CM Storm Reaper Review

👤by Tim Harmer Comments 📅14-10-13
Introduction



Product On Review: Reaper
Manufacturer & Sponsor: Cooler Master / CM Storm
Street Price: £50.18 (Inc. V.A.T.)

In the final of a series of three reviews we’re taking a look at the final product in CM Storm’s new AL-Series, the Reaper. You’ve hopefully already read our thoughts on the Pulse-R Headset and MECH keyboard, and the strong theme of aluminium design features continues into the final member of the new range. It occupies the high end of the CM Storm mouse range, toppling the Sentinel Advanced II from its long-held position.

Deviating from the unorthodoxy of the MECH, the Reaper is of slightly more regular design based around a 8-button layout. Justifying its chops as part of the AL-series is a large aluminium panel that forms the rear palm rest of the chassis and is removable and replaceable. These relatively refined looks belie internal components which on paper match up against some of the best currently available.



About The Reaper

Built with premium features in mind, Reaper is constructed with a powerful and high precision 8200 DPI Avago laser sensor. Take full advantage of its wide DPI range with on-the-fly DPI switching via its dedicated Clutch key. 128KB of onboard flash memory means storing eight programmable key functions within four separate profiles. Each button has been intelligently placed throughout the Reaper's ergonomic design to be quickly and easily activated during game play.


By including a clutch button, located under the thumb on the side of the mouse, CM Storm attempt to add flexibility and suitability for a wider range of game genre’s and gameplay styles than it would otherwise have. Furthermore, whilst some manufacturers are moving away from the expense of on-board memory in favour of software-based macro solutions at the driver level the Reaper bucks the trend, including 128kB of memory with 32kB allocated to each profile. Although not the first manufacturer to implement these features, CM Storm have brought it in at an attractive price point which could undermine the positioning of their competitors.

However, as with the rest of the AL-series, the Reaper's party piece is the shaped and embossed rear aluminium panel. We praised this innovation on the MECH, which allowed modding-oriented users vastly more flexibility then than other keyboards, and so it will be interesting to see how the Reaper holds up in this respect. But first and foremost, it needs to work well as a gaming mouse.



8 pages 1 2 3 4 > »

Comments