Cougar 550M Gaming Mouse Review

If you are a gamer on a PC, 99.9% chance you are using a mouse, heck if you use a PC, 95% chance you are using a mouse.  I know some use a touchscreen monitor as an input device, but after 5 minutes of that,… you are back on your mouse.  Keyboard and mouse have ruled the PC for a very long time and that may change one day, but not today.  Today I will be reviewing Cougars 550M Gaming Mouse.

Before I get into the review, let me touch on some of the specifications and features.

• DPI Resolution between 50 ~ 6400DPI
• SDNS-3988 Optical Gaming Sensor
• 32-Bit ARM Processor
• Omron Micro Switch
• Up to 1000Hz Polling Rate
• Maximum Acceleration 50G
• Maximum Tracking Speed 200 IPS
• 512KB Onboard memory
• Gaming Grade Scroll Wheel
• Braided 1.8Meter/5.91 Foot Cable
• Gold Plated USB Plug
• 2 – Zone 16.8Million Color LED
  • 3 Stage DPI LED Display
  • Palm Rest LED Display
• ANTI-SLIP Flanks
• 6 Programmable Buttons

Let’s check out the unboxing

Just a few things in the box, it is a tiny box.  So first off, we have the instruction manual.

At first I thought it was a book type manual, where you open it and turn pages from right to left, but it turned out to be a single sheet folded nicely.

This side shows the features and system contents in a few languages

The other side shows you a bit on the UIX software, which we will go over a little later in the review.

They also provide you with this very important piece of information,… I know now.

Digging in a little more, we find guitar pics stuck to a sheet of paper.  Really they are stickers, pretty cool ones too.  Sadly the Dragonblogger logo is not a sticker that they include,… but it should be.

The cable for this mouse is braided, a very nice and tight braiding.  It was a little difficult to get a nice shot of the braiding since it was so tight, but I think I got a good one.

On one end of the cable, we have the Gold platted USB plug.  On this side, it shows you USB logo.

Flipping the plug over, we find the Cougar logo.

At the other end of the 5.91 Foot beautifully braided cable, we find the mouse itself.

Let’s take a closer look at the Cougar 550M Gaming Mouse.

[nextpage title=”Up Close and Personal”]

This mouse has a very original design, but more important than the design or as aesthetically pleasing as it is, is the comfort aspect of this mouse.

Nope, it’s not a spaceship but it is almost as cool.

This mouse fits perfectly in my hand; I can actually rest the palm of my hand on this mouse comfortably and access all of the buttons with ease and it feels very sturdy.

Moving over a little to the side, you will notice a little honey comb sort of design.

There is actually a purpose for this, they are called Anti-Slip Flanks.  They are made to help keep your grip after hours of gameplay.  It creates tiny pockets of air in those little groves to keep your palm breathing a bit then of course adds traction to keep from slipping; you know how you can at times on a regular surfaced mouse, that won’t happen here.  Another thing to mention is that once this mouse is in your hands, you will not even notice they are there.

Moving over to the left, we find the forward and backward button.  Definitely not a new thing here, but the fact that they are very accessible with your palm resting on this mouse is a welcomed feature.  Another thing I like about these buttons is they are not tiny buttons, they are good sized buttons.

And a little further down we find gills, is this mouse amphibious?  No, no it is not and do not put this mouse in water but it does have a cool feature.  These are not just there for looks; keeping on with the theme for this mouse this actually has a purpose.  This is actual part of the 3 stage DPI LED display.

The previous photo had only one LED lit in blue, now this one has two lit in green.

And this one has 3 LED’s.  The LED’s help you to know without having to check UIX what the current DPI setting is at.  The settings are not programmed with a color in mind, though you can set it up to be that way, I had the lights set to a breathing mode and I wanted to show you the 16.8 million color options Cougar provides.  This is one of the areas where the LEDs are illuminated, they both can be the same color but they can also be different, I will show the second one shortly.

Moving of more to the left, we find where the USB braided cable connects to the mouse.  It is in an odd spot, directly under the left mouse button.  This one actually no purpose that I can see for being there, though as odd as it could potentially look, it does not get in the way at all.

Moving just a little slightly to the left, Nope, that’s not the new Batmobile or the Batcycle, that’s the M550’s mouse wheel.  This is branded as a Gaming Grade Scroll Wheel, as it might look every time you roll that wheel you get clear tactile feedback, being a soft rubber material it feels nice as you scroll and not annoyingly loud.  The orange barriers there are only for looks, though it looks a bit like it is designed a bit to plow through games.

