After the successful launches of the Xlite Wireless and Xlite Mini Wireless, the Pulsar X2 has been among the most highly anticipated releases this year. While the Xlite Wireless had to resort to holes to achieve its 59 g weight still, the X2 does without holes entirely, yet weighs even less at 56 g. Remarkably, general build quality doesn't suffer from this: On both my copies of the X2 and X2 Mini, there is no creaking or flexing of the shell, and the side buttons cannot be actuated by squeezing the sides. That said, there is a rattle coming from the main buttons when shaking the mouse, but more on that later. Contrary to the Xlite Wireless, even a CPI button has found its way onto the X2. The only compromise that had to be made to achieve this weight is the lack of a full bottom plate. Still, the non-solid area at the bottom isn't even particularly large, and Pulsar even went the extra mile to match PCB and shell color on the black and white versions to ensure a consistent look.

Internally, the X2 debuts PixArt's latest PAW3395 sensor. The 3395 is a close relative of the 3399, which has seen use under the name "Focus+" on several Razer mice, including the Viper Ultimate and DeathAdder V2 Pro. The 3395 sensor is accompanied by a CX52850 MCU, which has already been used on the Xlite Wireless and countless other wireless mice such as the Xtrfy M4, M42, and MZ1 Wireless, Fantech Helios Go XD5 and XD3, Gamesense MVP Wireless, among others. Accordingly, performance is largely as expected. CPI deviation is decently low, polling stable aside from polling rates below 1000 Hz in wireless mode, wireless motion delay sits at just 1 ms, and motion delay in general is consistently low owing to there not being any smoothing across the entire CPI range. The main novelty brought by the 3395 sensor is MotionSync, which likewise has been a feature of Razer mice for several years now. Essentially, what MotionSync does is synchronizing SPI reads with USB polls. Ideally, it should also ensure that SPI motion data reads happen right before a USB poll arrives. From what I can tell, however, this latter part is not the case on the X2. Hence, instead of minimizing latency, MotionSync in fact adds up to an entire interval of latency on the X2, which typically will be 1 ms at a polling rate of 1000 Hz. As a result, motion delay will be increased to 1 ms in wired mode and 2 ms in wireless mode, respectively, with MotionSync enabled. At the same time, without MotionSync, general tracking is fairly rough on the X2, so there is trade-off involved no matter what. Ultimately, this comes down to nitpicking, as an additional 1 ms worth of motion delay is hardly noticeable for the average human, but on a technical level, there is simply no reason or excuse to have MotionSync increase latency to any substantial degree. In any case, Pulsar giving users the option to change this according to preference is certainly welcome.

As with all mice using the CX52850 MCU, click latency is likewise competitive. Using the lowest debounce time setting, I've measured a click latency of 3.9 ms in wireless mode, which is excellent. Recently, Pulsar also addressed an issue related to click latency. On all CX52850 mice, there is a sleep timer, which by default has the mouse enter sleep mode after 60 seconds of inactivity. On the X2, this was set to 5 seconds by default. Hence, when not moving the mouse or clicking any button for 5 seconds, the mouse would already enter an idle state, leading to the first click after being delayed by an additional 10 ms. In games such as VALORANT, not moving the mouse at all for 5 seconds is an occurrence with a non-zero probability, which is why this behavior may be considered a competitive disadvantage. Thankfully, Pulsar has addressed this concern in a recent update, and allows users to determine the sleep timer by themselves. That said, there still is an added delay on the first click after 5 seconds of sensor and button inactivity regardless, although this amounts to just 4 ms on average, which is the same as on all other CX52850 mice and may very well be considered negligible.

Another point of contention following release have been the buttons. More specifically, reports about squeaky or loose main buttons have surfaced. And sure enough, the left main button in particular on my copy of the X2 already doesn't feel entirely stable out of the box, and moves around under the finger when pressed. Of course, this doesn't mean that there aren't copies with flawless buttons out there, though I consider it at least possible that the button design is somewhat flawed on a basic level, and issues may simply arise at a later point. At the same time, I'd expect future batches to improve on this, so eventually, this may no longer be an issue at all. Ultimately, this is all merely speculation, and aside from the button piece itself not being entirely firm, the main buttons provide a satisfying and pleasing response on the X2, owing to the Kailh GM 8.0 switches once again having seen use. In terms of feedback, the buttons resemble the Xlite Wireless V2, which had more of its bottom covered compared to the V1, resulting in the buttons sounding not as muted. The side buttons manage to score with their very low post-travel, and I'm happy to report that proper mechanical switches are present on the X2, instead of the tactile switches used on the Xlite Wireless. The scroll wheel encoder comes from TTC this time around, which is louder when scrolling than the model from F-Switch seen on the Xlite Wireless, but roughly matches its tactility. Lastly, the feet are very similar to that of the Xlite Wireless, and still glide very well.

When it comes to the wireless experience, the X2 once again does well. Charging is reasonably fast, the charging flexible enough to where playing while charging is possible without feeling overly restricted, and a wireless extender is included. Interestingly, the charging speed is significantly higher when the sensor isn't tracking, so for cases where charging speed is paramount, flipping the mouse is a good idea. Battery life is also perfectly serviceable, at least on paper. Like the Xlite Wireless, the X2 is using a 300 mAh battery, which, coupled with a slightly more efficient sensor and just a single LED for the CPI indicator, should easily suffice to reach the advertised battery life of 70 hours. However, despite its graphical design suggesting otherwise, the battery indicator in the software is highly inaccurate and unreliable, which is why I simply cannot gauge anything, and thus can neither confirm nor deny this figure. As with other mice using the CX52850 MCU, there is no fuel gauge IC present on the X2, which is why the battery level is based on voltage readings, which isn't too reliable. Hence, it's best to make it a habit to charge the X2 regularly, and ignore the battery indicator in the software entirely.

Speaking of software, Pulsar has given their software a thorough makeover for the X2. Functionally, the new Fusion software is no different from the previous one, and has all the important options, including the already mentioned settings for MotionSync and sleep time. The RAM footprint continues to be pleasantly low, and all setting changes are saved to the on-board memory right away.

Overall, despite some minor quibbles, the X2 is an excellent mouse. A medium-sized, solid-shell wireless mouse weighing just 56 g is a great achievement, performance is very solid throughout, and provided one gets a copy without button issues, build quality is adequate. That said, the X2 does retail for $15 more than the Xlite Wireless V2 did, which is a substantial premium for a sensor upgrade, especially when considering the fact that the new sensor doesn't perform any better in practice. If anything, it performs worse, as with MotionSync enabled, latency is increased in return for slightly better tracking consistency. Hence, I feel that giving the X2 our Recommended award instead of an Editor's Choice is justified.

When looking at alternatives, there is no shortage. The Razer Viper V2 Pro weighs virtually the same while also having no holes, has great performance, lower click latency, optical main button switches and high button quality, but resource-heavy software and a hefty price tag of $149.99. The Xtrfy M42 Wireless weighs more while having holes, has excellent performance, great buttons, and a swappable back cover, for $99.00. For $89.99, the Fnatic BOLT has similarly great performance, slightly higher weight and no holes, and good main buttons, but suffers from its poor software and lackluster side buttons. The $79.99 Glorious Model O- Wireless scores in the click latency, weight, buttons, and charging cable department, but wireless motion delay is below par, and the software is a resource hog. Lastly, the Fantech Helios XD3 V2 is the budget option for $59.95, with great performance, very good buttons, and a big battery, but much higher weight, a stiffer charging cable, and lackluster side buttons.