Mice & Keyboards by stefan @ 2012-11-06
The latest Kana mouse from SteelSeries is CounterStrike: Global Offensive themed, offers CPI values from 400 to 3200, two extra programmable buttons on the sides and for the mouse to become fully configurable we need to access the free download of the SteelSeries Engine from their website.
At first I would like to thank SteelSeries for offering the Kana Couterstrike: Global Offensive Edition mouse for testing and reviewing.
"From day one, SteelSeries has been focused on making high performance gaming gear used by the most demanding, top professional gamers worldwide and peripherals that provide superior quality and a competitive edge to gamers of all skill levels. We believe, as most gamers do, in winning, not trying!
What originally began with two people who recognized the need for superior, high-quality/performance gaming gear that would give gamers a competitive edge, has grown into a global leader in gaming and entertainment gear sought after for their high performance capabilities.
Fast-forward to today, and we’ve come a long way since our first glass mousepad. We have global offices in North America, Europe, and Asia, providing an integrated portfolio of products designed specifically for gaming. Fueling our growth is you, the gamer!
While we are proud of our technology and product innovation, we are even more excited about how these products are developed to meet the needs of gamers. Many companies may claim to develop superior gaming products but few actually do. Instead, they spend countless hours with lab engineers trying to force fit a new technology with bells and whistles and mediocre functionality for the end-user.
At SteelSeries, we develop our products with a small internal team and a vast network of technology partners, channel partners, game publishers, and gaming communities around the globe. We aren’t afraid of being challenged and implementing new ideas. Our main goal is to always to listen to the collective feedback of our professional gaming community.
We won’t bore you with cheeky slogans, trying to underline our authenticity as gamers. We fully acknowledge that the best professional gamers in the world know more about what they want and what will make them better, than we do. We are proud to be working with our partners, but we can’t take credit for their invaluable input and feedback. Instead we tell it like it is: they help us. We want to know what works and what doesn’t. For this reason, SteelSeries creates innovative solutions that provide a competitive advantage for all gamers.
Critical to our company’s success is also our reinvestment in the gaming communities and the individuals who support them. As a result, our corporate philosophy is to take a substantial portion of our revenue and put it back into the gaming community to help spur industry growth. We support our community in numerous ways, ranging from co-hosting tournaments like Iron Lady and King of the Hill, and supporting gaming competitions of all sizes, to promoting the top and up-and-coming gaming teams/organizations.
Put simply, SteelSeries does not claim to invent or reinvent the gaming industry. Nor do we focus on one specific product, copy other companies or follow the crowd.
Instead we leave it to you, the gamer, our customer/partner/inspiration, to decide if we are deserving of such declarations and accolades. What we do promise, however, is to remain committed to you. We will continue to work with you and the gaming community to make the best products possible and give you that competitive edge. We will continue to do our best to support the growth of the professional gaming industry and give back to the gaming communities. By doing so, we don’t just talk a good game, we win!"
STEELSERIES KANA CS:GO
Featuring a CounterStrike: Global Offensive™ unique design, the SteelSeries Kana CounterStrike: Global Offensive Edition is an optical, ambidextrous mouse designed for all three grip styles: palm, claw and swipe. Based on the Steelseries Kana mouse, the functionality, ergonomic button layout and size was perfected alongside SteelSeries’ professional gaming teams, who also tested and validated the precision and power hidden in the Kana’s modest exterior. Make no mistake; this mouse was built for consistency and accuracy even in professional tournament conditions.
THE STEELSERIES KANA
We do more than talk a good game. We play, we create, we push the standards in peripheral design. Kana can mean many different things in different languages. In Swedish, canary. In Azerbjjan, blood. In Hawaiian, demigod. To us, gaming is a culture combined of many languages. Kana means, precision, control, winning and the ability to make you a better player.
The SteelSeries Kana CS:GO Edition bridges the gap between the kinzu and the Sensei. With 6 buttons, a tournament grade optical sensor, high performance UPE feet, it strikes an ideal balance in size, features and performance.
Size and weight
Weight: 72 grams (0.16 lbs)
Height: 37 mm (1.5 in)
Width: 64 mm (2.5 in)
Length: 124 mm (4.9 in)
You Want More Buttons?
The SteelSeries Kana CS:GO Edition features 2 XL-sized, side buttons (one on each side) for easy rapid-fire. If you choose to not use them, then head over to the SteelSeries Engine to disable. You’re welcome.
Buttons
Left click
Right click
Scroll wheel / Middle click
Right side button
Left side button
CPI toggle
Ambidextrous
The SteelSeries Kana CS:GO Edition has an ergonomic, ambidextrous design makes it a natural fit for both right and left handed users.
The SteelSeries Engine
The SteelSeries Engine allows you to customize your mouse settings like never before. With the SteelSeries Engine installed you are able to:
Set custom CPI settings
Set LED intensity per CPI
Program your mouse buttons
Set polling rate
Record macros
Track button usage statistics
Set game triggers for profiles
Setup unlimited profiles for the settings above…
Lighting with Purpose
The illuminated scroll wheel is both stylish and functional. Utilizing the SteelSeries Engine, the LED intensity can be assigned to indicate the currently active CPI profile.
Easy To Adjust CPI
The centrally located toggle button allows you to quickly switch between two sensitivity settings. The pre-defined CPI settings in the Kana CS:GO Edition are used and recommended by professional gamers all over the world. These CPI settings, which reach up to 3200, are also easily adjustable via the SteelSeries Engine.
