At first we would like to thank Creative for offering us a sample of their Sound BlasterX Siege M04 Gaming Mouse for testing and reviewing.

 

 

 

About Creative:

 

“Creative is the worldwide leader in digital entertainment products. Founded in Singapore in 1981, Creative started with the vision that multimedia would revolutionize the way people interact with their PCs.

 

Famous for its Sound Blaster sound cards and for launching the multimedia revolution, Creative is now driving digital entertainment with cutting-edge audio solutions, premium wireless speakers, high performance earphone products and portable media devices. The company's innovative hardware, proprietary technology, applications and services enable consumers to experience high-quality digital entertainment - anytime, anywhere.

 

Since launching the phenomenally successful Sound Blaster sound cards and setting the de-facto standard for PC audio in 1989, Creative has been able to leverage on its leading-edge audio technology, a huge user base of 400 million, and strong brand name to expand into the exciting lifestyle Personal Digital Entertainment (PDE) market.

 

Creative is now well recognized as a global leader for product innovation in the audio and PDE segments, offering consumers a complete, high quality digital entertainment experience through Creative's hardware, software applications and services. Finding the perfect balance between form and function, Creative strives for every product to be a sensory feast for the eyes and ears.

 

Today, Creative is spearheading new product categories with its groundbreaking Sound BlasterAxx audio enhancement devices and solutions, highly-acclaimed Creative D5xm Signature Series of modular Bluetooth wireless speakers, Aurvana premium headsets, Sound Blaster wireless gaming headsets, and cross-platform Sound Blaster Recon3D for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC or Mac.

 

These products and solutions are marketed to consumers and system integrators through a worldwide distribution network that includes traditional marketing channels, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and the Internet.

 

Moving forward, Creative's mission is to expand its leadership role in the lifestyle Personal Digital Entertainment market, using groundbreaking technology and leading-edge designs for not just the technically-savvy consumers, but for everyone who enjoys entertainment. With strong focus on user-friendly interface, multiple features and cool industrial designs, the Creative brand is synonymous with lifestyle Personal Digital Entertainment.

 

Creative's global corporate headquarters is located in Singapore, in the heart of the Asia-Pacific region. It has regional business units in the US (Milpitas, California), Europe (Dublin, Ireland) and Asia (Singapore).

 

Creative is a public listed company on the main board of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) since June 1994.”

 

Product Features:

 

Perfection Re-Imagined

 

Crafted from the ground up utilizing years of research and surveying the habits of pro and everyday gamers worldwide, the Sound BlasterX Siege is a combination and improvement of some of the best ideas found across various types of gaming mice. From the aesthetics and ergonomics, down to the intricate technical details...

 

We've engineered a world-class gaming mouse to rival all others

 

Design

 

First PERCEIVE... Now REACT and EXECUTE

 

As games evolve to become faster and fiercer, so do the needs of gamers. Our audio products have always offered enhanced audio clarity and positional placement for you to PERCEIVE what's going on but gaming is much more than just perception.

 

Whether you are on a race track roaring around corners or fending off hordes of demons, not only do you need to PERCEIVE what's happening, you also need to REACT accordingly and EXECUTE your actions reliably, decisively and accurately.

 

So we asked ourselves, why stop at just audio?

 

Today, we give you fresh power at your fingertips. New gear designed just for you, the gamer, to give you the best P.R.E (Perceive, React and Execute) experience you've ever known.

 

Hardware

 

Get to Know the Works

 

Gaming grade PMW3360 IR LED sensor with 32-bit high speed MCU with low lift-off distance

3 level DPI cycle button for on-the-fly DPI switching

7 fully programmable buttons with internal memory

Ergonomic, comfortable, right-handed design optimized for palm & grip

Fingerprint resistant surface with rubber textured grip region

 

Fully customizable Aurora Reactive Lighting System supporting 16.8 million colors with 6 different lighting presets

 

PMW3360 IR LED Gaming Grade Sensor.

 

32-bit High-speed MCU with Onboard Memory

 

At the heart of the Sound BlasterX Siege M04 lies a PixArt PMW3360 IR LED gaming grade sensor and a 32-bit high speed microcontroller capable of a polling rate of 1000 Hz, 12,000 native DPI and a low 2mm lift-off distance with zero built-in acceleration and cursor prediction.

12,000 Native DPI*

 

Fully customizable 200-12,000 native DPI setting without interpolation allows for perfect accuracy tracking. Program up to 3 DPI levels into the onboard memory and utilize the on-the-fly DPI switch to swap between short, mid and long range combat.

 

1,000Hz Polling Rate*

 

With a lighting fast report rate, the mouse sends updates to the computer 1000 times a second. This means that for every movement you make, your computer is kept up to date for the fastest possible REACTion and a buttery smooth glide across your screen. No input lag equals MORE FRAGS!

 

* Fully programmable to onboard memory via SB Connect software.

 

No Prediction, No Acceleration.

 

Every swipe and flick of the Sound BlasterX Siege M04 translates into pinpoint precise movements on screen, according to your favorite DPI and polling rate settings. EXECUTE your opponents without mercy and leave the guesswork to them when they start to wonder how you managed to pulled that clutch shot off.

