Review: Roccat Savu is an affordable gaming mouse for customization junkies

When it comes to gaming mice, there's quite the selection to choose from. That's a good thing, considering every gamer has their own preferences for comfort, the games they play and playstyle. The Roccat Savu is a welcome addition to the gaming vertical for the PC not looking to break the bank on a gaming mouse, but still wanting some cool features from their mouse.

The first thing you should know is that the Savu is a right-handed gaming mouse; if you're a lefty then you're out of luck. Sorry. Go throw a baseball or something. The Savu sits at a price point where there are a lot of gaming mouse options. The first thing the Savu excels at is its design. The form and design of it is comfortable in your handle while feeling sturdy. The texture of the mouse may throw some people off a bit though. It's a rough texture that helps prevent your fingers from slipping when perspiration might become a problem hours into a gaming session. It's a very funky feeling… at first. After a while you'll get used to it and even welcome it. The whole mouse isn't that textured grip, as the top is a nice, soft-touch surface that'll feel good in your palm.

One thing that the Savu does a great job of is providing customization for your gaming needs. The Savu Driver app that you need to install has a good layout; it's really easy to figure out where to go to adjust what. You can control things like sensitivity, scroll speed, double-click speed, and DPI to name a few. Whether you're adjusting the polling rate or the color of the LEDs on the surface of the mouse, there's enough customization here to appease most gamers. This is also where you'll be controlling button assignments. The best part is that you can create profile for your mouse settings; so if you want different settings for when you play League of Legends and Battlefield 3, you can change them pretty easily. There's also a nifty trophy system that gives you trophies when you reach a certain number of mouse button clicks or move your mouse a certain distance.

Now let's get into the mouse itself. From the previous paragraph, you know that you can change DPI and that there's buttons that you can program. The biggest problem I have with the Savu is that there's no buttons directly on the mouse to change the dpi. On other mice I have used in this price range, most of them have buttons to lower or decrease the DPI. Yes, I can just use a profile with the correct mouse setting from the software, but when my wife goes to use the computer, she hates using that high of a dpi setting. That and she's not the most computer-literate person in the world, so telling her to change the profile probably won't go well. Also, while 4000dpi is fine for a lot of gamers, I play closer to the 6000 to  8000 range. That's just a personal preference.

Another thing the mouse sports are two easy-shift buttons that sit right above your thumb. These easy shift buttons allow both mouse buttons to have two other functions or assignments. Essentially it's providing the same function as a mouse that has tons of buttons on the side, just without the clutter; it's easier to remember what you have assigned to those two buttons and mouse clicks. The only problem I've had with this is sometimes my finger hits one accidentally while I'm playing an MMO and I'll use a skill I didn't want to use, but that can happen with any mouse.Other than those two issues, the button action and the scroll wheel is great.

I like the Roccat Savu, I just don't love it. The 4000dpi doesn't get it done for me, to be quite honest. There's a ton of customization for the Savu, but for the same price, I can get the same customization and higher dpi with the mouse features I want. The grip and design combined with the customization ability through the software make the Roccat Savu a solid choice if you're looking for a mouse that won't cost and arm and a leg. If you're looking for more dpi, though, you're going to have to go with something else.

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Technical Specifications

• 4000dpi optical gaming sensor
• Incl. Omron® switches
• 60 inches per second maximum speed
• 20G acceleration
• 125, 250, 500, 1000Hz polling rate
• 544kB on-board memory
• Zero angle snapping
• 1.8m braided USB cable

You can follow Senior Editor Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ. He likes talking sports, video games, movies, and the stupidity of celebrities. Email at LLiebl@GameZone.com