Shogun Bros Ballista MK1 8200dpi Pro Gaming mouse review

1. Introduction2. Packaging & Bundle3. Design & Ergonomics4. Shogun Bros Ballista MK1 (Super High Res Gallery)5. Software and Operation6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

In the world of gaming mice brand names such as Steel Series, Logitech, Rocatt and Razer reign supreme. When we were offered a sample from a company called Shogun Bros we immediately thought of a cool new oriental themed Nintendo game.

Wacky company name aside, the new Ballista MK1 has been designed to challenge the big players, at a lower price point. We spent around a week testing this mouse and loaning it out to several competitive UK clan gamers to get other viewpoints. Is this a cheap ‘n' nasty second choice option or a quality mouse able to stand its ground against the big players?

Shogun Bros have been hiding under the radar now for a while, making a splash at CES this year with a mouse that could be flipped over to double up a gamepad.

The Ballista MK1 however is a serious attempt to target the demanding audience who want the smoothest movement from high grade laser optics.

Can it meet the grade we expect from a high end gaming mouse?

MOST ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY AND DESIGN
。 Unique Precision Sniping System
。 Highest 8200 DPI , 12000 FPS
。 Military Grip Paint, Full Finger Rest, Friction-less Base Treatment
。 5 Customized Mode (User Defined Name), 50 Customized Buttons

Precision Sniping System
。 Customized DPI setting
。 X and Y Axis Customized Sensitivity – Independent value
。 Thumb Selector – Speed Operation
。 LED Indicator for Status
。 Breathing Mode Indicator

True Military Efficiency
。 10 Customized Buttons to Let You be “Control Commander”
。 Macro Key for ONE BUTTON LAUNCH of Complex Action
。 Telfon Footage and Frictionless Base Treatment

Extreme Specification
。 Pro Gaming Grade HD Laser Sensor and Image Processor
。 Extreme 8200 DPI / Extreme 1000HZ Polling Rate / 12000 Frame Per Second

Customized Mode
。 5 Preset Gaming Mode for FPS, MMO, RPG Type of gaming
。 Total 50 customized button for Gamer in 5 Mode
。 “Gamer Name Their Own Mode” – Mode name show up when gamer change the mode
。 Backlit Color to On Each Mode and Change in Lightning Speed

Ergonomic and Lightning Reaction Control
。 Left Thumb Rest with Thick “Rubber Sofa”
。 Military Grip Surface on Right Fingers Rest for “Best Control”
。 Total Finger Rest Design
。 Rubberized Coating on Main Body for “Best Grip and Comfort”

Advanced Game Level Hardware Parts
。 Golden Plated USB
。 Anti-interference – Best stable and fast Signal (USB Magnet)
。 Tough – Military Fabric Cable

The mouse arrives in an attractively designed box with a clear plastic cover, highlighting some features. Focus is placed on the ‘Precision Sniping System' and ‘Grip Paint'.

More features are highlighted on the rear of the box including the X, Y and Mode DPI indicator, Gold Plated USB connector and the rubberised surface for improving grip.

When we remove the outer see-through plastic shell, we can get a clearer view of the mouse itself.

No driver disc in the box, although we don't class that as a problem anymore. Always best visiting the website for the latest version. Shogun Bros include a single sheet with a URL to download the software. They also include a user manual explaining the functionality.


The mouse is an attractive design, very similar to some Logitech models I have used in the past. Due to the shape, it is not designed for left handed people.

We would class the body size as ‘average' – meaning it will suit a wide audience.

The front of the mouse is home to the company logo/name and product name. They are using an ‘army' style font for the Ballista MK1. As you may have realised already, there is sadly no weighting system incorporated into the chassis.

Shogun Bros haven't opted for a radical new mouse design, the curved shape of the chassis is immediately comfortable and suited both my ‘larger than average' hands and my colleagues ‘smaller than average' hands.

Underneath are several glide strips to ensure light friction on a variety of game surfaces. Shogun Bros are using an incredibly high sensitivity 8,200 dpi laser system in the Ballista MK1 which should suit ‘hair trigger' gamers.

I liked the layout of the buttons although I really don't think there is any need to have text such as ‘WARNING: read instruction before use' plainly visible along the top of the mouse body. Not a huge issue mind you, especially as it can't be felt at all under the finger tip. LED indicators make an appearance close by.

The mouse wheel is very responsive and offers a little tactile feedback or ‘notches' when spinning. The chassis of the mouse is nicely textured, offering grip. I personally prefer the scroll wheel to be a little ‘tighter' in operation, but this is very much personal taste.

Along this side of the mouse are DPI sensitivity buttons and forward and back buttons, often used for navigation. The DPI buttons are just out of normal hand rest position, so you won't accidentally toggle them when gaming, but can easily access them if you want.

