Surface and Materials

Endgame Gear specifies the XM1 surface as a matte, dry grip coating. It really is a matte surface without any rubberization. I'm not sure what to compare it to; it comes after some ROCCAT mice a tiny bit, but as far as I could feel, they're not exactly the same. It's not very tacky and definitely not the grippiest material I ever felt on a mouse, but should generally be alright in terms of gripping. One thing to mention is that it collects fingerprints rather easily. The scroll wheel is rubberized and heavily textured.


Moving on to the sides, there's nothing extra worth mentioning here as the whole mouse basically has the same surface treatment. The side buttons are slightly coarser in terms of touch-feel.

Build Quality

Build quality is objectively perfect. There's literally nothing for me to nitpick on, everything is stellar. However, one thing worth mentioning is some coil whine coming from earlier batch copies. It isn't loud at all; I can only hear it when the mouse is right next to my ear, but some people have reported more audible coil whine. This issue was fixed for later batches (0720).

Weight

While a lot of companies are still advertising their mice with the ability of adding extra weights, a great percentage of professional eSports and power users favor light mice. The XM1 is extremely good for its size as it weighs only 70 grams. The balance is fantastic as well, and it's just a joy to pick up if you're a weight-weenie. While some manufacturers go for drilled shells in order to reduce the weight, there's no such thing here. The XM1 has no holes for the sake of weight reduction. It's simply the materials and the internal design that make the 70 grams possible.