Software

The XM1 RGB software closely resembles the software for the regular XM1. The first page houses button remapping options. Main buttons still cannot be rebound, but the middle click and side buttons can, although only to mouse and keyboard keys. The main buttons cannot be rebound because doing so incorrectly could render the PC inoperable. The second page allows for CPI customization (50–16,000 CPI, in increments of 50), LOD adjustment (2 or 3 mm), and "Ripple Control." This option controls what is commonly referred to as smoothing, which is enabled by default on PixArt's standard PMW3389 SROM, but disabled by default on the XM1 RGB. When enabling this setting, CPI steps at and above 1900 CPI will have less jitter but higher motion delay. CPI can be configured for up to four levels, which are color-coded with the same custom colors as on the bottom of the XM1 RGB. Lastly, the third tab includes the lighting options. Upon applying any changes, all settings are saved to the on-board memory, so the software does not need to be running (or be installed) all the time. On my system, the software had a RAM footprint of 51 MB on average.

Endgame Gear is planning to thoroughly revise the software for all XM1 versions at a later point. The ability to bind multimedia keys as well as rebind scroll up/scroll down will be included, among others.

Lighting

The XM1 RGB has three zones for RGB lighting: the scroll wheel, logo at the back, and underside LED strip. In the software, one can pick one of five available pre-defined lighting modes. "Color Flow (RGB)" is the default and presents a continuous rainbow-like color stream. "Color Cycle (RGB)" cycles through all the colors seamlessly. "Comet (RGB)" engages the mouse in blinking mode. "Breathing" and "Solid" are self-explanatory, and both can be further customized in terms of color, for each of the three zones individually. Furthermore, it is possible to adjust brightness and transition speed. Of course, the lighting can also be disabled altogether.

Color accuracy and vibrancy are excellent throughout. What I did notice, however, is that in the default "Color Flow" mode, both brightness and color-to-color transitions don't happen entirely smoothly, but rather in somewhat easily discernible steps. This becomes very apparent when changing the transition speed to "slow," which makes it look like the lights are updating at 4 FPS. As such, the "fast" setting tends to look best in this mode. This effect is less pronounced when selecting any of the other lighting effects. Here's a short demonstration video of the "Color Flow (RGB)," "Color Cycle (RGB)," and "Comet (RGB)" lighting effects: