Review of the Cougar Revenger gaming mouse and Cougar Bunker holder / Overclockers.ua

The Cougar company is not the most famous in our open spaces, but a fairly popular brand in foreign markets, which appeared in 2008 and is engaged in the production of gaming peripherals, computer cases, power supplies and various accessories. Among its products there are very entertaining specimens of mice and keyboards. And to start the first acquaintance with this brand, we offer one of their best manipulators – the Cougar Revenger mouse.

Specifications

Delivery and equipment

The packaging of the product is not particularly fancy. It contains images of the product, a description of its advantages and some characteristics in several languages ​​(including Russian) and nothing more.

The front part of the cover that flips aside is held on with Velcro and allows you to make sure that the product is in the box. But here it is not possible to try on him.

In addition to the mouse, the package includes instructions and four types of stickers with the logo and brand name.

Appearance and design

Externally, the Cougar Revenger is a large asymmetric manipulator, made in the spirit of the Razer DeathAdder, but still differs from it in the contours of the case. This becomes especially noticeable when you take it in your hand, and the shape feels completely different. The device is completely made of plastic. The top panel is made of smooth gray plastic with a slight reflection effect. It gets dirty easily and can be easily cleaned with a damp cloth. The panels of the main keys are solid, pressed with medium effort and a rather loud click. They do not have backlash and free play.

An interesting design element is the resolution switch lever, which is located behind the scroll wheel. You won’t find this on any other device. To activate, it is not pressed, but pulled back until a muffled click. To do this, the tip of your finger must be lowered into the recess between the lever and the wheel. Equipped with a tight spring with a free play of 2 mm. Thanks to this design, accidental pressing of this button is completely excluded and, if necessary, it can be reassigned to some responsible function, which should only work when the situation really requires it.

The three main elements on the left side of the mouse are two additional buttons, a resolution indicator, and an anti-slip insert. The buttons are large and well positioned. The back key protrudes slightly to the side, so this tandem can be easily found and distinguished by touch. The pressing force and the volume of operation are average, there is no backlash and no free play. The insert is made of tenacious plastic, it has many recesses in the form of honeycombs. Holds great in both wet and dry hands, but tends to gradually clog with use. The resolution indicator is located in front of the buttons and consists of three RGB LEDs in the form of strips. It is perfectly readable and does not close with fingers when using a mouse.

What the manufacturer has taken special care of is protecting the cable from bending. It enters the left side of the manipulator body from the front, a 20 mm cylindrical tube is inserted at the point of contact, leaving no chance for the wire to bend, rub or come into contact with the surface.

The scroll wheel is massive. The rubber coating on it resembles a sports motorcycle tire thanks to its characteristic V-shaped grooves. When rotating, it is very quiet and precise, without inertia. Some kind of overtone can be achieved only if you scroll it at a very high speed. Fixation positions are present, but tactilely expressed poorly. The button under the wheel is pressed a little tighter than the others with a muffled activation sound. There is no play or rattling of the encoder.

The cable is thin, of medium hardness, without braid, it practically does not change its shape. The length of the cord is 1.8 meters. There is no ferrite ring.

On the right side of the mouse there is another large anti-slip insert, made in the form of small honeycombs of hard plastic. When using the mouse, the ring finger and little finger usually fall on it.

The mouse feed is made two-piece – the top panel hangs over the bottom insert. Between them there is an RGB LED strip, and even higher is a logo illuminated in synchronous color. It all looks interesting and aggressive, although apart from the aesthetic appearance, such decorations do not bring anything useful. In cross section, as you can see, the case is rounded, but more gentle than the Razer DeathAdder, without a pronounced “hump” on the left.

In terms of ergonomics, this shape of the case is well suited for large palms for a finger or palm grip with the right hand. The claw grip is feasible, but not very convenient. The mouse tends to lean back with it, and the fingers on the sides can slip. And in general, there is a feeling that the weight balance of the mouse is slightly shifted towards the rear axle.

The base of the mouse is distinguished by three huge legs, occupying almost 30% of the bottom panel. Two large legs are in front and one semicircular – behind. Their only drawback is the lack of hooks for dismantling. The window of one of the best optical sensors Pixart PMW3360 is located exactly in the middle.

The mouse backlight looks great. The front zone (resolution indicator) and the back zone (logo and semi-circular insert) are separately configured for color (RGB 16.8 million colors) and effects. The brightness level is not adjustable, but it is chosen well and does not blind the eyes. White color is reproduced correctly. It is also interesting how the rear zone shimmers in the mode of changing the spectrum with different colors at the same time, which indirectly indicates the presence of several LEDs there at once. In a word, the illumination of the Cougar Revenger was a success.

Proprietary software

The Revenger mouse uses the Cougar UIX driver, which has Russian localization, as software (software version – 1.08 firmware version – V9). It allows you to forcefully update the software and firmware of the manipulator if necessary. After installation, the software is always active, but since the mouse has internal memory, it is only needed to change any settings.

