MSRP: £59.00
What is the Speedlink Omnivi?
Gamers will quite happily spend hundreds of pounds on the latest graphics card, but the devices that we use all the time and will get the most benefit from paying a little bit extra for are often neglected. The three peripherals that we think are key to giving the best overall gaming enjoyment are the headset, keyboard and mouse. A bad one of these will annoy you every second you are on the computer but with a good one, every time you are playing a game it will be a pleasurable experience, unless you are playing the latest Call of Duty in which case nothing you can do will make that fun.
Our last gaming hardware review was the Ultor Gaming Keyboard from Speedlink which gave a reasonable account of itself back in September. Our next gaming item is again from Speedlink, this time it’s their Omnivi Gaming Mouse. Available for a reasonable sounding £59, the Omnivi is packed to the rafters with features such as a 12,000dpi optical sensor, adjustable LED lighting, 10 configurable buttons, adjustable precision levels and much more. Read on to see how we get on during testing...
Our last gaming hardware review was the Ultor Gaming Keyboard from Speedlink which gave a reasonable account of itself back in September. Our next gaming item is again from Speedlink, this time it’s their Omnivi Gaming Mouse. Available for a reasonable sounding £59, the Omnivi is packed to the rafters with features such as a 12,000dpi optical sensor, adjustable LED lighting, 10 configurable buttons, adjustable precision levels and much more. Read on to see how we get on during testing...
Design and Specification
The Omnivi is a wired mouse and keeps to the same red and black theme that is familiar across most of Speedlink’s gaming keyboards and mice. It’s a design that stands out, especially with the LED lighting and does make a change from the all-black mice that seem to dominate this market. The Omnivi features an aluminium base plate which extends to the right of the mouse to double as a finger rest which makes for a very useful place to keep the two fingers that are normally redundant when using a mouse.
The adjustable LED lighting can be set to any one of 7 colours, or a combination of all 7. The lighting appears through the mouse wheel, DPI switch, underneath your palm and all around the bottom of the mouse. The mouse has 10 freely configurable buttons, but these 10 do include the left and right mouse buttons. You can also configure the up and down mouse wheel so technically that should be 12 configurations. There are four thumb buttons on the left of the mouse only (sorry lefties) and two further buttons just to the left of the left mouse button. In the centre of the mouse we have the DPI switch button plus the mouse wheel, all of which can be configured using the software which we will come to shortly.
The size is consistent with other mice we have tested and use daily although perhaps on the smaller side, with the weight coming in at 145g which does make it a little heavier than the competition in the same price range, the aluminium base plate is the likely culprit here. The 1.8m USB cable is fully braided with a nice red and black design.
The size is consistent with other mice we have tested and use daily although perhaps on the smaller side, with the weight coming in at 145g which does make it a little heavier than the competition in the same price range, the aluminium base plate is the likely culprit here. The 1.8m USB cable is fully braided with a nice red and black design.
- 12,000dpi Optical Sensor
- 10 freely configurable buttons
- Adjustable LED lighting in 7 colours
- Solid Finger Rest and Aluminium Base Plate
- Profile management with any number of game profiles
- DPI switch for rapid toggling between resolutions
- 6 sensor precision levels from 800 to 12,000dpi
- Illuminated 2D scroll wheel indicating current dpi level
- Adjustable USB polling rate up to 1,000Hz
- Incredible ergonomic comfort with grippy scroll wheel and finger rest
- Rubberised finish
- Maximum acceleration: 50g
- Maximum tracking speed: 250ips
- Sensor frame rate: 12,000fps
- Flexible USB cable with hard-wearing sheath (1.8m)
- Dimensions: 87 × 131 × 52mm (W × D × H)
- Weight: 145g
Software and Features
The Speedlink driver software offers an easy to use system to get the best out of all the features, of which there are plenty. Each of the 10 buttons and the mouse wheel up and down can be configured to do pretty much whatever you want such as run a macro or a program, change any of the mouse buttons to work in an alternative place and even disable a button completely if it is not needed. There is also a sniper mode which when pressed will temporarily reduce the sensor resolution and a rapid-fire mode which recreates pressing the left click very quickly. You can also save any number of different profiles, so if you want the mouse setup one way for Battlefield 1 and another for Civilisation 6, then you can.
The performance tab of the software allows you to change the six different DPI options to whatever you want up to a maximum of 12,000dpi. These are then changed using the DPI switch on the top of the mouse. In this same section is the USB polling rate which can be altered from 125Hz up to 1000Hz, but you would probably need to be some kind of professional eSports gamer to ever really notice the difference there.
The next tab is for the customisable LED lighting on the mouse and here you can change the main lighting to one of 7 colours or all of them in turn. There is a choice of annoying lighting effects too if you so wish. The lighting for the DPI switch and for the palm area are not changeable unfortunately, so, if you want the mouse to only have green lighting, that only applies to the lighting around the base. The final tab is the macro editor where you can setup the macros to make you that little bit more quicker on the Battlefield.
How does it feel?
Probably the most important aspect of the mouse is the feel. You can have all the buttons and features in the world, but if it is uncomfortable to use then you are on to a loser straight away. The overall build quality here is above average for a mouse costing £59. The red rubberised surface did create a nice feel to it. The buttons are all responsive but we did find the thumb buttons are too far apart to be of any use in the heat of a battle and needed a bit more pressure to depress than we would have liked. The finger rest to the right is a nice addition and does let your hand relax that little bit more compared to a mouse without this feature.
But, our main issue with this mouse is the shape and how your fingers sit on it. This may very well be purely this reviewer’s issue but our personal mouse is a Logitech G700. The curve of the mouse ensures our hand fits nicely with our palm supported and the fingers over the left and mouse button fully touching the mouse. The Omnivi on the other hand, whilst the palm support is fine, the shape where your fingers sit has a swoop to it with the end rising ever so slightly, so it feels like your fingers are not fully touching the mouse unless you push down on them which creates a rather uncomfortable feel and after a prolonged period of use it makes them ache. This reviewer does not have large hands either, the overall shape of the Omnivi appears suited to those with very tiny hands as the fingers would sit a lot better with a smaller hand.
Conclusion
Pros
- 10 configurable buttons
- Macro editor
- LED lighting
- 12,000dpi Optical sensor
Cons
- Uncomfortable shape
- Thumb buttons too far apart and too hard to depress
- LED lighting not particularly configurable
Speedlink Omnivi Gaming Mouse Review
Should I buy the Speedlink Omnivi Gaming Mouse?
For £59 the Speedlink Omnivi Gaming Mouse has a lot to offer. The features are numerous and during our testing it all seemed to work correctly and appeared responsive and easy to use. The software allows for very easy customisation and the lighting adds a nice touch. We did find a couple of issues with the thumb buttons being too far apart and a little too hard to depress, with our main issue being the swoop shape to the left and right mouse buttons creating a rather uncomfortable overall feel to the mouse.What alternatives are available?
For around £60 there are plenty of gaming mice available from the likes of Logitech, Razer and many more. It’s a very crowded market place. For the same price as the Omnivi you could get the Logitech G602 which lacks the lighting but does add wireless to the deal and includes similar programmable features. Also, you could have the Razer Deathadder Chroma which does lose a few buttons compared to the Omnivi but does have lighting effects. The Speedlink Omnivi can’t be accused of lacking features or not looking a great piece of kit, but the overall shape and layout needs some improvement.Our Review Ethos
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