Mouse Surfaces
ARCTIC claims that the laser tracking engine allows the M551 to work on almost all surfaces, including glass. This is true and I found that the mouse worked on cloth, wood, granite and glass surfaces without trouble.
The five mouse feet offer very low resistance across any of the above surfaces. They allowed the mouse to glide effortlessly and, sometimes, I would even overshoot my movements on the QPAD|UC Large. The main problem wasn’t the excellent mouse feet, however. It was actually the low weight of the ARCTIC M551. I feel that ARCTIC should have included an adjustable weight system, as seen on many other gaming mice.
The ARCTIC M551 works on many different surfaces
Ergonomics
The ARCTIC M551 was designed for right-handed users. The overall shape fits the right hand very well. Two different grips work well with this mouse: fingertip grip and palm grip. I found that the fingertip grip worked best, though. This can be explained by the narrow back of the mouse that doesn’t let the mouse it fit snugly inside the palm. Claw grip is possible, but excessively uncomfortable.
The ARCTIC M551 has an overall matte plastic feel to the touch. Only the scroll wheel seems to have a rubberized surface. I would have liked if the sides of the M551 had more pronounced rubberized surfaces too. Thankfully, the ARCTIC M551 has a matte finish, so sweat stains will not appear easily.
The left side and the right side of the M551 both have grips for the fingers. They worked fairly well, but could easily be better with a rubberized surface.
As it was mentioned earlier in the review, there is an elevation of plastic between the DPI switch and the scroll wheel. When using a fingertip or palm grip, your index will most likely hook this elevation when trying to use the scroll wheel. Accessing the scroll wheel and the DPI switch is harder than it should be. ARCTIC could have done a better job with the design here.
Glide of the M551 is excellent, but the lightness of the mouse makes it less desirable.
Usage: Gaming and Daily Computing
Counter-Strike 1.6 is a popular and old first-person shooter that pits counter-terrorists versus terrorists. Quick movements are a must in this game because one bullet can mean the difference between winning and losing. The ARCTIC M551 worked quite well with its sensitivity at 2400 DPI. Glide was excellent, but it did take me some time to not overshoot my movements. No erratic movements were noticed with the mouse. Nevertheless, I noticed a huge problem: a long lift-off distance of more of about 1.5 cm. For anyone that has a tendency of lifting off the mouse to recenter it on the mouse pad, this is definitely not the mouse for you.
Although Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Soulstorm has now been succeeded by Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, I still prefer the former because of its larger battles. Games can last quite a while, and during testing I ended up playing straight for four hours. Because of that, mouse comfort becomes highly important. The ARCTIC M551 is quite comfortable with both fingertip and palm grips. I did find the back of the M551 slightly narrow, making the mouse difficult to fully fit in my palm.
The rest on the right for the fourth and fifth fingers was adequate, but it did not provide much area for the fingers to grip the mouse. The thumb grip was nice, but because it lacked a rubberized feel it was less desirable.
The ARCTIC M551 was designed for right-handed users
For everyday computing, the ARCTIC M551 was very good. Grip was comfortable, tracking performance was adequate and no erratic movements were noticed.
