Genius releases an ambidextrous mouse with a bit of blue "flash". Let's have a look the new X-G510 optical gaming mouse and see what it's all about.

Introduction

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I have seen only one other mouse from Genius thus far, when we looked at the DeathTaker, not too long ago. It was small, compact, was stylish, had plenty of buttons, and even offered a weighting system. While this mouse was designed with RTS and Role Playing games in mind, aside from the fact that it was just a little too small for my hand, it was a mouse that really made me take a second look at Genius and what they were bringing to the table in the peripherals market.

The mouse we will be looking at in-depth shortly is a different take on the design and layout all together. When Genius built the DeathTaker, they limited the market some to people who love a bunch of buttons, and of course for those who have small hands. This time around the coin was flipped and the new mouse is more about simplicity, while showing off just a little. In this latest entry, not only is the functionality simplified, this is also ambidextrous, and so it gives those "lefties" out there another option. I do wish I had a broader sampling of Genius mice, but with a laser sensor example out of the way with the DeathTaker, I am glad to see an optical offering for the second time around.

So, let's get down to it and explain why we are here today and why you should keep reading. For one, the looks of the mouse you are about to see is very well thought out, and does make for a great fit to both right and left handed users. This mouse also offers rubberized coatings, a unique LED lighting scheme and software that will allow you to do anything you wish with the mouse.

All of this is contained inside of the new Genius X-G510 gaming mouse, and I really think it is well worth a look, more specifically once you catch wind of the great pricing.

Specifications, Availability and Pricing

According to the chart above that I found at Genius' website, they start off with a part number. It then states that The X-G510 will work with Windows since XP, and you will need one available USB port on the computer you wish to use it on. Genius then covers the DPI range from 500 to 2000 in 500 DPI jumps. There are a total of six buttons on this mouse, it offers hyper speed scroll, and the chart also shows that there is a UI, or software for the mouse. Under the chart you will find a listing of the system requirements, but to shorten that up, let's just say if your PC was bought after 2005, you are good to go.

In reality you are dealing with an all black mouse comprised of two outer shells. The bottom shell contains the PCB, Omron switches and three light duty switches around it for the left side button, the right side button and the DPI on-the-fly button. You also have rubberized sides to the X-G510 that goes along with the rubberized scroll wheel. Where the palm would sit on the mouse, Genius has made a design that appears smoky white when the mouse is not powered, but once power is supplied, the lightning like design illuminates and can pulse with the glow of blue LED light. The last of the technical aspects I should cover is the optical sensor used. Inside of the X-G510 you will find an Avago ADNS 3090 that offers 2000 DPI as stated, 20g acceleration and 6400 FPS tracking.

This mouse was just announced at the end of April to the public, and that may explain why I cannot locate this mouse in either the US or EU markets. That being said, with its news release, Genius laid out the price for everyone to see. This ambidextrous optical gaming mouse will only set you back a mere $30.

So, all we have to do now is put the X-G510 from Genius through a week or two of use and see just how well it performs. Find out how it went over the next few pages.

Packaging

Genius went with a red and black packaging with the image of a dragon and its potential slayer to place the image of the X-G510 upon. Along with a reflective sticker at the top of the box, near the bottom is shows the X-G510 name and the tag line of "Gaming with an Attitude."

Two Velcro pads hold the front cover on the box and behind it you will find this. On the left is the software, shown in the three screens with explanations of each one and what can be done. The right side of the packaging has a stylized rectangular opening to view the X-G510 behind the clear plastic.

On this thin side of the packaging you again have the red and black packaging with light blue accents to match the front. The information found here is much of what I explained in their specs chart, but they also show some of the features of the sensor here.

The back offers an image of the mouse at the top with eight features pointed out in that image. Genius cover things like the cable, rubberized surfaces, 21 potential Macro keys, the precision engine or optical sensor onboard, as well as many others. The middle has three features shown in 26 languages, and they cover its universal game design, adjustable DPI and its ambidextrous nature.

