INTRODUCTION

   With the new and much promising Ryzen 7 CPUs by AMD finally released our guess is that it will not be long before many gamers, enthusiasts and professionals (emphasis on the latter) will be looking to either upgrade their systems or build new ones. Still how many times have you seen people building new high-end systems primarily for gaming without however spending nearly enough on gaming peripherals? Well I’ve seen it more than once (and will probably see it many more) so it always feels nice to have a bunch of brand new gaming peripherals arrive in our lab for us to test. We can't of course neglect all our other review sections but March should be filled with reviews of gaming keyboards, mice and headsets so do stay tuned if you're interested. The first of those reviews is about the just released Revenger Optical Gaming Mouse by our friends over at COUGAR (and yes once again we're among the first people to get our hands on it).

   COUGAR products are designed by COUGAR GERMANY, a professional R&D engineering team and COUGAR is part of the “HEC/COMPUCASE” Group. The unique combination of the world-famous German skills of designing the best products worldwide and HEC/s power and long-time experience to produce the best high quality products created innovative masterpieces in PSU history. The PC upgrading and DIY market is changing rapidly and is growing more and more. Professional user are asking for more than only stable and silent PSU/s, they want efficient and energy saving products without compromises in quality. COUGAR GERMANY created such products! COUGAR GERMANY combines the features of innovation and evolution to create efficient, powerful and unique products like “COUGAR POWER”. The purpose of COUGAR GERMANY is the satisfaction of the customer, reaching it by creating most valuable, advanced products. COUGAR – YOUR POWER!

   The Revenger Optical Gaming Mouse by COUGAR is based on the award winning and very popular PMW3360 Optical/LED Sensor by Pixart which offers a high resolution of up to 12.000DPI (dots per inch), up to 6500 fps (frame rate), 1000Hz polling rate, speed of up to 250 IPS (inches per second) and up to 50G acceleration. The Revenger also uses OMRON switches for the primary buttons (up to 5 million clicks), has 512Kb of on-board memory which allows it to store up to 3 profiles and comes ready with a 2 zone multi-color (RGB / 16.8 million colors) backlight system. All six of its buttons are fully programmable and worth pointing out that the DPI selection button also doubles as a trigger button for quick reaction shots (almost like the sniper button we've seen in other gaming mice). In terms of shape the Revenger follows the typical palm design/grip we've seen with numerous models this past decade so my guess is that this will also be a good thing for most gamers around (unfortunately the Revenger is primarily at least a right handed mouse).

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The Revenger arrived inside a black box with a large product picture at the front surrounded by the main product features.

The specifications table is placed on the left side beneath yet another product picture.

Some of the main features are also listed on the right side.

You can find the features list at the rear of the box printed in 10 languages right beneath the product specifications printed in two languages and yet another product picture.

The front of the box opens up so you can actually even place your hand on it (actually on the clear plastic placed over it).

Along with the Revenger you'll also get 3 stickers and the user manual.

THE REVENGER

COUGAR decided to go with a dark theme for the Revenger and as the name reveals its design is quite aggressive (if you think it looks quite a bit like the 550m that's because it does). Size-wise the 120g heavy Revenger measures 135mm in length, 70mm in width and 45mm in height.

At the same time we received the Revenger we were wrapping up our tests for the Schimitar PRO RGB mouse by Corsair so a quick size comparison was only natural.

Two programmable buttons are placed on the left side of the mouse right next to a 3 stage DPI LED display and a rubber anti-slip flank.

The COUGAR logo is placed at the rear and right over the 2nd multi-color LED zone.

At the top once again we find the DPI selection button which doubles as the trigger button.

The clickable scroll wheel is rubber coated and quite responsive/accurate.

Most of the right side also features a textured rubber anti-slip flank.

Three very large PTFE feet are placed on the base of the Revenger.

The PMW3360 optical/LED sensor also features angle-snapping for the more "experienced" gamers.

COUGAR has placed a 1.8 meter long braided cable at the end of the Revenger which in turn ends on gold plated USB plug.

UIX SYSTEM

You can download the latest software and firmware version from the official COUGAR support page as seen above.

COUGAR has been using the user friendly UIX system (control panel) for quite some time now (a revamp could be a good thing however) and so from here you can adjust the 3 available DPI presets, adjust the DPI for the trigger/sniper button, change the lift height (LOD), adjust the polling rate, turn angle snapping on/off, adjust the double click/scroll/pointer speeds, program all 6 buttons to the desired functions (macros included), change the illumination color of both zones and save/edit all the available profiles.

Here you can see some of the available colors you can assign to the 2 zone RGB system.

CONCLUSION

   The Revenger may not be the most impressive gaming mouse in the market today but thanks to its design, very good grip and proven optical sensor (PMW3360) it's among the best gaming mice we've used lately. Personally i would like to see an ambidextrous design since i do believe that very good gaming mice should be available for everyone out there but in the end it's obviously not my place to decide those things. Build quality is very high as with most high-end gaming mice in the market today and so is tracking and accuracy so i believe that even the most demanding gamers will have no issues with the Revenger (neither did we while playing Battlefield 1, Far Cry Primal and Dreadnought). The 2 zone multi-color RGB illumination system may not be as eye catching as let’s say the one Ozone has used with their M50 mouse (review coming soon) but it's still much better than what we've seen by other manufacturers lately (not to mention that some people don't want any LEDs on their gaming mouse). As mentioned earlier the UIX control panel is easy to navigate and use but quite frankly we all would like to see something new since it feels outdated (however that's not a big deal).

   At launch it seems that COUGAR is following a very aggressive price policy with the new Revenger Gaming Optical Mouse since they just ask for USD57.20 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 58.63Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) a price tag which is very balanced and tempting. Bottom line if you don't want more than 6 programmable buttons and you're right handed then you can't go wrong with the Revenger no matter how we look at it. The Pixart PMW3360 LED sensor is very fast and accurate, design is very good especially for palm-grip users, build quality is equally good, the 2 zone RGB backlight system is ideal for people looking to bring some color on their desks and best of all you're getting all these for a good price. Again the Revenger might not be the jack of all trades or the best gaming mouse out there but still it's very good and that’s exactly why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (OMRON Switches)
- Very Good Grip
- Very Accurate & Fast (Pixart PMW3360 IR LED Sensor)
- Trigger Button (Sniper)
- 2 Zone Multi Color RGB Backlight System
- 3 On board Profiles
- Braided Cable With Gold Plated USB Plug
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Right Hand Design
- UIX Control Panel Design (Feels Outdated)