 

Aurora Reactive Lighting System

 

Inspired by Earth's Natural Phenomenon

 

Fully customizable ambient-reactive LED lighting, with 16.8 million colors to choose from. Build a personalized gaming and entertainment space by linking up other Aurora Reactive Lighting System products

 

 

Product Specifications:

 

Length: 135.6mm

Width: 67.65mm

Height: 43mm

Weight without Cable: 110g

With Cable: 143g

Product Color: Black

Lifespan: 50 million clicks

Optical Sensor

PixArt PMW 3360

12,000 DPI

12,000 FPS

50G Acceleration

250 IPS Tracking Speed

2mm LOD

 

System Requirements

 

PC or laptop with Intel Core series processor or higher

Microsoft Windows 7 and above

2 GB RAM

200 MB free hard disk space

USB 2.0 port

Internet Connection

 

In the past, we were used to seeing only audio-related products coming from Creative, but recently they have expanded to the gaming peripherals line with the Sound BlasterX Siege M04 mouse, but also the Sound BlasterX Vanguard K08 keyboard. In this article, we will concentrate upon the Siege M04 mouse that does incorporate a PixArt PMW3360 IR LED gaming-grade sensor, but also a fast 32-bit microcontroller capable of a 1000Hz polling rate, 12000 DPI and a 2mm lift-off distance. In order for this product to be a choice for professional gamers, Creative has not used any built-in acceleration features or cursor prediction. The mouse does ship inside a small cardboard enclosure and on the top layer we can spot a photo of the actual product:

 

 

 

Some of the main product highlights can be spotted on the lateral, along with some extra technical details:

 

 

 

The Aurora Reactive feature is presented on the opposite side of the packaging; this type of lighting can be synchronized with other products which do support it such as the Vanguard K08 or the Sound BlasterX Katana:

 

 

 

On the back side of the packaging, Creative has included more details regarding the main product components, in multiple languages:

 

 

 

The manufacturer does also list the manufacturing date of the product box:

 

 

 

Even more details can be spotted on the front, since the top layer does open up like a book:

 

 

 

Besides the Siege M04, in the box we will also get some documentation, which is stored in a separate plastic envelope:

 

 

 

It is composed from Warranty details, “Safety and Regulatory information” but also a Quick Installation Guide:

 

 

 

 

The mouse does come with a length of 135.6mm, a width of 67.65mm and a height of 43mm, while weighting a total of 110g (without the cable). The top chassis area is made entirely from plastic, which does sport a matte finishing and the clear ergonomic shape does make it suitable only for right handers:

 

 

 

On the rear portion, we can see the Aurora LED bar quite clearly:

 

 

 

The left panel of the mouse does hold a rubberized layer for extra grip, but also three programmable buttons: one for Sniper functionality but also the usual forward/back buttons:

 

 

 

On the right panel, we will be able to see another rubber layer with a specially-designed contour in order to allow resting of the pinkie and ring fingers:

 

 

 

The frontal area does show the left/right buttons but also a central black shiny plastic middle segment that does hold the DPI selector along with the DPI step LED lighting; the central scroll wheel is also RGB LED enabled:

 

 

 

 

A quick look on the bottom mouse area does show large PTFE feet in the corners, but also the centered sensor lens; no extra stickers are available here (as most mice do have), while the plastic texture sports an interesting triangle pattern:

 

 

 

The two-meter cable should have enough length for most applications; as we have seen with several high-end peripherals, it is braided:

 

 

 

The cable ends up with a standard USB connector:

 

 

 

After we have connected the mouse to a spare USB port, the LED light show began right away! With this particular mouse, we did really enjoy the placement of the LED segment, which does not “in your face” and also creates a nice reflection effect on the surface you will use the product on:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creative does hold on the website a separate utility for updating the mouse to the latest firmware version:

 

 

 

 

After the update has been completed, we went ahead and downloaded Sound Blaster Connect, which does have full support for this product. The main configuration menus are available on the left side: Lighting, Performance and Macros. We do have the possibility to work with one of the pre-defined LED lighting profiles, or define our own mode; each of the mode does sport a different configuration option:

 

 

 

 

The lighting color can be chosen from a separate window:

 

 

 

Moving on to the next menu, we have the ability to adjust the DPI Cycle steps, the Sniper DPI value, Acceleration/Deceleration modes (if/when needed), Polling Rate but also the Lift-off Distance, but also enable/disable the Angle Snapping feature:

 

 

 

All available mouse buttons are programmable; in order to set a different function to these, we do have to select one from the drawing and afterwards select one of the mapping action types:

 

 

 

Mouse Function

Drop-Down menu

Disable button

Macro Recording

 

The Macro menu opens up in a separate section for programming:

 

 

 

 

Keyboard keys can be also assigned to the mouse buttons:

 

 

 

By clicking the small gear button on the GUI, we can access some more application-specific options:

 

 

 

 

Sound Blaster Connect does also hold the option to check and apply new firmware updates to the mouse:

 

 

 

 

The Siege M04 mouse from Creative takes part of the Sound BlasterX product family and incorporates one of the best sensors on the market: PixArt PMW3360, which we have also found with the Rival 700 by SteelSeries. The product does feature RGB lighting near its base which is configurable via the Sound Blaster Connect application and can be synchronized with other peripherals supporting the Aurora Reactive technology such as the Vanguard K08 or the Sound BlasterX Katana.

 

We have tried the Siege M04 in games such as Blade & Soul, Mafia III, GTA V but also Master X Master: the product feels good in hand even after longer gaming sessions while the lateral rubber panels add to the grip when we need to perform fast moves or lift the mouse up when playing. The product tracked impeccably when we have tried it on the table directly, but also on our Boost Control Mouse Pad from Fnatic.

 

The mouse feels just as good when doing productivity work such as video editing, office work or navigating on the world wide web. After using the product for almost a week, we could say that it is our most favorite on the same place as the SteelSeries Rival 700.

 

The Sound BlasterX Siege M04 gaming mouse from Creative is available online for about 64.9 Euros.

 

Creative Sound BlasterX Siege M04 Gaming Mouse is Recommended for:

 

 

We would like to thank again to Creative for making this review possible!