Saitek GM3200 Laser Mouse
$99
Available at authorised retailers

The second thing, and the more important thing, you notice when you plug the GM3200 into your USB port is exactly how sensitive it is.

The first thing is its lighting, but that is merely an attention seeker. So, a little on that later.

On the sensitivity: At its highest setting of 3,200 dots-per-inch (dpi), the mouse cursor literally flies across the screen if you so much as twitch while your hand is resting on it.

And if you sneeze, your character might do a 360-degree spin.

Which is a little regrettable, as one of the main selling points of this mouse is its top-of-its-class 3,200 dpi sensitivity, a world first among laser mice.

As it stands, though, that setting proved too high for most games I tested except for the twitchiest of first-person shooters, Unreal Tournament 2004.

I frequently found myself tuning down the sensitivity in order not to miss my targets, and eventually settled for a more reasonable 1,600 dpi - half the maximum possible sensitivity.

The left and right click had a medium travel, so clicks felt reasonably solid and satisfying.

The detents in the mouse wheel, however, were a little light and I found myself overshooting on occasion while switching from weapon to weapon.

Now, back to the first thing you will notice - the light display. There are lights everywhere on this mouse.

Blue light rails circle its buttons. The sensitivity switch, DPI indicator and mode selection button glow blue. The mode indicator exudes red.

And the Saitek logo at the rear of the digital rodent runs through a rainbow of colours - from orange to green to red, and more.

One colleague, walking by my workstation where I was testing the mouse, commented that it looked ostentatious.

The lighting is a bling-bling feature that will no doubt appeal to some and turn others off.

Unfortunately, unlike Razer's DeathAdder mouse, there is no option on the included controller software to turn the lights off. (That would have been a welcome addition.)

The controller software is spartan but functional.

A tab for setting button functions lets you customise key combinations for the middle click and the forward and back buttons on the left side of the mouse.

The left and right click cannot be modified.

You can assign two combinations per button, and swap between the combinations using the mode button.

Likewise, the sensitivity can be set separately for each mode.

This allows you to set a high-sensitivity mode with special button commands for gaming, and a low-sensitivity mode with normal button functions for Internet surfing, for example.

The final gaming-oriented feature on this mouse is that it is tweak-friendly.

Flip the mouse over and you can remove two panels on its underside. Doing so reveals a set of weights beneath each panel - two for the top panel and five for the bottom.

The weights can be removed individually to make the mouse lighter, or to weight it towards one side, a feature that will appeal to hardcore gamers seeking to tweak their gaming weapon to meet their needs.

And the panels themselves are two-sided - one side has two small mouse feet, while the other has one large foot.

This makes it easy to select the amount of friction you prefer by simply flipping the panel over - a well thought-out design.

Final Say

The GM3200, with its extreme sensitivity and multicoloured light show, will not appeal to average users. But its robust tweak options and solid feel will win hardcore gamers over.