The last side of the packaging shows that there are Omron switches on board, but these are the eight million click kind. The mouse has 30 grams of weighting built into it, the cable is 1.8 meters long and is braided on the outside, and you have a 1ms or 1000Hz polling rate option.

Inside of the cardboard, you get a dual piece plastic tray system that is very structurally sound and will reinforce the cardboard very well. Between both trays you will gain access to the X-G510 with the cord tucked under the red cardboard insert. The paperwork and driver disc are shipped under the trays.

Genius X-G510 Optical Gaming Mouse

The left side of the Genius X-G510 says exactly that in white paint on the lower right of this side of the mouse behind the indent and wavy grooves cut into it. There is one button on this side, and by default this would be the page back button.

The mouse is high in the middle at the top of the curve, but as you get closer to the heel of the mouse, that curve becomes flatter as it fits snugly into the palm of your hand. You can also get an idea of the lightning pattern of the lighting that will soon be visible through the top of this mouse.

The right side of the mouse is an exact copy of the left, sans the naming being painted on. You have the same indented shape and the three grooves to give right and left handed users the exact same feel and experience with the X-G510.

On the front of the mouse there is a band of shiny black plastic that contrasts against the rubberized coating of the right and left click buttons that run right to the front edge of the mouse. You can also see the braided USB cable is centered in the lower half of the mouse to try to keep the wire out in front of the mouse and not snagging on things around it.

I want to cover three things here. One, the pattern of lighting continues pretty far forward. Two, the button behind the scroll wheel is for DPI selection and it will blink slowly on low DPI and gets faster as the DPI is raised. Lastly, I want to say that the rubberized scroll wheel offers forward, back and the click, but does not offer tilt.

Under the X-G510 you will find two wide and thin Teflon feet used to allow this mouse to float on your gaming surface. Since the front goes completely side to side, and the bottom one wraps a third of the way up the sides, it offers great footing on any surface. Slightly off center you will find the sensors eye in a bevelled hole to allow the laser freedom to see the surface, and it should stay clean easier.

With the X-G510 you get 1.8 meters of braided cabling to attach the USB 2.0 connection to your PC. Along with the USB connection having the Genius name on it to make it easier to find, you also get a Velcro strap to help tie up extra wiring or to contain all of it while travelling.

Accessories and Documentation

Under the plastic trays you will find this booklet that is described as the Genius X-G510 multi-lingual user manual. Since they tended to cover so many languages, the information given in each is quite short and to the point.

The English version shows what I mean. Mouse instructions, turn off PC, plug in the mouse, and boot the PC. It also states this won't work on glass or mirror. For the software, drop in the disc and follow the onscreen instructions. They do cover the default button assignment, and just touch on the software side of programming at the bottom.

Unlike many companies that send you with a website address to obtain the software for their device, Genius is still sending out a driver disc, so you don't need an internet connection to obtain them.

Inside the X-G510

Three screws hidden under the feet will allow you to split the mouse into its two halves. On the left is the top piece that has a textured clear inner lining to help spread the LED glow. On the right are the main controllers and switches of the X-G510 before we get up close and see just what is soldered on.

Due to the forward placement of the scroll wheel, to get the side buttons to work, Genius devised a paddle system to hit the centrally located switches on the other half of the mouse. The DPI button is just the clear button at the moment, and you will soon see the switch is raised to meet it.

The right and left larger buttons are backed with these Omron D2FC-F-7N switches that are rated for 8 million clicks of a lifespan.

The paddles on the top half rest on top of the pair of springs to make them stay out, as they are depressed, the springs give way to allow the paddles to activate the switch. The third tower is for that DPI button I was talking about earlier. The LED to the left of it is the one that will flash as you press the DPI button to denote the speed of your choice.

At the back of the mouse there is a large rubber "finger" surrounding a large LED. This is to provide the glow to the lightning design on the outside of the mouse. As added protection, the sensor and resistors are covered with tape so nothing will short out.

With the tape out of the way and the tip removed from the LED, you can now see clearly the Avago ADNS3050 optical sensor. I covered what this is capable of, but to refresh, it can go to 2000DPI, sense up to 60 inches per second, and is able to move with 20g's of acceleration.

