First things first, the ROCCAT Leadr may look like a massive mess, with buttons placed randomly for the sake of it, but I can tell you, with absolute confidence, they work, and they work incredibly well. The DPI Sensitivity and Profile Switch buttons, either side of the right and left click, are both well thought out and well positioned; they leave plenty of space for the left and right click but also allow rapid switching with the minimum of movement.
The X-Celerator paddle on the left of the mouse is a God-send and works unbelievably well – The resistance is tuned to perfection and the usage scenarios are near-limitless, providing an analog input for whatever you can think of; after using the mouse for a few days, it’s difficult to imagine scrolling a web page without it.
Using the Easy Shift [+] switch on the left can be hit and miss; the usefulness is entirely dependent on the user requiring more than one function from each of the buttons. The scroll wheel is set as a volume control along with the play/pause function by clicking the wheel, which saves time and is convenient, whereas having a “home” and “end” button on the mouse feels less-than-useful. Binding grenades and flashbangs to mouse 1 and 2, with the Easy Shift[+] depressed, would be useful to some, allowing incredibly quick use, or using them as special attacks in games like Paladins or Overwatch.
The 12,000 DPI ROCCAT Owl-Eye sensor is, by a long way, the best sensor I’ve ever used. The responsiveness and sheer ability of the sensor, at any DPI level, will blow anything else out of the water. ROCCAT has invested serious time and money into developing this and it pays dividends. Gaming performance was tested using Battlefield 4, Portal 2, War Thunder and Crossout; absolutely no issues to report.
RGB lighting is something we see on almost every gaming mouse these days, but ROCCAT seems to have dropped the ball on the Leadr; the lighting itself is good, providing a crisp light-show, but the effects are far from “smooth;” with the transition between each preset colour being jerky and not seeming to “flow” as it should. The ROCCAT Leadr appears to have a software issue which may be fixed in subsequent firmware updates, but for now, the Leadr loses points here. Single colours fading in and out, along with the heartbeat effect both work flawlessly, however.
ROCCAT claim battery life to 20 hours, with our own findings being very close to this. Charging is quick, taking around 2 hours, though there was no warning at all about the battery being critically low, with a sudden stop being the only sign. There is a battery display, comprised of 4 blue LEDs, on the charging base, however, the first light took around 12 hours to disappear, with the following 3 taking around 7 hours. An ability to adjust the automatic standby time would be welcomed, to help conserve battery life when leaving your PC on.
Syncing with the charging base was a doddle, taking little over 5 seconds to pair up. Once paired, if the mouse does go into automatic standby, the mouse and base will re-sync upon clicking any button on the mouse within a fraction of a second, no noticeable delay was observed, at all.
The X-Celerator paddle on the left of the mouse is a God-send and works unbelievably well – The resistance is tuned to perfection and the usage scenarios are near-limitless, providing an analog input for whatever you can think of; after using the mouse for a few days, it’s difficult to imagine scrolling a web page without it.
Using the Easy Shift [+] switch on the left can be hit and miss; the usefulness is entirely dependent on the user requiring more than one function from each of the buttons. The scroll wheel is set as a volume control along with the play/pause function by clicking the wheel, which saves time and is convenient, whereas having a “home” and “end” button on the mouse feels less-than-useful. Binding grenades and flashbangs to mouse 1 and 2, with the Easy Shift[+] depressed, would be useful to some, allowing incredibly quick use, or using them as special attacks in games like Paladins or Overwatch.
The 12,000 DPI ROCCAT Owl-Eye sensor is, by a long way, the best sensor I’ve ever used. The responsiveness and sheer ability of the sensor, at any DPI level, will blow anything else out of the water. ROCCAT has invested serious time and money into developing this and it pays dividends. Gaming performance was tested using Battlefield 4, Portal 2, War Thunder and Crossout; absolutely no issues to report.
RGB lighting is something we see on almost every gaming mouse these days, but ROCCAT seems to have dropped the ball on the Leadr; the lighting itself is good, providing a crisp light-show, but the effects are far from “smooth;” with the transition between each preset colour being jerky and not seeming to “flow” as it should. The ROCCAT Leadr appears to have a software issue which may be fixed in subsequent firmware updates, but for now, the Leadr loses points here. Single colours fading in and out, along with the heartbeat effect both work flawlessly, however.
ROCCAT claim battery life to 20 hours, with our own findings being very close to this. Charging is quick, taking around 2 hours, though there was no warning at all about the battery being critically low, with a sudden stop being the only sign. There is a battery display, comprised of 4 blue LEDs, on the charging base, however, the first light took around 12 hours to disappear, with the following 3 taking around 7 hours. An ability to adjust the automatic standby time would be welcomed, to help conserve battery life when leaving your PC on.
Syncing with the charging base was a doddle, taking little over 5 seconds to pair up. Once paired, if the mouse does go into automatic standby, the mouse and base will re-sync upon clicking any button on the mouse within a fraction of a second, no noticeable delay was observed, at all.
