NZXT Avatar: A Mouse Of Iconic Proportions

Established in 2004, NZXT is a relative newcomer. But in that short period of time, the company has made a big name for itself in the computer chassis arena. Formed by a group of gamers who felt they had something to add to the market, NZXT focuses its attention on "designing unique products catered for hardware enthusiasts and gamers." Another of the company's taglines, "A company built upon gamers' dreams," is a testament to its target audience.

We've had the opportunity to test and review many of NZXT's cases and have been impressed again and again with the thought and innovation that its engineers put into the products. Although historically a chassis manufacturer, last year the company released its first gaming mouse, the Avatar. With high expectations, the Test Center recently spent some time with this emerging vendor's first foray outside of its normal product line, and we weren't disappointed.

If the old adage "Presentation is everything" is correct, the Avatar is up to the challenge. Packaged in a plain, matte-black box, with a solitary glossy photo of the mouse, the front panel opens to present the device displayed behind a plastic window. On the left side is a sketch of the mouse with labels explaining each of the seven buttons' functions. Finally, the user manual is hidden in a cutout behind the left flap.

Looking almost like a sculpture, the symmetrical Avatar is designed to be used with either hand. The

NZXT Avatar

rubberized feel makes it easy to grip, and the elongated left and right "click" buttons allow for use by a wide range of hand sizes. On either side of the mouse are chrome buttons preprogrammed for forward and back, and below the sturdy scroll wheel are two macro keys. Running along the edges of the top half are thin strips that glow from blue LEDs, the left one ending at three more LEDs that indicate what level of DPI the mouse is set.

As a gaming mouse, the Avatar supports four levels of DPI, adjustable from 600 to 1,200 to 1,800 to 2,600. The accuracy is selected by simply holding the left-side chrome button and scrolling up or down. This functionality is built directly into the hardware and no drivers are necessary.

There are drivers, however, that provide additional features. Through the driver interface, users can reassign all the buttons, including the scroll wheel, and configure macros, create up to five saved profiles and adjust the acceleration and polling rate for more accurate cursor movement. The interface also can be used to flip the forward/back buttons and left/right click buttons for left-handed orientation.

During our time using the Avatar, it took only a short time for reviewers to get used to the heightened sensitivity of the mouse. After that, we found the mouse very comfortable to use. The chrome side buttons are very useful, especially when Web browsing, but we found their positioning to be slightly in the way and were regularly clicking them by accident. Overall we don't think this is a major deficit though, since once we got used to the mouse it happened much less often.

As a first attempt to build the better mouse, NZXT has lived up to its promise, based on our experience with its past products. With only a minor imperfection or two, the Avatar is an excellent mouse for a beginning gamer who's ready to take his peripherals to the next level or anyone else who has the need for a highly accurate, sensitive mouse.