The Weltrend controller is no slouch, either. This 8-bit Turbo 8052 processor operates at 24MHz, includes 16Kbyte of flash ROM and 512 bytes of SRAM. This little chip has everything you need to be able to handle what the X-G510 has to offer.

Once we got things back together, I went ahead and plugged it in without the drivers. Right away the blue LED comes to life in a slow breathing pulsation of the LED. When you add in the software, you can turn this off, change the speed of the breathing mode or make the LED stay on all the time.

Software

Once the software is installed, the main control tab is what it will open to. Here you can program seven of the buttons in the list; the software makes you keep the left click as that only. On the right you can swap the button orientation, select how far you want the DPI to cap at, and you have the LED lighting options. At the bottom you can choose which of the three profiles to set up, you can load, save and reset the settings, and you need to be sure to apply any changes before they take effect.

Just to give you an idea of the pre-programmed functions for each of the programmable buttons, I happened to click on button number four. The dropdown list shows all of the 11 main selections of options you have. Also in the ones with an arrow, like the media functions I chose, you have more pre-defined things you can set these buttons too. With all three profiles, that is 21 additional things you can do other than left click.

If you were to choose the Macro setting on the last image, you are going to need to venture into the Manage Macro tab to set them up. Here you can name them, set a delay, run through a list of pre-defined optional commands, add additional commands to them, as well as writing your own for specific needs or importing them from previous Macros set with other mice.

The Advanced settings allow you to gain more finite control of the optical sensor. Here you can adjust the mouse speed, and turn on angle snapping with enhanced Pointer Precision. You can also change the double click speed, change the amount of likes for the scroll wheel, change the polling rate, as well as having individual axes controls over the sensitivity.

There is also an OSD box to check that displays the DPI and profile switches as they happen in the lower right corner of your screen.

Final Thoughts

I will be dead honest here and just start with this. For $30, I really didn't expect much at the start, and I am really surprised I like this mouse as much as I do. There are two small issues I need to address, though. The first is something I don't see a lot, but while writing, I tend to have the music up, quite loudly at times. This is also a test for me to see where the sensor stands when acted upon by outside vibrations. While at 500, 1000 and 1500 DPI, I saw no deviation of the pointer with the music turned way up. Once I set the X-G510 to 2000 DPI, the mouse pointer did dance pretty freely on the screen at that point. While there is little to be done about it, this is something I don't tend to see in laser mice.

The second thing is the finger-side button on the right side of the mouse. While the button on the left is easily worked with my thumb to press it, the button on the other side leaves you always contorting your hand to access it. While it is great for the left hander's out there, even they will have issues when trying to use the left side button.

What I do like is that the Avago optical sensor tracks really well, and even trying to move the mouse as fast as humanly possible to try to make the mouse fault in some way, I was unable to get it not to track with the pads I tested it on. I did find myself using the 2000 DPI most of the time for my testing, as the shape of this mouse lends to having your hand rest on the table. Speaking of DPI, I really liked the blinking light under the button to easily show me which of the four DPI settings I was on by the speed of the flashing LED. While we are on the subject of LEDs, the bright blue one under the lightning adds a crackled look to the top of the mouse, and since it goes so far forward on the mouse, it's like your fingers are shooting sparks, because you can see the ends of the pattern on the sides of your fingers. On top of an aesthetically pleasing and pretty universally comfortable fit for any hand, and having the straight forward software Genius provides is just icing on the cake, in my opinion.

What it all boils down to is this. Genius made a mouse that anyone and I mean anyone could easily get used to. Even being based on an optical sensor, the 2000 DPI and speed adjustments in the software will take this mouse into the comfort zone for any user's idea of perfection. The X-G510 comes with everything you need, right out of the box, and after a fair bit of use, I really can't complain too much at all about this mouse. Once you factor in the fact that when these become widely available, the MSRP of $30 will make this a great option for an individual purchase, a gift to your favorite lefty out there, or even just as a really well done extra mouse to travel with your laptop.