Cougar Revenger Optical Gaming Mouse and Bunker Bungee Review

Introduction

Cougar is quickly growing to be one of our favourite peripheral brands, as they have released consistently great performing products that are well made, well designed and very competitively priced. This is obviously something that’s going to put them in good favour with consumers too, and with that in mind, we have pretty high expectations of their new gaming mouse, the Cougar Revenger. For a little bonus treat, today we’ll be taking a look at another product in this review too, the Bunker Mouse Cable Bungee, so enjoy the “yo’dawg I heard you like reviews” vibe.

“COUGAR Revenger’s PMW 3360 sensor is the ultimate refinement of a respected sensor lineage, and it shows in its performance. Consistency and accuracy are the two keywords that define Revenger’s sensor behavior. The ability to fine tune its DPI level up to 12,000 DPI will allow you to enjoy its unrivalled precision on a wide range of situations and screens, from laptops to massive multi-screen and 4k setups.” – Cougar

The Revenger is very well equipped, with fully programmable buttons, RGB lighting, a powerful macro engine with their UIX software, a 12,000 DPI optical sensor and much more. It certainly sounds great on the specs table, so let’s take a quick look at the Bunker too and we’ll get them both out of the box for a bit of play time.

“With Revenger, you’re not restricted to a mouse pad anymore. Its advanced tracking technology will allow you to perform at high levels even on wooden or steel surfaces.” – Cougar

As with all the Cougar products we’ve seen in the past, the Revenger comes in a nicely designed box, showing off the main spec and product right up front, with a nice technical breakdown on the reverse of the box.

The box opens out, giving you a good look at the actual product; handy for those looking at it in a retail store.

In the box, you’ll find the mouse, which comes hard-wired with a lightweight cable to prevent drag, as well as a durable custom shaped USB header with gold plating. You’ll also find a user manual, as well as some nice stickers to place on your desktop.

“COUGAR Bunker is the perfect solution for those gamers who want to enjoy the superior reliability, response and accuracy of a wired gaming mouse while at the same time preventing the mouse cord from getting in their way.” Reads the Cougar website. “With a patented design that provides unsurpassed durability, stability and portability, COUGAR Bunker is one of the best investments a serious gamer can make.”

The Bunker box is pretty self-explanatory, and we’ll take a closer look at that in a little while.

A Closer Look

The Revenger makes a solid first impression, as it’s immediately apparent that this is a gorgeous looking gaming mouse. It feels as good as it looks too, with a chunky feel and a robust weight. The hard shell on the top has a light texture to it, but still feels relatively smooth, and there are some very durable rubber grips on the side, allowing you to really get a firm grip on it.

There are two programmable switches on the left side, with a nice oversized design to them that makes them very easy to control regardless of how you choose to grip the mouse. In front of the buttons, three LED indicators, which are perfect for DPI level readouts.

Down the right, you’ll find another large patch of durable rubber, and a deep curvy design that makes it really easy to grip the mouse, albeit for right-handed users only. The slightly scooped shape also makes it easy to pick up the mouse, which is great if you like to use a low DPI/lift-off technique while working or gaming.

The mouse slopes down on the right side, which helps promote a more natural wrist position, which could help reduce strain during those long gaming sessions. There’s a large scroll wheel which is heavily recessed into the body and surrounded by two stylish metal panels. The wheel is coated is a soft grippy rubber, which makes it super easy to control, and while it has a fast turning speed, there’s a nice tactile bump at each step for added control. The DPI adjustment is unique too, rather than a click, you put your finger in that deep recess and pull it towards you like a trigger. It’s a little slower than a simple top button, but it completely removes the chance of an accidental DPI change.

Overall, the design is pretty cool, with a few traits that make me thing a fighter jet or super car designer had a hand in it.

Around the back, a Cougar logo, as well as a strip light at the base, which is backed up with RGB lighting, and we’ll see that in action in a moment.

The underside of the mouse features three huge slipmats, which give this mouse exceptional glide on all surfaces. That being said, the sensor promises to work on wood, metal, glass, cloth, the lot, so that glide could come in handy if you’re using a surface like wood, which often provides more friction.

So what about that Bungee?

The cable bungee does exactly what you would expect, raising the cable up off the desk to stop it from dragging and snagging, which can improve your overall usage experience. The bottom is a durable housing with a simple locking level on the top. Pop this on a smooth surface, clamp down that level and it’ll lock firmly in place using the suction cup on its base.

