Cougar Iron Grey Edition 550M Gaming Mouse Review
Peter Donnell / 9 years ago
Introduction
Cougar is back on eTeknix once again, following the review of their new 300M gaming mouse, which was a fantastic product for a very reasonable price. In the office today, we have something a little more high-end, the 550M 6400DPI “ultimate optical gaming mouse” and I’m very eager to see how well (or perhaps not so well) it performs. We’ve seen great things from Cougar in the past, and in my opinion, they’re one of the hottest peripheral manufacturers out there right now, offering solid performance, great aesthetics and very competitive prices, so let’s jump right to it and take a closer look at what the 550M has to offer.
As you can see in the video below, this is a really nice looking mouse, with grip side panels, a high-end optical sensor, programmable buttons, built-in 32-bit ARM processor with 512KB of on-board memory and plenty more; pretty much everything you would expect to find in a competitive gaming mouse these days.
The packaging is nice and tidy, featuring a clear image of the mouse, as well as a quick rundown of the main specifications.
This mouse is packed with gaming features, which are listed in detail on the back of the box; this is handy if you’re looking at the mouse in a retail store, but we’ll take a much closer look ourselves in just a moment.
In the box, you’ll find a straightforward user manual, as well as some clear back stickers if you feel inclined to put such things on your PC case, monitor, etc.
Of course, you’ll also find the mouse in the box, which comes hard-wired with a nice quality black braided cable.
The 550M has a fairly aggressive design, which will no doubt appeal to a gaming audience.
There’s a pair of large side buttons on the left of the mouse, but the thing that stands out the most is the mixture of textures the 550M offers. There’s a granite effect top panel, which is nice and smooth, a hard grip textured surface on the side and that bright orange metal inner chassis that starts between the mouse wheel and is exposed towards the rear of the mouse.
The mouse has a slim ergonomic shape, which is suitable for a range of grip styles; palm, claw and fingertip.
One thing that immediately caught my attention is the scroll wheel; it’s huge! The wheel has a thick and fairly soft rubber coating, and while it is oversized, it’s heavily recessed into the body of the mouse, making it feel nimble and accurate to control.
The DPI toggle is unique too, as it needs to be pulled backwards like a trigger rather than pressed down; this is still easy to do mid-game, but it’s also virtually impossible to accidentally trigger the button!
There are three large slipmats on the 550m and they’re extremely smooth, meaning this mouse will glide with minimal effort on a wide range of gaming surfaces; more so than most gaming mice!
Performance
Once connected, you can see that the Coguar 550M has three small LEDs towards the front of the mouse, as well as an LED strip across the back. Both sets of LEDs can be customised with a 16.8m colour RGB selector in the desktop software; the front set of lights are also the DPI mode indicator.
Once connected, the UIX software will automatically detect and update the firmware; the process completed with no issues in under a 30 seconds.
The desktop software is really nicely designed and easy to understand. DPI, lift-off height, angle snapping and more can all be configured easily and all settings can then be saved to the on-board memory of the mouse.
Every button on the mouse can be configured with custom layouts, launchers and macros.
There’s even an advanced mode for even more button customisation options.
The RGB colour selector is easy to use and even offers a breathing effect, or the ability to turn the lighting off completely.
There are three profiles available for saving your settings, which can be switched via the software on your desktop, or by configuring a button on the mouse.
The sensor on the 550M performed very well at low DPI settings, as you can see, at a super low 50 DPI, it’s very easy to get tight control and this would be very handy if set as a sniper-mode macro key.
All good here, nice and smooth tracking overall.
At 3200 there’s a little bit of jitter creeping in, but I’m still able to get smooth results without too much trouble. The straight lines are starting to feel a little “assisted” though, which tell me there’s a tiny bit of angle snapping applied, although it’s not much of an issue at higher DPI and it is very minor.
The reflect this, I turned Angle Snapping on in the UIX software and as you can see, the mouse is better at drawing straight lines but falls flat on its face when drawing curves; this is not something you would want applied while trying to game, but at least you can turn it off.
The default lift-off height is nice and low, more than low enough for a good lift-off technique, but you can adjust it in the UIX software if you so desire. Overall, the sensor performance is fairly good, or at least within a good error of margin for a mouse of this calibre. When it comes to gaming, the 550M doesn’t disappoint, and the fatter ergonomic shape and oversized scroll wheel lend themselves very well to a palm rest play-style, which is great for those very long MMO/RPG gaming sessions.
What amazed me is that this is a fairly heavy mouse, but it’s well balanced and has some of the best glide you’ll find on a mouse. Despite its size and weight, it feels fast and twitch shooter friendly and that’s no bad thing at all, especially if you’re a fan of games like CS:GO. The switches are snappy and responsive and the grips on the side mean you get really give it a thrashing around the length and breadth of your mousemat without fear it’s going to elude your fingertips.
Day to day use is perfectly reasonable on this mouse too, despite it’s “gaming” focused design, it’s core design is that of a fairly standard desktop mouse, and you’ll feel right at home with it in the palm of your hand when you’re gaming, or if you’re just sat in the office working on a sale report.
Final Thoughts
Price
The Cougar 550M Optical Gaming Mouse is available in Iron Grey or Metallic Blue from Overclockers UK for just £41.99. Unfortunately, I could not find stock at a preferred US retailer at the time of writing.
Overview
The Cougar range is full of surprises and the 550M is no exception. While it’s not the greatest gaming mouse in the world, as subjective as that rating would be, it’s certainly a strong contender in its respective price range, where it goes head to head with the likes of the Shogun Bros Ballista MK-1, DeathAdder Respawn, SteelSeries Kana and CM Storm Mizar. There’s no shortage of “fairly decent” mice in this price range and it’s hard to pick a clear winner in terms of performance.
Fortunately, the Cougar 550M does have some stand-out features, such as its unique design and great build quality. This price range is often dominated by thinner plastic construction and that’s certainly not the case with the 550M. The tough body of the mouse is nicely finished, it features a metal pass through mid-chassis component, has a good weight to it, has huge slip-mats, RGB lighting and a braided cable; It may be affordable, but there’s certainly a focus on build quality here.
The desktop software is also a cut above the rest, with a clean layout that’s as appealing to the pros among us as it would be the newbie gamers. The added bonus is that the UIX software is compatible with all Cougar products, meaning you won’t need multiple pieces of software for multiple products.
Pros
- Great build quality
- Nice aesthetics
- Excellent UIX software
- Competitive price
- RGB lighting
Cons
- Tiny bit of angle snapping at higher DPI settings
“The Cougar 550M is a strong contender in the low-to-mid budget market. It has a good range of features, excellent build quality and a unique design that more than justify the retail price. If you’re looking for a good mouse for work and gaming, you’ll love what the 550M has to offer.”
Thank you Cougar for providing us with this sample.