Tt eSports Black Element Gaming Mouse Review - PAGE 4

• AMD Phenom II X6 1100T
• ASUS M4A89GTD-PRO/USB3
• ATI HD 6970
• Mushkin Redline 2x4GB DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 750GB
• Corsair Graphite 600T
• Windows 7 x64

Comparison mice

• Gigabyte GM-M8000
• QPAD 5K
• Microsoft Razer Habu 
• Cooler Master Storm Inferno
• Choiix Cruiser

Tracking

The following table sums up the various tracking tests we've done. A "Pass" means the mouse can track a movement perfectly well on that particular surface, whereas a "Fail" means it encounters some hiccups at the very least from time to time.

The Black Element was able to track successfully on glass, maybe not such an extraordinary feat but enough to put it ahead of at least some of its competitors. The mouse was also used in highly hectic FPS games such as Quake Live, where it performed strongly and didn't disappoint. It is very hard to test a gaming mouse in any way other than searching for gaming situations where it could fail, and in this regard the search was unsuccessful.

Comfort

The Black Element does predominantly favour a palm style of grip, and a very specific type of palm grip at that! This is not because of the mouse's shape, but rather because of the button placement. With any other kind of grip, some of the buttons simply become unreachable, the worst offender being the most forward button on the left side. Aside from that little problem, the mouse, with its mix of shapes and elements that are usually seen in very a specialised type of mice, really allows for any type of grip in existence and is particularly fun to use with a light finger/palm combo. The slim design which narrows at the end also makes it perfectly suited for the claw grip.

Customization

Contrary to Thermaltake's marketing, the Black Element is far from being riddled with buttons. Nine programmable buttons are available, counting the left and right click buttons. This could be enough for many RTS and MMO players (and it's if the case, by all means, consider the Black Element a good mouse), but it's certainly not the World of Warcraft SteelSeries mouse, with its 15 programmable buttons. This may be nitpicking a bit, because the WoW mouse does cost significantly more than this one, and other mice with more buttons don't necessarily come with such an elaborate macro software with nearly endless setting possibilities. The software itself was completely bug free, except for that little issue with changing the DPI while inside a game. It's worth noting that this type of on-screen notification is still quite new on the market, and any problems with it could be excused for being still being in the training wheel phase. Perhaps further versions of the software will even fix the issue completely.