Along the top and down the back, a cutout allows you to lock the cable firmly in place so it doesn’t slip free.

the top sections are made from strong yet flexible rubber, so that the bungee works with you, not against you.

Clamp it down, tuck in the cable, and you’re good to go. Now, with this setup, let’s see what the Revenger can offer us!

Performance

Cougar offers up the UIX software with all their gaming peripherals, and that means you only need one software suite to control them all, saving you from additional software cluttering up your OS. UIX is very nicely designed, with everything in an easily digestible layout that’s going to be welcoming to beginners, but advanced enough for the pros.

The RGB lighting can easily be tweaked with a few clicks, and there are a few effects to pick from too. There are two layers to the lighting too, which allows you to create some lovely fade effects on the rear of the mouse.

Every button on the mouse can easily be reprogrammed to suit your needs, with multiple profiles available so that you can quickly toggle from one to the other, which is great if you play a lot of games and need an MMO setup, an FPS setup and dare I say it, perhaps even a work setup. You can add macros, a sniper button, profiles and more to the switches, so you won’t be feeling cheated on configuration options.

The sensor can have up to three DPI levels applied per profile (you can turn them off to have 1 or 2 if desired), angle snapping is off by default (good!), and you can even tweak the lift height should you need to. With a range of 100 to 12000 DPI, you’ve got a lot to play around with here, so finding what works best for you is going to be pretty easy.

Cougar made big claims about their sensor and while it sports a 12k DPI, bigger numbers don’t always mean better performance. Lucky for Cougar, and for everyone else, this mouse delivers the big DPI numbers and the high-end performance we love to see side by side. The sensor is smooth as silk from low DPI, right up to the breakneck speeds of 12k, where we expected the mouse to be uncontrollable, but it glides with minimal effort, and that makes minor twitchy controls pretty easy; perfect for CS:GO!

The RGB lighting looks gorgeous, you can see that in the next few pictures. The colours are really rich and electric, and the two-level lighting gives it a nice fade effect that’s sure to look great on your desktop.

We really can’t fault this mouse at all, not a thing wrong with it. It glides like a ballerina on ice but still has a nice bit of weight and chunkyness to it that’s great for my larger hands. The buttons are snappy and responsive, making them perfect for gaming and the UIX software suite means that even a newcomer to high-end gaming mice won’t be left wondering what could have been, if only they knew how to work everything on offer.

Thumbs up for the bungee too, not really much to say about it other than we expected it to hold our cable and it did, perfectly. Looks pretty great too, a nice little addition to the desktop!

Final Thoughts

Price

The cougar Revenger is a flawless gaming mouse, and I must admit that I wrote this review with absolutely no knowledge of the price. My estimate was £60-70, it’s certainly got the quality and performance of something in that price range, so my jaw is on the floor to see that it’s just £44.99 at OCUK! Now that’s the kind of value any PC gamer can enjoy!

Overview

It’s pretty obvious that I really like the Cougar Revenger, and that’s certainly understandable given that it aced all of our performance tests. The use of the well-proven Pixair PWM3360 sensor was a smart move, and while much of the performance can also come down to the construction, firmware and more, Cougar clearly made a lot of smart choices here. The DPI can be dropped to 100 or pushed up to 12000 and it didn’t exhibit any performance issues such as angle snapping, correction, acceleration, or jitter, throughout our testing, making it pixel perfect and ideal for those who take their FPS gaming seriously.

The build quality is rock solid, and that shows in the overall aesthetics of the mouse too. This is a great looking gaming mouse with very nicely finished surfaces, responsive and reliable Omron switches, hard-wearing rubber side grips, huge slipmats, and much more on offer. It’ll survive a few hard knocks and bumps with ease too, no compromise on quality here.

In terms of features, it’s not too crazy, but ticks all the right boxes with fully programmable switches, a decent macro engine, the DPI trigger switch, large scroll wheel, multi-surface sensor, and the RGB lighting. You can’t really ask for much more from a mouse and that’s even more true given the rather wallet friendly price tag.

Pros

• Exceptional build quality
• Flawless sensor performance
• Omron switches
• DPI trigger
• Two-tone RGB lighting with effects
• UIX Software
• Extremely competitive price

Cons

• None

“The Cougar Revenger takes what we thought we knew about budget friendly gaming mice and delivers premium build quality, eSports levels of performance, and stunning aesthetics all in one neat package. Highly recommended for anyone wanting a versatile work or gaming mouse.”

Cougar Revenger Optical Gaming Mouse and Bunker Bungee Review