Just behind that wheel we find the DPI selector trigger.  By default, this trigger allows you to change the DPI settings as you saw previously.  It actually does feel like a trigger, you dig you finger into that spot and pull it back to change the DPI, I can saw I have never seen anything like this.  Like with all the buttons on this mouse, you can change its functions inside of the UIX software.

Off to the other side, nothing to get excited about here aside for the fact that it is completely filled with the anti-slip flanks.  I do like the black matte color; the shiny ones tend to older looking quicker I have noticed.

Leaving no stone unturned, the back of this mouse hold the second LED section and of course Cougar’s silk screened logo.  The back of this mouse at night gives off an ominous glow right behind your palm, the part that hovers ever so slightly over the mouse pad.

The bottom, while very basic has four rubber feet as to keep the bottom of the mouse from getting all scratched up and to help it slid more.  Of course, you have the laser and the Cougar stick that shows you the model number CGR-WOMI-550, the serial number power ratings and all the certifications logo’s.  The optical laser itself is powered by the SDNS-3988 gaming sensor.  This is where many of the UIX features come from, this sensor allows for features such as lift detection, variable frame rate, programmable DPI settings, angle tune-ability, its 200 IPS tracking, 50G Acceleration and angle snap.

We cant forget about 2 of the buttons that makes a mouse a mouse, the main left and right buttons, left click and right click.  Powered by the Omron micro switches, you are guaranteed to get at least 5 million clicks.

Here’s a little showcasing of the mouse itself.

In the showcase you get a better idea of the trigger button, just how deep it is and the anti-slip flanks.

So let’s get a little into the UIX software.

[nextpage title=”UIX and Features”]The UIX software is needed for this mouse, but only to adjust the features, the mouse will work perfectly fine and even allow you to change the DPI settings, though to what they have already predefined.  The software as you saw is not included in the box, but can be downloaded here: http://cougargaming.com/products/mice/550m/

On the first screen, the “Performance” tab, we can find there are a ton of features.  You can set the individual DPI selections for each time you pull that trigger, here are the default settings.  The default settings set the LED lights orange, following closely to the Cougar theme.

Then of course you can start moving the settings accordingly.

Myself, I keep everything pretty standard but I move the DPI and Sniper DPI settings to 5800 and 5750 respectively and enable the mouse acceleration.

• DPI Setting: is a measurement of how sensitive a movement of the mouse is. With a low DPI setting, a 6 inch swipe to the left will travel a shorter distance in this case a DPI setting of 50 will only move the mouse to the left 300 dots on the screen, or pixels.  A mouse with a higher DPI setting for example 6400 DPI at that same 6 inch swipe will move mouse 38,400 dots or pixels.  On this screen we see 3 dpi settings, so here I just set my very first DPI setting to 5800, while DPI 2 is at 1600 and DPI 3 is at 3200, each setting reflects a pull of the trigger.

• Independent X and Y Axis: This allows you to independently adjust the X, the Y or both Axis level’s separately depending on your use.

• Sniper DPI: Setting allows you to configure a button for snipping and as long as the button is pressed, the DPI setting will be the active DPI until that selected button is released.

• Polling Rate: Is the frequency in which the computer receives an input signal from the mouse. Like the DPI settings, the lower the polling rate, the shorter the response time, potentially adding some delay to your mouse movement and with that the higher the polling rate, the quicker the response time and the increase the accuracy of your mouse movements.

• Angle Snapping: a more robotic if anything adjustment allows you movements of the mouse to be smoother and allowing for easier and straighter lines. I found switching this to “On” makes my movements a little less natural.  Off, disables this feature and lets you move the mouse as you move you hand as perfect or imperfect as that movement may be.

• Lift Height: A potentially frightening experience, if it’s set too high, even if you have you mouse lifted off of the mouse pad, the mouse will continue tracking. If the setting is too low, the mouse will not tract the very second you lift the mouse off of the mouse pad.

• Double Click Speed: This setting allows you to adjust just how quickly you need to click when you double click an icon.  The default setting seems to be the standard windows setting.  If you lower the slider the easier a double click is, the lowest setting give you about a 1 or 2 second period in between clicks.  The highest setting seemed a bit like the middle setting, but for some with slower fingers might be a bit challenging.

• Scroll Speed: Allows you to change the speed at while the scroll wheel goes up or down.  The lower the settings, the finer the scroll up or down a page will be, the higher the setting will allow you to move up and down a website or a document quicker, but you may find yourself clicking to see something you may have missed because you scrolled right passed it.

