SHORT
It’s time to say goodbye to the Logitech Pro X2 Superstrike, and hello to the Epomaker Carbon X 8K gaming mouse which I must say now is an incredibly lightweight gaming mouse, coming in at just 46 grams. Its shell is made from carbon fibre which feels nice and strong, and even though it’s filled with holes, it feels nice and comfortable to use while gaming. It’s small, so a claw grip is needed, and it’s very smooth to the touch, which is fine because it’s so lightweight anyway to flick around your desk. It’s a simple layout with two clicks on top and a scroll wheel, with two thumb buttons on the left hand side. The clicks feel nice though the scroll wheel feels a bit too smooth and could lead to overshoot in certain games where changing guns quickly and accurately is critical. On the bottom, the skates are I must say incredibly small, though it does move quite smoothly. It uses a PAW3950 sensor, with an 8K polling rate which feels good to use. Omron switches are being used here for the mouse clicks, and it feels odd coming back to a physical mouse click after using this Superstrike for a while. But still, it’s got a decent travel distace and lightweight actuation. It’s got a Type-C charing port and a nice looking 2.4GHz dongle, and there’s a 300mAh battery inside. It’s a nice mouse for sure, and it only costs £51 right now on the Epomaker website which I don’t think is too bad at all.
REVIEW
Okay so, in my last mouse video, I said I wanted to stick with the Logitech X2 Superstrike for some time. But looks like that hasn’t happened. We’ve been using and testing the new Epomaker Carbon X gaming mouse instead. Let’s talk about it.
Looking at it, the Carbon X from Epomaker has a really striking look thanks to its honeycomb design. This is where weight comes in because it’s only weighing around 42 grams, which is insanely lightweight, and makes it really nice to whip across a mat, and can be a little front-heavy but I do like that in this mouse. It’s not as big as my Superstrike, which meant I needed to adopt more of a claw grip, but it was comfortable enough ot use. I do miss a hump to sit comfortably in the palm of my hand, and I’d be more keen to recommend it to those with bigger hands if it did have that hump. Being made from carbon fibre only helps with keeping its weight down, but also means this thing is pretty tough too. Now I wouldn’t be throwing it around your room in rage after losing several matches on the trot, but it should be fine if accidentally dropped. It’s covered in a nice soft-to-touch coating, and the grip is really nice when adopting a claw grip with fingertip use.
On top you’ve got a left and right mouse click as well as a middle scroll wheel and click. The mouse has chosen to go with OMRON optical switches which, going back to after a period of haptic feedback with the Superstrike felt more like I was at home with a gaming mouse. The clicks feel snappy and lightweight, though I must say, versus the custom actuation point on the Superstrike, you really do notice travel distance, but I think that’s because I’ve been a bit spoiled. It’s got two thumb buttons too, which feel nice, and as you’re going to need to adopt a claw grip on the Carbon X, everything is comfortably within reach.
At the heart of the mouse, you can find a PAW3960 8K sensor which is top tier in this day and age, though I must say not all games have played ball. Marathon had a lot of delay, which I wasn’t too surprised at, seeing as I’ve had similar issues with Destiny 2 in the past. Though games like Overwatch worked wonderfully, and everything felt really accurate and precise when gaming. One thing I would have liked to have seen on the bottom of the mouse is larger skates. These are tiny, though they do feel solid enough with my cheapskate Amazon mouse pad.
There are three ways to connect this mouse to a device: wired, Bluetooth and 2.4GHz, of which I’ve done the majority of my testing with the latter. It comes with a nice-looking 8K dongle, which lights up yellow, and this isn’t customisable unfortunately, though there is a light on top of the mouse that changes depending on your DPI setting. It would have been really nice if the don.gle could follow suit too as chances are your hand is going to be in the way when changing DPI sensitivities. Inside is a 300mAh battery which will last around a week of evening and weekend style use but that’s at a 2K polling rate which I feel is a happy medium. At 8K this is significantly less. But to be honest with you, I’m not playing games myself that will really benefit from an 8K polling rate. I’m currently playing through Resident Evil Requiem if that gives you an idea of the type of thing I play. But even still, using it for a game like that, which does rely on the scroll wheel to cycle weapons it felt really good.
The mouse uses an online driver which is super convenient if you’re going to be using your gear on multiple devices, and its layout is very basic. It doesn’t look great though is quite inaccessible I think when it came to reading text. I feel Epomaker if they’re going down the router of online software, need to make it clearer. Not for menu layout though, that seemed okay and quite self-explanitory, but more from a contrast perspective. The software on the website is split up over six different menus at the top of the screen, and also gives you prompts for battery and connectivity. And you can change things like your button option, polling rate, DPI sensitivities, and macros.
It’s a great mouse, but there is a caviat to that. If you have larger hands, then this won’t be massively comfortable to use, and there are better options out there. However, if you’re an eSports gamer, the sensor and lightweight feeling this mouse gives is wonderful. Battery life is alright if you’re using lower polling rates, but again, it’s not the best out there. Going back to my X2 Superstrike, I think is going to feel weird becuase I’ve got used to this lightweight feeling, but the size for me just isn’t good enough to use on a long-term basis. Price-wise though, for £60 this isn’t a bad option if you’re after a new mouse for your eSports gaming.
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