Alienware Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse Review 5

Alienware Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse Review

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pzogel
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Manufacturer: Alienware
Testing 8000 Hz Wired & 4000 Hz Wireless »

Sensor and Performance

The Alienware Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse is equipped with the PixArt PAW3395. According to specifications, the 3395 is capable of up to 26,000 CPI, as well as a maximum tracking speed of 650 IPS, which equals 16.51 m/s. Out of the box, five pre-defined CPI steps are available: 400, 800, 1200, 1600, and 2400.

All testing was done on the latest firmware (0.2.7.3h). As such, results obtained on earlier firmware versions may differ from those presented hereafter.

CPI Accuracy

What is CPI Accuracy?
"CPI" (short for counts per inch) describes the number of counts registered by the mouse if it is moved exactly an inch. There are several factors (firmware, mounting height of the sensor not meeting specifications, mouse feet thickness, mousing surface, among others) which may contribute to nominal CPI not matching actual CPI. It is impossible to always achieve a perfect match, but ideally, nominal and actual CPI should differ as little as possible. In this test, I'm determining whether this is the case or not. However, please keep in mind that said variance will still differ from unit to unit, so your mileage may vary.


I've restricted my testing to the four most common CPI steps, which are 400, 800, 1600, and 3200. As you can see, deviation is consistently positive and low, which is a very good result overall. In order to account for the measured deviation, adjusted steps of 400, 800, 1600, and 3200 CPI have been used for testing, as despite the sensor natively supporting CPI adjustment in increments of 50, the software limits this to increments of 100. In addition, when operating the CPI slider, certain steps such as 400 or 3100 are simply skipped over, and manual input is not possible.

Motion Delay

What is Motion Delay?
"Motion delay" encompasses all kinds of sensor lag. Any further sources of input delay will not be recorded in this test. The main thing I'll be looking for in this test is sensor smoothing, which describes an averaging of motion data across several capture frames, in order to reduce jitter at higher CPI values, increasing motion delay along with it. The goal here is to have as little smoothing as possible. As there is no way to accurately measure motion delay absolutely without special equipment, it is done by comparison with a control subject that has been determined to have consistent and low motion delay. In this case, the control subject is a Logitech G403, whose PMW3366 sensor has no visible smoothing across the entire CPI range. Note that the G403 is moved first and thus receives a slight head start.

Wired testing

First, I'm looking at two xCounts plots—generated at 1600 and 26,000 CPI—to quickly gauge whether there is any smoothing, which would be indicated by any visible "kinks." The second plot shows a highly pronounced kink at a framerate transition point, which may be indicative of smoothing. SPI timing jitter is elevated as MotionSync is disabled.


In order to determine motion delay, I'm looking at xSum plots generated at 1600 and 26,000 CPI. The line further to the left denotes the sensor with less motion delay. At 1600 CPI, a motion delay differential of 0.5 ms in favor of the Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse can be measured. 26,000 CPI appears broken in that motion delay continually increases.

Wireless testing

Not much changes when running the Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse in wireless mode as SPI timing jitter and general tracking are virtually on the same level as when wired. 26,000 CPI again shows a pronounced outlier, whose cause remains unclear.


Once again, 1600 and 26,000 CPI are tested. At 1600 CPI, there is no motion delay differential. 26,000 CPI again appears broken in that motion delay continually increases.

What is Speed-related Accuracy Variance?
What people typically mean when they talk about "acceleration" is speed-related accuracy variance (or SRAV). It's not about the mouse having a set amount of inherent positive or negative acceleration, but about the cursor not traveling the same distance if the mouse is moved the same physical distance at different speeds. The easiest way to test this is by comparison with a control subject that is known to have very low SRAV, which in this case is the G403.


As you can see from the plot, no displacement between the two cursor paths can be observed, which confirms that SRAV is very low.

Perfect Control Speed

What is Perfect Control Speed?
Perfect Control Speed (or PCS for short) is the maximum speed up to which the mouse and its sensor can be moved without the sensor malfunctioning in any way.