Mouse glides
Material: High performance UPE material covers 16 % of mouse bottom to ensure maximum glide. We recommend changing glides regularly as they will eventually be worn down.
Stability
The SteelSeries Kana CS:GO Edition is made to be stable on every kind of surface with the help of its top of the line optical sensor. This sensor is also designed to eliminate jitter and provide optimized stability for the user.
Superior tracking
The SteelSeries Kana CS:GO Edition uses advanced, optical technology that operates at 3600 Frames Per Second and supports stable movement speeds at 130 Inches Per Second. These specs simply say that regardless of your frantic movements, the mouse will consistently deliver, especially for fast-paced FPS games.
Developed With The Best
We are proud to be associated with some of the best players in the world of eSports. We maintain strong relationships and have continuous dialogue with teams like Natus Vincere, SK Gaming, Fnatic, Evil Geniuses and others who help in the development and improvement of our products.
To ensure maximum performance in all gaming scenarios we enlisted help from world-class StarCraft® II, Counter-Strike, DotA, League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth, WarCraft® III and Doom players.
Anti-tangle Rubber Cord
USB 2.0 connector
Anti-tangle rubber cord for enhanced durability
Cord length: 2 meters (6.5 feet)
Compatibility
Operating systems:
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Windows Vista
Windows 7
Mac OS X
And the numbers
Frames per second: 3600
Inches per second: 130
Mega pixels per second: 3.7
Counts per inch: 400 – 3200
Maximum acceleration: 30 G
Sensor data path: True 16 bit
Lift distance: ~2 mm
Maximum polling: 1000 Hz
The SteelSeries Kana mouse has been reincarnated with the CounterStrike: Global Offensive edition and comes shipped inside a small cardboard box, with a nice boxart:
Some more details on the product can be found on the back side of the enclosure:
The front opens like a book, only to reveal more information; here we will also see how the mouse really looks like (it is located under a transparent plastic mold):
Besides the CS: GO mouse, inside we will also find a Quick Start Guide leaflet:
Here we will find the necessary steps to get started using the product, in many different languages:
The skin of the CS:GO mouse resembles the Counter Terrorists blue emblem, which has a quite good representation on top and back side:
On the left side of the ambidextrous mouse we will find one extra programmable button:
The scroll wheel has a brown top rubber surface and on the sides the plastic will light up blue with different intensities, depending on the CPI value we have selected:
When looking from the front, we will discover another button near the previously mentioned scroll wheel, which helps us change the CPI modes:
When looking on the right side, we will find that it is identical to the left, housing an additional programmable button:
On the bottom side of the mouse, we will find 3 mouse feet made from high performance UPE material; in the center there is the sensor which can go from 400 to 3200 CPI, operates at 3600 frames per second and has a lift distance of about 2mm:
The sticker lets us know more information like model number, product number, power rating and the serial number:
The mouse comes with an anti-tangle rubber cord for enhanced durability and has a total length of 2 meters:
The USB 2.0 connector is also themed with the SteelSeries logo, but is not gold plated:
After connecting the Kana CS: GO mouse to a spare USB port, it is logical to start looking for the drivers on the SteelSeries website; besides the actual drives, we also get to download a "Firmware Update Tool", which will bring the software inside our mouse to the latest version:
The firmware updater is universal and works for many different products:
A warning message will appear right before flashing the software:
During the actual update, a progress bar will appear and the mouse scroll wheel LED will flash:
Next, we can proceed with the SteelSeries Engine installation:
SteelSeries Engine is now integrated with most of the recent products and is highly configurable. The interface comes with multiple sections like Devices, Default Profiles and so on. On the left we can select one of the pre-configured profiles or create new ones and on the right we are able to select pre-defined button functions and we also get some tips. The "Buttons" tab allows us to change the functions of the mouse buttons:
The Settings tab comes with the adjustments of the CPI; here we will be able to choose the LED intensity depending on the CPI value, but also adjust the Polling Rate:
In the Properties tab, we can name the current profile and assign an application to it:
The Statistics tab will allow us to start the key presses counter, which will show us how much we use each button from the mouse:
When defining a new function for a mouse button, a menu on the bottom will appear, with additional functions:
These are the types of functions we can use for each button:
Also, here are some of the pre-defined functions that we can choose from the interface:
The newly themed Kana mouse from SteelSeries is not overloaded with a lot of features, but it is a simple to use and efficient product. The shape is quite comfortable and we liked a lot the top smooth plastic surface along with the accessible CPI modifier button, located nearby the scroll wheel.
Because of its weight, we felt that it is much more suitable for fast paced FPS games than the Corsair M90, where we do not need a lot of extra programmable buttons. It comes with a braided cable for enhanced durability and for added value we can customize all its functions via the SteelSeries Engine application.
We have tested the Kana CS: GO in the game with the same name and did not experience any problems at all like cursor jumping on the black ModMyMachine aluminum pad. The offered CPI performance is not over-the-top but it is sufficient in most of the applications; also, considering it's simple shape and appearance, the Kana mouse can be also used successfully in office environments and if we do not like the themed version, we can always go and buy the "stock" version.
Overall, the Kana Counterstrike: Global Offensive is a good all-around mainstream mouse which can be bought along with the mouse pad and headset sporting the same military theme.
The SteelSeries Kana CS:GO mouse can be found online for about 62 Euros.
I would like to thank again to SteelSeries for making this review possible!