On the basic mouse settings screen, you have access to profile management, switching three modes of the device (in fact, these are three profiles from on-board memory), sensor settings, key assignments and lighting. The sensor is adjusted in the “Performance” tab. There are three preset resolution levels (you can turn them off if one level is enough). The resolution is adjustable from 100 to 12,000 dpi, in increments of 100 units. The vertical and horizontal axes can be configured both connectedly and separately, for which you need to check the corresponding box. A separate fourth level indicates the value to which the resolution will be set at the moment the Sniper Button is pressed, unless, of course, it has been previously assigned. The sensor polling frequency is adjustable in the traditional range of 125/250/500/1000 Hz, it is possible to turn on the angular binding of the cursor. The lift-off height from the surface is set to a value from low to high, which corresponds approximately to 1, 2 or 3 mm. This is followed by the already standard Windows mouse settings – double-click speed, wheel scroll speed and cursor acceleration, the slider of which is better not to move from the sixth position.

The assignment of keys is implemented in the form of signed icons that can be dragged from the right menu to the desired mouse buttons. All six buttons and two scroll directions are available for reassignment. You can choose from the standard list of mouse commands, while the extended list has options for switching resolutions, configuring the Sniper Button, switching profiles and operating modes, launching a program or multimedia commands. If you assign a key to instantly switch the mode, then while it is held down, the buttons will execute alternative commands from another mode. In fact, you can hang 21 commands on the mouse, which fans of MMORPG games will definitely appreciate.

For very specific actions, you can choose your own created macro.

The software has an advanced macro editor that allows you to register not only mouse and keyboard clicks, but also cursor movements, precise time delays, and configure various parameters for playing macro commands.

In the lighting control tab, it is possible to separately adjust the two backlight zones. The palette is implemented as a set of base colors, a spectral palette and three separate sliders with numerical values ​​that allow you to fine-tune any of the 16.8 million shades. The backlight can be left to work in breathing mode, constant glow, or turned off completely. There are also three options for light cycles, which, for some reason, are not signed. The upper one is a transfusion of colors, the middle one is a color change in breathing mode, and the lower one is a stepless sharp search of the spectrum of colors.

Game profile management allows you to link them to the launch of certain applications, assign individual icons to them, as well as perform all other usual profile management actions.

In general, the Cougar UIX software can be described as simple, beautiful, functional and intuitive. And most importantly, after setting up the mouse, you can simply delete it, in case nothing else is planned to be changed.

Ergonomics and testing

The Cougar Revenger has been tested on the Razer Goliathus WoT Edition. In addition, along with the manipulator, we were kindly provided with a cable holder – Cougar Bunker, about which I would like to say a few words separately. The main purpose of such an accessory is to keep the mouse wire suspended, which avoids friction on the surface and prolongs its life, giving the user the feeling of using a wireless device. Those who think that a mouse doesn’t even need a mousepad are unlikely to understand this device, of course, but professional players have long appreciated how useful such a thing is.

The handle of the holder is made of soft rubber, the wire is securely fixed in it. When moving, the handle bends without creating any reverse load on the manipulator (provided that the free length of the wire is selected correctly and with a margin).

The round base is made of plastic and looks quite stylish. The latch with the company logo in the center is not just a decorative element, but serves to tighten the vacuum base when lowered down.

On the base there is a suction cup with a small tongue for dismantling at the back. In addition to being quite powerful on its own, its surface is coated with a sticky compound. After installation, such a holder is fixed on a flat surface just tightly. But it can be easily removed if necessary, leaving no traces behind. To do this, just lift the latch up, and gently pull the tab from behind.

And this is what the mouse looks like with the holder.

The body ergonomics of the Cougar Revenger are not perfect and take some getting used to. This is due to the large size of the mouse and the fact that its contours, although they look rounded, in practice turn out to be quite straight. This is especially true of the sidewalls, which, moreover, produce at first a strange tactile sensation with their honeycomb structure. However, after a week of use, addiction sets in, and attention is no longer paid to these moments. The top panel is smooth, the hand can fog up on it, and fingerprints and dirt accumulate too intensively, which is why the manipulator often has to be cleaned. In terms of weight, the mouse is well balanced, and the build quality of the case is at a high level. 115 grams without a cable does not feel heavy, and a slight deviation of the center of gravity towards the rear axle is compensated by the tenacious sidewalls of the device. The switches of all keys are good in terms of tactile feedback, but definitely too loud when activated. The scroll wheel is, on the contrary, very, very quiet, with uninformative, but clear fixation positions. The resolution switch with its original shape and direction of operation is generally one of the main “chips” of this device. Large legs have slightly above average inertia and provide good glide. The mouse cable is stiff, but in combination with the holder, it did not cause any complaints. The backlight looks very good. It does not blind and juicy conveys the main shades. The software also evoked only positive emotions in me.

The mouse has one of the best optical sensors in its class – Pixart PMW 3360, so there is practically nothing to complain about its work. Just in case of a fire, a lens play test (a common problem with such sensors) was carried out, which showed that everything was fixed in place as securely as possible. It is traditionally impossible to break it, the separation height can be set to a minimum, parasitic moments in the operation of the sensor are not observed. The smoothing level of the trajectory is at an acceptable level. The sensor works stably at passport values ​​in the entire range of resolutions.

Results

The Cougar Revenger is a noteworthy gaming mouse because it has a good shape, good looks, great optical sensor, great backlighting, nice switches and scroll wheel, built-in memory and smart software.

Of the shortcomings, only a harsh cable and average quality materials of the top and side panels can be noted in it. However, these points are not critical from my point of view.

If we closely compare the Cougar Revenger with its main competitors, then it is worth noting that this manipulator is quite viable, and provides its user with a good level of functionality at an adequate price. The only category of players who may not be suitable for Revenger is the owners of small palms, who will simply not be comfortable with the large body of this mouse.