I've only managed to hit a measly 5 m/s, which is within the proclaimed PCS range and causes no observable sensor malfunction.

Polling Rate Stability

What is Polling Rate?
Strictly speaking, one has to distinguish between polling rate and report rate. Polling rate describes the number of times the host (typically the user's PC) polls the device, whereas report rate describes the number of times the device reports to the host. Thus, a device can be set to be polled a certain number of times per second, but report at a lower rate regardless, either by design (i.e., if there have been no movement changes since the previous report) or not by design, and the latter case is what will be tested under the moniker of "polling rate stability" hereafter. To this end, the mouse is set to a sufficiently high CPI step and moved at a sufficiently high velocity to ensure that the maximum possible report rate is achieved at all times. Polling rate can be conceived of as a frequency, which is typically measured in Hz, though a more correct way of looking at it would be as an interval. For reference, a frequency of 1000 Hz is tantamount to an interval of 1 ms. Likewise, a frequency of 125 Hz would translate to an interval of 8 ms, and a frequency of 8000 Hz to an interval of 0.125 ms.

Wired testing


All the available polling rates (125, 250, 500, or 1000 Hz) display periodic bouts of elevated noise.

Wireless testing
For wired mice, polling rate stability merely concerns the wired connection between the mouse (SPI communication) and USB. For wireless mice, another device that needs to be kept in sync between the first two is added to the mix: the wireless dongle/wireless receiver. I'm unable to measure all stages of the entire end-to-end signal chain individually, so testing polling-rate stability at the endpoint (the USB) has to suffice here.


First, I'm testing whether SPI, wireless, and USB communication are synchronized. Any of these being out of sync would be indicated by at least one 2 ms report, which would be the result of any desynchronization drift accumulated over time. I'm unable to detect any periodic off-period polls that would be indicative of a desynchronization drift, though bouts of elevated noise are common.



Second, I'm testing the general polling-rate stability of the individual polling rates in wireless mode. Running the Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse at a lower polling rate can have the benefit of extending battery life. All polling rates continue to display periodic bouts of elevated noise, except for 500 Hz.

Paint Test

What is the Paint Test?
This test is used to indicate any potential issues with angle snapping (non-native straightening of linear motion) and jitter, along with any sensor lens rattle.


As you can see, no issues with angle snapping can be observed. There is no jitter visible at 1600 CPI. Both 10,100 and 26,000 CPI show moderate jitter at most, which no doubt is due to significant smoothing being applied. Lastly, there is no lens movement.

Lift-off Distance

What is Lift-off Distance?
Lift-off distance describes the distance the mouse can be lifted off the tracking surface until the sensor no longer tracks.

The Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse offers two pre-defined LOD levels. On the "1 mm" setting, the sensor does not track at a height of one DVD. This does not change using the "2 mm" setting, which is why we can surmise that this setting is not functional. Keep in mind that LOD may vary slightly depending on the mousing surface (pad) it is being used on.

Click Latency

What is Click Latency?
In most computer mice, debouncing is required to avoid double clicks, slam-clicks, or other unintended effects of switch bouncing. Debouncing typically adds a delay, which, along with any potential processing delay, shall be referred to as click latency. In order to measure click latency, the mouse has been interfaced with an NVIDIA LDAT (Latency Display Analysis Tool). Many thanks go to NVIDIA for providing an LDAT device. More specifically, the LDAT measures the time between the electrical activation of the left main button and the OS receiving the button-down message. Unless noted otherwise, the values presented in the graph refer to the lowest click latency possible on the mouse in question. If a comparison mouse is capable of both wired and wireless operation, only the result for wireless (2.4 GHz) operation will be listed. All the listed values have been gathered without any sensor motion. If latency differs between no motion and motion, it will be noted as such.


In wired mode, click latency has been measured to be 1.0 (0.95) ms, with standard deviation being 0.11 ms. In wireless mode, click latency has been measured to be 1.3 ms, with standard deviation being 0.24 ms. Polling rate has no effect on click latency. NVIDIA Reflex is supported, but readings will be off by a decent margin.
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Nov 27th, 2024 08:59 EST change timezone

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