Who says gaming mice have to cost an arm and a leg?
Gaming mice come in all shapes and sizes. Some are very basic and can hardly be classed as a gaming peripheral. Others go the other way and are far too extreme for most users' needs, even the hardcore gamer. Often, finding something in the middle that’s pitched just right can be something of a chore. Sharkoon, though, may have the answer.
The Sharkoon Shark Zone M20 Gaming Mouse is quite a stunning gaming peripheral. The matte-black finish, with bright yellow buttons and two metre corded USB cable certainly makes it stand out from the usual crowd of otherwise bland products.
There’s more here, though, other than the colour scheme. The M20 has nine programmable buttons, high-quality Omron switches for both the left and right mouse buttons, an internal memory for storing individual profiles, 3200dpi optical sensor, 30g max acceleration, a 3mm liftoff sensitivity and a weight tuning system with five small 4g weights locked in a compartment at the base of the mouse.
In addition to all that, there’s a third mouse button that protrudes from the right-hand side in a clever ergonomically designed way, to allow the user’s ring finger to comfortably rest on it. The button is set slightly lower than the right mouse button, which follows the natural position of the hand (right hand), so there’s no forced movement from the perspective of the user.
Having a specification list as long as your arm is all fine and well, but in our opinion it’s the way a mouse feels and handles that makes it better than the competition. The M20 is a solid mouse, one that sits a little lower than, say, the Roccat Tyon, but it's wide enough to take a larger hand without too much discomfort. The third mouse button takes a little getting used to, especially as it’s quite sensitive and can be pressed without too much force, but once you have the measure of it, the feeling becomes quite natural. Furthermore, the M20 glides effortlessly across the mousepad and can be tweaked to be a little lighter by removing some or all of the weights.
The accompanying software is easy to use, providing a large labelled diagram of the mouse for you to configure each button press, DPI setting, polling rate and even the colour of the LEDs. Recording macros and saving different profiles is as simple clicking on a few options, and you can further fine-tune the acceleration, scroll speeds and sensitivity. Suffice to say, there are plenty of options for all kinds of users.
We really liked the Sharkoon Shark Zone M20 Gaming Mouse. It felt good, was responsive under pressure and can be configured and tuned to a high degree. The build quality is very good, and we can even stomach the bright yellow colour scheme. However, the cherry on the cake here is the price. Amazingly, with all the features and quality of the M20, it costs just £15.99, which is quite extraordinary for a peripheral of this standard.
If you’re in the market for a new mouse, gaming or otherwise, we recommend you take a look at the Sharkoon M20. David Hayward
A fantastic, high quality and great value for money gaming mouse.