REVIEW: SteelSeries Sensei Ten

Dubai - Looks like your garden-variety mouse - but it packs a lot of punch

A little explanation about its name: 'Ten' is the Japanese and Chinese character for 'heaven'. 'Sensei', meanwhile, means 'teacher' or 'master'. Put that together and, well, you figure out what message SteelSeries wants to put across. And it's also a celebration of the 10th anniversary of this mouse. What a way to put a name to it, huh?
That said, here's a little bit of history: The precursor to the Sensei was the Xai in 2009, and it was renamed to Sensei in 2011. The design, though, basically remained the same. The philosophy would then be if it ain't broke, why fix it?
Anyway, the Sensei Ten is your typical, classic throwback mouse - but with a lot of punch.
There are eight buttons overall: The usual left and right clickers; a scroll wheel and DPI (dots per inch) adjustment button on top; and two side (or thumb) buttons that are customisable on either side. It's also ambidextrous, meaning there won't be a problem whether you use your left or right hand; this is particularly advantageous to left-handed users, since - let's face it - a very good bulk of mice out there is configured for the dominant right-handers.
The design also means you can grip it in all the ways you would handle a mouse, including claw, palm and fingertip. That's a plus for any situation you're in (especially when you're in a tense situation or you just want to blow the crap out of an enemy).
SteelSeries touts this as the one with the best tracking on any surface, thanks to what it calls the all-new TrueMove Pro sensor. And, yes, it does have very good tracking, even on somewhat uneven surfaces.
Another cool feature is that you can configure the Sensei Ten with the SteelSeries Engine, downloadable on both Windows and Mac platforms. With it, you can customise the thumb buttons, change the lights on the mouse and make profiles for your games. It even has a horde of apps that give you additional features for SteelSeries gear, as well as those that can be applied to games. If you're not satisfied, you can even make your own app.
This mouse is also deceiving: It may be light, but SteelSeries guarantees it to by 'hyper durable' to take everything you throw at it (do not take this literally, though). It also promises consistency for 60 million clicks.
In a world flush with choices, the SteelSeries Sensei Ten does have real fight in it. There are a lot of other gaming mice out in the wild, a lot of which have undergone some major makeovers. But, as it's said, nothing beats the original.