The mouse includes two silver/chrome coloured buttons marked ‘alpha' and ‘beta'. These can be configured via the software, which we will look at later in the review. Shogun Bros label these as ‘vacuum electroplating' on the box artwork. There really are just too many buzz words used in the marketing of this product.


The quality of the cable on the Ballista Mk1 is first class. The company call this ‘military fabric', which is another buzz phrase set to attract attention. In reality the cable is top grade. Enough said.
On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source. You can right click and ‘save as’ to your computer to view later.







The Software

The mouse works well without the dedicated install, however the proprietary software does offer fine tuning and configuration options. The main panel above has specific configuration options for five separate modes, and every button can be configured in the panel. It worked well for us during testing and didn't crash once.

Negatively, I do feel their software package is much too cluttered and gaudy with at least 6 different fonts and sizes used, I much prefer the FUNC MS-3 interface panels, which are clean and easy to read. This is very much a personal taste decision and if you like a lot of ‘bling' then the Shogun Bros software package should hit the spot.

The Macro Editor seems quite sophisticated and plenty of settings can be tweaked to suit your own tastes. A full range of recording can be tied into any of the programmable buttons, in five customisable profiles.

It would be fair to say that this mouse will appeal to gamers who like extremely high dpi settings. The laser sensor is extremely accurate and sensitive and it is possible to configure four separate settings in the software panel.

The software allows for separate X and Y resolution settings, and angle snapping. Our mouse had a default report rate setting of 1000hz which is ideal for gamers (I always set mice at this because I find the quality of the overall sensor tracking improves). Settings can be backed up to hard disk, and restored later if desired.

Mouse liftoff seems to be around 1.5mm-2mm height and I experienced no problems during testing.

Using the mouse

When the mouse is lit up, it looks great. We don't feel they have went overboard with the lighting on the mouse, suiting a wide gaming audience.

We know it is difficult to ascertain the physical dimensions of a mouse when simply viewing pictures on a webpage, so we took a few pictures of the Ballista MK1 next to our long term wireless Logitech Laser mouse and the white R.A.T. 7, which several of our team use on a regular basis. The R.A.T.7 is a very well designed mouse and while I know it has received mixed reviews they have proven reliable in our labs, long term.

The Shogun Bros Ballista MK1 is a very comfortable size for a wide cross section of users, and fits firmly in the ‘jack of all trades' sizing.

To test the Shogun Bros Ballista MK1 for the review today, we used a variety of surfaces from Steelseries and Razer. My personal favourite is the Razer Vespula and tracking was simply beautiful on this surface, as it is with many other high grade mice.

There is no question that the main talking point will be the 8,200 dpi sensitivity however I found this setting to be unusable in my clumsy hands. Try as I might, even deep breathing during a game session could erratically move the mouse pointer. This is not a fault of the Ballista MK1 however, as I find settings above 5,000 dpi to be rather tricky to use successfully.

5,600 dpi on this mouse was borderline for me, however a younger clan gamer said the tracking was perfect for him at this setting. Although even he said that 8,200dpi was ‘hardcore, but unusable' in any of the games he uses.

Still, someone may find it useful, and we can't knock the engineering team for pushing the dpi boundaries as far as they could. If its unusable, lower the resolution, simple as that.

Switching between dpi settings in game takes a little practice, but after a while it becomes intuitive, the buttons are just positioned out of reach in a normal hand resting position, so you can't accidentally toggle them.

This moves me onto the biggest strength of this mouse. The laser tracking. I am old enough to never fall for marketing gimmicks and ‘buzz words', which are a dime a dozen on the box artwork of the Ballista MK1. I was initially annoyed to see so much text crammed over the mouse chassis, and I felt that perhaps the company were trying to cover up a substandard laser engine. This couldn't be further from the truth however as the laser engine is right up in the top 10 percent, at any given price.

Sadly, the Ballista MK1 feels rather lightweight in my hand. After using the R.A.T. 7 with all the weights inside, it feels around 50% lighter. If you like a heavy mouse, best to look elsewhere because this will not suit.

Obviously incorporating a variable weighting system would add to the price, so I can understand why it was omitted. Sadly, even at the close of this article, and after many days working with the sample I still felt the mouse needed to be slightly heavier. It became an irritant over the course of the review and I simply wouldn't want to live with the Ballista MK1 long term.

That said, I can't let my personal desire for a heavier mouse impact the review too negatively. Many people would be more than happy with the default weighting.

I found that the Shogun Bros Ballista MK1 worked better on harder surfaces such as the Razer Vespula, offering a little resistance, but still moving very easily and tracking smoothly as well.

I loaned the mouse to a UK clan for 3 days and overall feedback was very positive with almost 90% of the user base finding the Ballista MK1 very comfortable. Compliments were also fed back to us in regards to the laser tracking. Even though I didn't raise my opinions at the time, several gamers also said the mouse was too lightweight. It wasn't just me then.

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.

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