Roccat Savu Mid Size Gaming Mouse Review

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Roccat Savu Mid Size Gaming Mouse Review - eTeknix


Roccat are renowned for their feature rich products such as the Isku gaming keyboard and the Kone. They often lead the way with innovative products and ideas like the upcoming Roccat PowerGrid app for smartphones.
Their peripheral products are very popular amongst the gaming community offering a host of features at very reasonable prices. We’ve had Roccat product in the past for review and the majority of the time they’ve impressed us enough for them to walk away clutching one of our prestigious awards, so will this Roccat product be any different?
Today we have the honour of reviewing the latest mouse by Roccat, dubbed the Savu.
The Savu is a mid sized mouse that is positioned just before the Kone[+] in terms of performance and price, rather than a direct replacement. It packs the world’s only PRO-OPTIC (R3) 4000 DPI optical sensor on top of some interesting new features that we’ve never seen before – we’ll take a closer look at this later.
In terms of gaming, having the right mouse is essential, not only must it be comfortable, accurate and precise, but it must also be durable. Will the Savu fit this criteria? Read on to discover it it does.
Features – taken from Roccat’s site:

• ADJUSTBALE 4000DPI PRO-OPTIC (R3) SENSOR - with true 400, 800, 1600 or 4000dpi
• EASY-SHIFT[+]™ BUTTON DUPLICATOR - with Easy-Aim + Easy-Wheel functions
• CUSTOMIZABLE MULTI-COLOR LIGHTING - 16.8 million colors + effects and game profile illumination
• NO-SWEAT SIDE GRIPS - for extended slip-free play
• ROCCAT DRIVER + MACRO MANAGER - for advanced customization + presets for games & apps
• OPTIMUM MID-SIZE DESIGN - with perfectly-balanced weight
• ULTRA-PRECISE 2D WHEEL - with lock-in incremental steps
• ERGONOMIC RIGHT-HAND DESIGN - with soft-touch, ultra-comfort surface
• BRAIDED CABLE - offering a robust, stylish connection
• ZERO ANGLE SNAPPING - for true competition gaming
• HIGHEST-QUALITY COMPONENTS - for a solid build and long life

and the more technical specifications:

• 4000dpi optical gaming sensor
• Incl. Omron® switches
• 60 inches per second maximum speed
• 20G acceleration
• 125, 250, 500, 1000Hz polling rate
• Zero angle snapping
• 1.8m braided USB cable

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The packaging is consistent with all of Roccat’s previous products, with a slick angular box featuring their blue and black colour scheme. The fundamental features are also listed on the front on top of a graphic of the Savu.



The rear of the box contains some artwork featuring the Savu, which also highlights some of the features. Below that is a list of the main features, then below that again are translations of the specifications.



The packaging is fairly standard for Roccat, artistic yet with a modern look to it, especially with the angular side. Now it’s time to have a look inside the box.
Roccat have kept things simple with the Savu, with there only being a quick installation guide and a Roccat membership card, that allows you to gain exclusive benefits from Roccat’s website like competitions, additional support etc.

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The Roccat Savu is a mid sized mouse for right-handed users. It features a total of five buttons including the two dimensional scroll wheel.



The sides of the Savu have a rough text, not dissimilar from fine sandpaper, that will aid your grip during those intense, sweaty gaming sessions. On the left side you have the thumb rest and two buttons, which by default are front (left) button:



The Savu has a fairly regular shape for a right-handed gaming mouse. The front of the mouse is relatively simple with the usual buttons and scroll wheel. The USB cable is covered in a high quality braid that is 1.8m in length. The right click button has the Roccat text engraved in it.



The right side of the Savu is relatively plain. It is also coated in a rough texture to aid grip.



Surprisingly the rear of the mouse is plain, except a small light bar across the bottom. We’ll go into more detail about this after a few more photos.



The underside of the Savu has two large low resistance feet to ensure the mouse glides across most surfaces – particularly the Taito mouse pad. There is also the usual information you get on electrical products, on top of the Roccat logo, again engraved into the plastic. The key feature in the photo below is the 4000 DPI optical sensor – a world first.



We mentioned the light bar previously and in the photos below you can see some examples of the colours. This is all customisable in the software, which we’ll look at shortly.



The Savu can light up almost any colour of the rainbow.

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With today’s mice, they often require additional software to unlock the full features. Currently in beta, the Roccat Savu software can be downloaded straight from their website. From here, you have a whole plethora of options that allow you the customise the mouse as much as you like.