• Windows Pointer Speed:  Similar yet different than the DPI setting portion will allow you to tweak and tune your setting even more.  This allows you to move the mouse further at a faster (high) setting and slower (lower) at a lower setting.  This is not a dots per inch setting, so it is something you will want to try to see if you like.  I found the lower setting to help me in Battlefield 4 and another version I cannot mention at this time with my aim, no I am not a sniper but I have very good aim.
• Enable mouse acceleration: This is a little less specific than DPI Setting and even Windows Pointer Speed setting.  When I mentioned about the left and right movements and the measurements on both above, this one depending on the rate of speed you move the mouse will move further, even if you move it less in either direction.

The “Key Assignment” tab, we see that we can change the functions of each and every key.  To utilize this feature, just click hold and drag a function you would like to use, then drag it to the left and drop it over any function you would like to replace.

For example, here I click/held and dragged the “Scroll Up” button from the right and dragged it over and dropped it over the “Left Click” button.  Now if I were to click “Apply”, my left click would now be my “Scroll Up” button.  I will go ahead and cancel that though.

Under the “Advanced” tab under “Key Assignment” seems like it will only allow basic trigger button functions, but notice the drop down menu.

Among the other option listed, which there is a ton, we find the Sniper mode we found earlier.

Much like the drag and drop, it is the same feature here.

I won’t go over all of the options, they are basically all the same, and they even have an option that allows you to tie a program to a button, so that when you click the button it opens the program.  You can also create Macro’s.

OK, so let’s move on to “Lighting Control”

A great option they added here, you can from the program adjusts the color and lighting effects (On, Off, Breathing and Cycle).  You do not have to stick with their predefined color selections though, you can adjust with the slider and change the RGB of each color, if you don’t like to use a slider because it is less accurate, you can manually type in numbers.  You have 16.8 million colors to choose from, have fun.

Game Profile Management:  Allows you to set up profile of functions, features, Lighting effect and Macro’s for up to 3 different profiles.

When you click on it, it shows the profiles here.  You can create new ones, edit old ones, delete older ones, import new ones or other friends profiles, you can export your own profile to take it with you, you can copy you profile to make sure to leave one just like you like it then copy it to make slight modifications without touching the original and then finally you can reset everything, just in case you messed up bad.

You can even make it look nicer by adding you own picture, that’s my “Angry” gaming profile.

Now you can access that profile by clicking “Mode 1” or “Mode 2” or “Mode 3”, simple right?

Ok, so while pictures are worth a thousand words, video are worth a billion.  In this video I show you most of the features and functions I described above, include the physical mouse itself, the software and how to use it, along with adjusting the lighting and even connecting it to an android tablet, the Tablet Express Dragon Touch X10.

Ok, now that this is all done, let’s go on to my Final Thought and Conclusion.

[nextpage title=”Final Thoughts and Conclusion”]

This has been one of the most, if not the most comfortable mouse I have ever used, before this one it was the Logitech Hyperion Fury G402.  It fits my entire hand and leaves all of the buttons easily accessible.  The lighting option is a nice feature but of course is a bit gimmicky as you don’t really look at your mouse.  The adjustability of the mouse is incredible, you can change any and every option which is a great and you can even save them just in case your hard drives dies and you have to reinstall everything, it will stay within the onboard memory.

I usually don’t like installing software for keyboard or mice, but this one is great and can actually handle both the keyboard and mouse, you can find the Cougar Mechanical gaming Keyboard AttackX3-4IS I reviewed earlier here which I go over this software in depth as well.

With all this awesomeness, there is one HUGE drawback to this and a tiny one,

Pros

• Has a braided USB cable
• LED-lighted
• 2 Lighting Zones
• Offers 4 modes of lighting

• Off, Full Lighted, Breathing and Cycle

• Programmable Keys
• Sturdy build quality
• Powerful software
• Decent DPI Resolution
• VERY comfortable

Cons

• No Apple Support
• Priced too high

While this is a great mouse, comparing to what is out there it competes well, but not it in pricing.  All other aspects of this mouse are perfect, but pricing is a biggy for me and I try to be price sensitive for all.  I want more than anything to give this mouse a 5 out of 5, but the pricing deducts 1 entire point, I can only give it a 4 out of 5, but Highly Recommended.

Check out the “Last Minute Update” section for an update on this review.

[nextpage title=”Last Minute Update”]In discussing the review with Cougar, I come to find that the mouse does come in a different flavor, the MOC550IG.

The MOC550IG is actually the same mouse, but a slightly different color, still with the trigger button, 16.8Million color 2 Zone LED and all, just a slightly different color.

You can check out both there

MOC550IG : On Amazon: $39.99 https://geni.us/6NAIJBN?b2at

CGR-WOMI-550: On Amazon:  $96.04 https://geni.us/6NAIJBN?vtRs0i

Check it out on my link, tell me if you can spot the difference.

Since I do not have the MOC550IG to review, I do not know what the difference between the 2 is, but I wanted to point it out to you.