Arctic Cooling Arctic M551 Laser Gaming Mouse Review

Overview
The key features of the M551 that you will notice right away are the flared base and DPI indicator lights that will show between your thumb and forefinger while holding the house. It has the typical two buttons and clickable mouse wheel on the top with two well placed thumb buttons on the left side.

Arctic Cooling Arctic M551 Laser Gaming Mouse Arctic Cooling Arctic M551 Laser Gaming Mouse

Below the scroll wheel you will find the DPI button that will switch the mouse between 800, 1600, and 2400dpi on the fly. Which DPI you are at is indicated by the lights which show green for 800dpi, blue for 1600dpi, and red for 2400dpi.

Arctic Cooling Arctic M551 Laser Gaming Mouse Arctic Cooling Arctic M551 Laser Gaming Mouse

The left side of the mouse is textured to allow for a better grip when you are in a fast and furious frag match. However, the thing that I found most interesting was the flared base on the right hand side which is positioned to hold your ring finger perfectly.  I haven’t seen many mice that do this.

Arctic Cooling Arctic M551 Laser Gaming Mouse Arctic Cooling Arctic M551 Laser Gaming Mouse

The 6ft cord is coated to prevent it from getting into knots and tied up. In the time that I was using the M551 I never had a problem with the cord getting tangled or caught on anything, which if you have ever seen my desk you know is quite a feat.

Testing
Installation of the M551 couldn’t be simpler, plug it in to a free USB port and you are off and running. Since the M551 is a fairly basic mouse there was no learning curve to get used to any new features and such. I used it for a week performing a variety of tasks ranging from gaming, casual gaming, web surfing, and working and never had a single glitch or problem.

The ergomic design of the M551 makes it comfortable to use for extended gaming (or work) sessions and the selectable DPI can come in handy both for gaming and in applications such as photo or video editing, drawing, and illustrating where finer control is sometimes required.