouse pad, though it becomes especially slick with the DarkGlider pad we got along with the mouse. The static friction, i.e how much the mouse resists movement from rest, is extremely low on this mouse, which is important when you’ll be making relatively tiny movements with it. Most gaming mice have broad Teflon feet, which helps with smoothness but also increases drag, and static friction. Most of them stay controllable up to ~1600-2400 DPI; above that, they start to be too twitchy to really hang on to. The DarkGlider, perhaps because of the ceramic feet, remained controllable up to 3200 DPI.

Because of the unfortunate decision to limit the DPI to certain, hard-coded presets, I was unable to test how this mouse would perform at low sensitivities; it simply won’t go below 800 DPI. It’s theoretically possible to lower the sensitivity via the sliders in the configuration program, but with nothing more informative than an arbitrary 1-10 scale available, I was unable to dial it in exactly where I wanted it.

The DPI display window is nice in theory, but in practice it’s impossible to see while the mouse is in use. The DPI switch buttons themselves function as advertised, though they’re positioned a bit awkwardly for quick access. The Back and Forward buttons are very stiff, enough that pushing them caused my aim to jump around at higher sensitivities. The Forward button is also positioned on the underside of a ledge that sticks out from the left side of the mouse, getting my thumb angled right to push it was awkward no matter how much time I spent with this mouse. The weight system was frankly worthless; not only is the weight tray difficult to insert and remove, but the supplied weights are so light as to provide no meaningful difference to the weight.

The main two buttons are large and easy to press, with such a feather-light touch that I found myself accidentally double-clicking at times. The problem mostly went away as I spent more time with the mouse, but it is something to note. The wheel is nicely textured and notchy; I was able to consistently activate each of its five functions (scroll up, scroll down, tilt left, tilt right, wheel click) without fumbling or accidentally pressing more than I meant to.

Conclusion

This mouse is a mixed bag. It apes the features of much more expensive mice—lots of extra buttons, on-the-fly DPI switching, weight tuning, macro programming—but falls short in the execution. On the other hand, the sensor and body are both extremely solid, and the buttons you’ll use most are very responsive. The ceramic feet are a feature you don’t often see on mice of any price, and they are quite nice. Though it’s not without its flaws, with a retail price of €39.99 (roughly $50 us), the DarkGlider provides good value for the money.

The DarkGlider mousepad is a much easier product to evaluate. It’s large enough for reasonable travel distances, extremely smooth with no distracting ridges or bumps, and stays put. With an average online price of €10 (about $12), this pad would make a perfect addition to any LAN party kit or desktop setup.

Additional note: The listed prices are in euros, primarily because I could not find a US retail listing for either. Sharkoon did not respond to an inquiry by press time, so it’s not clear if the products are intended for the US market as well, or just Europe.

Update: Sharkoon has responded with the following information:

Currently the DarkGlider is only found throughout Europe and select Asian markets. We are currently working with our US distributor, CompuExpert, in getting released in the US around the middle of September. The dollar price has not yet been officially determined but it will probably be slightly more due to the current conversion rates.

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