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The Shogun Bros Ballista MK1 is one of those rare products that seemed to come out of nowhere. If I was being completely honest we knew very little about it beforehand, there was minimal information passed over before publication. I wasn't expecting to be reviewing anything substantial today, due to the sheer amount of unknown brand peripherals available on the market today.
I was proved wrong however. The Ballista MK1 is a fantastic gaming mouse and marketed at a very competitive price point. SCAN UK are selling it for £49.43 inc vat. When we factor in that many high grade gaming mice sell for upwards of £80 in the UK, it seems like a heck of a price point to achieve.
Shogun Bros have clearly wanted the mouse to target the widest possible audience. This has meant they have used a traditional, modern shape which suits a variety of hand shapes and sizes, apart from lefties. To keep the tight sub £50 price point there is no weighting system onboard the Ballista MK1. The ‘out of the box' weight seems to suit a wide audience, although I found it light and so did several of the clan gamers who played with the mouse for a few days.
While many people will focus on the 8,200 dpi resolution, we find that these numbers are starting to mean less. Anything over 5,600 dpi seems almost useless to me, although I am sure some professional gamers may find it handy under certain circumstances. At 8,200 dpi the mouse is so sensitive that even the most miniscule movements can jerk the pointer a long way. Thankfully the dpi switching mechanism on the Ballista MK1 is excellent, so adjusting resolution on the fly is both painless and intuitive.
On a side note, we hope manufacturers will stop chasing ridiculous dpi tracking figures in the future, otherwise we will probably be reviewing hypersensitive, femtometer class 30,000 dpi rated mice in 2014.
The main talking point should be the silky smooth laser engine. There is no doubt it performed better on hard mouse surfaces such as the Razer Vespula, but even on soft mouse mats, the tracking was exemplary.
The software interface is very good, although I really dislike the interface design. After spending several weeks using the super clean FUNC software with the MS3 the Shogun Bros ‘Control Commander' suite is garish and unappealing, not helped by a mismatch of font typefaces and sizes.
If you are a gamer on a £50 budget, the Ballista MK1 makes a lot of sense and is actually one of the best mice you could buy today. It just missed out on our gold award because I feel some gamers may find it a little light. I hope the Ballista MK2 will have a weighting system – if they managed to release that in the future at £59.99 inc vat (£10 extra), it would definitely make sense for us.
Pros:
- great looking mouse.
- excellent price point.
- quality build.
- super high dpi capabilities.
- software is stable.
- quality laser tracking.
Cons:
- mouse is a little light.
- software could be more attractively designed.
- buzz word overkill.
- lefties need not apply.
Kitguru says: An excellent mouse, offering great tracking at a very competitive price point.