The first tab is the general controls such as sensitivity, DPI, scroll speed etc.



The second tab allows you to customise the button assignment. Typically button five is the EASY-SHIFT[+] button, which enables you to essentially assign two functions to each button.



The third tab allows you to change axis sensitivity, the polling rate, sound feedback and the colours of the light bar, which can also have a “breathing” effect that can cycle through the colours.



The fourth tab is by far the more interesting tab for us. It features a record of the mouse’ usage statistics such as total amount of clicks, distance moved etc. Roccat have also included an achievement system that awards you with trophies – you can unlock on by moving the mouse a total of 10,000 inches. We’ll let you find out the rest.



All of these changes can be made across a total of five different profiles that are stored on the PC – not on the mouse unlike some of the other gaming mice.

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As with all our mice and keyboards, we run a battery of tests to review how well the product performs. Most review sites only test the product for a couple of hours as they strive to be the first to publish, this can often produce flawed results. We keep testing until every stone is left unturned, whether it takes a day, a week, or even a month.
We’ll put the Savu through the usual routine that tests the performance across multiple genres and assess the comfort levels throughout.

First Person Shooters

First up is FPS, for this we played Battlefield 3 as there are several different sensitivity levels depending if you are on foot, in a tank or a jet. During the several hour-long battles, the Savu performed adequately, never letting us down, however the lack of a on the fly DPI switching button quickly became noticeable. A quick hop back to the button assignment configuration fixed this issue, although it would have been nice for a dedicated button. We quickly fired up Counter Strike: Source to put it through some faster paced action, thinking we might be able to catch the optical sensor out, but alas, the Savu performed flawlessly.

Real Time Strategy

For this genre, we fired up our favourite RTS – Supreme Commander 2, due to it’s play style and having to scroll vast maps. Again, just like in FPS, the Savu was faultless. The improved 4000 DPI sensor allowed us to quickly traverse those large maps, whilst still being accurate and precise with clicking.

Role Playing Games

Diablo 3 was our weapon of choice for this mouse, as we suspected that the lack of additional buttons would put many people off using the Savu for this genre. When Diablo actually allowed us to login, we quickly noticed that this was indeed the case, and that the lack of extra buttons did hinder performance when fighting against huge mobs. That said, this was only really noticeable due to the fact that we are use to the likes of the Razer Naga, which has twelve additional buttons, but it would have been nice to see a few more on there.

It was during this phase of testing when we heard a voice come from our speakers: “Congratulations! You have unlocked a new trophy”, so we quickly tabbed out and checked the driver – we had indeed unlocked an achievement for traversing 10,000 inches of desk! Whilst this may be a little gimmicky, its a nice touch, and it is quite interesting to see how far we have moved and how many clicks have been performed.

General Use

Using the Savu for day to day tasks was just the same as it was when gaming. It was very comfortable, and when our hands did get hot and sweaty, our grip did not falter. We had to make a few modifications to the button assignment so we could browse the internet better, but other than that, the Savu was a delight to use.

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Roccat have produced a very high quality, stylish gaming mouse, that not only feels great but performs exceptionally well. The inclusion of achievements through the software makes using the mouse fun, as you never know what achievement you will unlock next, will it be to do with the amount of clicks? Or how far it travels? It all adds to the fun, despite it being a gimmick for the more hardcore gamers.

The textured sides feel great in the hand, making it very comfortable to use and the styling allows for a subtle look with some cool lighting features.

The main drawbacks of using the Savu were brought to light when playing both FPSs and RPGs, and the sheer lack of any additional buttons, which would have come in useful for switching the DPI or casting numerous spells. Whilst some of this can be achieved by using the EASY-SHIFT[+] feature, it still requires an extra button push, which can get confusing to say the least. The only other issue is the size, which could be a problem if you have very large hands but the majority of users shouldn’t find things to much of a problem.

We thoroughly enjoyed testing the Roccat Savu- it’s not everyday we see a relatively simple product become something fun to use in such a unique way. With an RRP of around £49.99, the Savu is very competitively priced with other leading mice in the market and in their own range is placed directly below the Kone[+], as an alternative, rather than a replacement as it does lack some features that are included with the Kone[+]. That said, the mouse is feature rich, and the software is not only easy to use, but allows you to customise many aspects of the mouse.

For all these reasons, we are awarding the Roccat Savu Mid-sized Gaming Mouse with the: