Product Listing

First Looks: Roccat Savu

By James Lu - 22 May 2012

First Looks: Roccat Savu

First Looks: Roccat Savu

German gaming peripheral manufacturer Roccat may be a relatively new name in Asia, but they’ve already taken Europe by storm, where a number of top ranked e-Sports teams have converted to the brand.

The Savu is a new mouse in Roccat’s lineup that’s priced below its flagship Kone and Kova mice, at a mid-ranged US$55.99.
 

Design

The medium sized mouse has a fairly aggressive ergonomic shape with a generous thumb groove and a mid to high arched profile. Despite this, it’s quite short, measuring just 120mm from nose to tail. It’s also very light at just 90g - we suspect it's a bit too light for most gamers as it feels almost hollow. For comparison’s sake, Roccat’s Kone + mouse is about 135mm long and weighs 126g.

The Savu has a mid to high profile, but is rather short, which might make it good for palm-grippers with smaller hands.

The top of the mouse is covered with a fairly standard black, soft-touch rubberized finish, very similar to that found on many other gaming mice. The sides, however, are coated with a unique "No-Sweat" coating, a textured, rough finish that feels a little bit like extra-fine sandpaper. Don’t be alarmed though, it’s not at all abrasive and actually provides a nice, dry, grippy surface.

For a bit of extra bling, a pulsating light at the back bottom edge of the mouse can be customized to display a range of different colors.
 

Features

The Savu is equipped with 5 buttons: left and right click, scrollwheel click and two thumb buttons. The buttons are quite firm, but a bit shallow for our tastes, which might result in accidental misclicks. Scrollwheel firmness is a matter of personal taste, but we loved the Savu’s stiff and deeply grooved wheel.

Like Roccat’s other mice, their signature EasyShift technology is included on the Savu. Essentially, this works the same way as the Shift key on your keyboard, holding down the rear thumb button and pressing another button at the same time will perform a different function, theoretically giving you twice the number of buttons on your mouse.

We like the idea, and it has lots of potential for MMO players, but it can feel a bit clunky and awkward to execute simultaneous button pushes in the heat of battle. We also would have liked an option to rebind Easy-Shift to another button (or to turn it off altogether) as it is quite annoying to use when you just want a simple back browser button while web surfing.

Unlike Roccat’s other mice, which all use Laser sensors, the Savu uses a Pro-Optic R3 4000 DPI optical sensor, customizable between 400, 800, 1600 and 4000 DPI. While it had some issues on our table surface (which admittedly is a bit dusty), it tracked accurately without any issues on our mouse mat. The Savu features zero prediction or angle snapping, but does have 20G acceleration, however this can be tuned or turned off in the driver settings if desired. We didn’t encounter any issues with lift (which is the motion where you lift the mouse and lose your tracking because the cursor might have shifted).

Along with the usual driver options, which include macro functions and DPI settings, Roccat has introduced the Roccat Achievement Display (or RAD) with the Savu. Similar to the Achievements that can be earned in games, RAD tracks everything from the number of button clicks to the total distance your mouse has traveled, and rewards you with trophies and achievement points when you hit various milestones (such as one million clicks).

Earn trophies and achievements the more you use your mouse.

If you're so inclined, there’s even an option to share your mousing accomplishments with others through Facebook. While it doesn’t really add anything to the user experience, it is a fun addition and the stats can be quite interesting viewing (3276 clicks in one Starcraft II game?!)
 

Concluding Comments

Overall, the Roccat Savu isn’t revolutionary, but it gets the job done. It’s well built and has a grip that won’t let go. Many people will find it a bit too light, but for those seeking a featherweight mouse under 100g, this is a great choice.

Join HWZ's Telegram channel here and catch all the latest tech news!
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.