Cooler Master Storm Sentinel Advance Mouse Review

Manufacture's Product Page: Sentinel Advance - Cooler Master
Model Number: SGM-6000-KLLW1-GP
TechWiki: Cooler Master Storm Sentinel - TechWiki
Price: Click here to compare prices



Maybe it is just us, but it seems that for ages the ubiquitous mouse did not change much: it had a ball, maybe two buttons and a third button if you wanted something fancy. Then things started to change. The ball was replaced with an optical sensor, more buttons were added to the side and a wheel started showing up on the scene. As things progressed we went from ball based sensors to optical to laser and now we are even seeing dual laser mice. Customizability via software was added and now profiles can even be stored directly on the mouse’s on-board memory. Truly, mice have come a long way even though the basic interface between you and the machine in front of you hasn’t changed much in the last 15 years.

The subject of today’s review is the Cooler Master Storm Sentinel Advance mouse. We know that Cooler Master isn’t a company known for their peripherals but the new Storm series of cases and now mice and mouse pads is supposed to cater to the gaming market. As such, the Sentinel Advance uses a 5600dpi sensor along with onboard memory for storing your custom settings and beautiful OLED screen. On paper this sounds like one potent gaming mouse and if reality is anything like the speculations, this may just end up being the weapon of choice for many people; gamer and non gamer alike. Of course, as we have seen in the past reality has a sneaky way of making a hash of even the best paper specifications so it will certainly be interesting to see if this product can live up to our already elevated expectations!

Since this is a relatively new product it is not widely available from e-tailers and retailers in Canada quite yet but there are some stores that are currently carrying it for around $59.99 Canadian. With its cornucopia of goodies this price is actually reasonable, but “reasonable” is not the same as saying it’s a small pocket change for a mouse. “Gamers” who want a high performance mouse and are used to paying close to $100 for a comparable Razer or SteelSeries product, will probably be pleasantly surprised by the Sentinel’s price. However, if you are used to paying under $20 for a budget mouse, the Sentinel will seem ridiculously overpriced.

The market niche the Sentinel finds itself playing in is dominated by many firmly entrenched manufactures and is probably one of the most hotly contested arenas for Cooler Master could enter. It should be interesting if the Sentinel can carry on with the high quality tradition attention to detail we have seen from past Storm-series products.