Closer Look: Meduza Mouse

In this section we'll take a closer look at the design and layout of the Meduza Gaming Mouse from Epic Gear. Regarding form and fit, Epic Gear wanted to make a mouse that would be comfortable for hours of gaming. In this spirit they chose a right-handed, form-fit body design.

This formed design really forces the issue of how to hold the mouse. Every last nook and cranny of the exterior is contoured to work with the hand's natural design. The left and right mouse buttons have a moderate concavity that runs all the way to the top of the mouse. This makes it more natural to use two fingers on the buttons rather than three since the crest of the mouse is peaked above these contours and fits more naturally beneath and between two knuckles.

The left side of the mouse is also concave and contoured around the thumb. Three buttons are put with decent reach of the thumb, two of which are immediately accessible. To get an idea of how long the Meduza is, the peak measures over 1.5" above the mouse pad. Length-wise Meduza comes in just under 5". I have large hands, and the fit is almost perfect so my wrist rests naturally on my desk. Smaller hands will have to choose between fingertips at the ends of the button and the wrist wresting higher on the mouse, or wrist on the desk with fingertips reaching only part-way down the mouse.

The buttons have a low actuation pressure but a decent tactile feedback. My thumb rests naturally under the two combined buttons, but I have to reach for the forward button. This is just as well since the forward button cannot be reassigned and servers only to switch profiles. Also on the left side, front, bottom you can see the four LED indicators for the DPI mode.

This back view of the Meduza helps show just how deep the contours are for the thumb and fingers. You can also see on the right side another contour designed to support the ring finger. I found the mouse to be natural for a palm grip which is my preferred playing style. I tried using some other gripping styles, but found that anything else was not natural.

The right side of the mouse has contoured regions for supporting the ring finger as well as the pinky. The section for the ring finger is made of hard glossy plastic, but the section for the pinky is made of soft, grippy rubber. Normally when I play I grip with my ring finger and leave my pinky dangling, but when I used the Meduza it felt more natural to follow the contours. It did not noticeably affect my performance while gaming and I didn't feel awkward making the change.

The mouse wheel provides single-axis scrolling and one discrete mouse click. The actuation pressure on the wheel was more than double that of the other buttons, but it did not feel excessive. During testing the wheel clicked if and only if desired. Above the wheel is the last button. by default this hard-to-reach button changes the DPI mode between four "custom" levels. During testing this button was so hard and slow to reach that it wasn't worth assigning to any other function for fast-twitch gaming. For RTS, MMO or other games where function is required more than speed this may prove handy.

Finally on the bottom we get a first glimpse at the real Meduza; the two "eyes" and a "mouth" make for one scary creature. but really this is where the technological mystery happens. The sensor on the left (bottom in picture) is the optical LED sensor while the sensor on the right (top in picture) is the laser sensor. the "mouth" is really a switch that allows the choice between optical sensor only, laser sensor only, and HDST mode where both sensors are used simultaneously. Before discussing the practical differences between the three modes we'll take a closer look some other details of Meduza as well as the Hybrid pad.

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