It’s not often a new gaming mouse makes me screw my face up at the sheer thought of using it, but well, here we are. The Turtle Beach Command Series MC7 is an 8K wireless squeaker with a 30K sensor and several features I quite like the look of—but it’s also got a 2.25-inch touchscreen wedged next to the left mouse button.
And it’s giving me the slight ick. Partly, that might be down to the fact that I religiously clean all of my screens, touch or otherwise. The idea of continually running my thumb along a smooth, grease-displaying glass surface is enough to encourage small palpitations, and it’s getting worse the more I look at it.
I’ve long moaned about the screen-ification of gaming hardware, as I don’t think it adds a huge amount of functionality. And touchscreens on gaming mice? Nope, not even once. Straight to jail, do not pass go.
For a start, you use your mouse without looking at it. Well, I do anyway. Touchscreens don’t traditionally work well when you’re not staring directly at them, even if you’ve trained your muscle memory to remember where the controls are. Still, you can apparently check your CPU temps by looking down at this one. Why.
Plus, look at the ridge it creates to the side of the top buttons. I don’t like edges on gaming peripherals, and the top corner where the screen meets the chassis looks pronounced. It’s weighty, too, coming in at a porky 135 g. I’ll take that in a pure productivity mouse, but for gaming? Even heavy-mouse-enjoyers like me might find it a bit much.
I know, I know. I’m judging it before I’ve even used it, and that’s more than a little unfair. On the plus side, the MC7 has one major feature I do really like the look of—a hot-swappable battery system.
Dual 1000 mAh batteries can be swapped out the rear of the rodent and charged with an included dock, which is a darn good idea. Turtle Beach says that each battery delivers up to 10-hours of playtime, or 15-hours with the LED and LCD lighting turned off.
Which would defeat the point of buying a mouse with a touchscreen if you ask me, but what do I know. From certain angles it actually looks rather handsome, though, and I’m a fan of the bronze/black contrast in the chassis design. Just not, y’know, the honking great screen that’s been wedged into the side of it.
The touchy-feely mouse is currently available to pre-order at an MSRP of $160/$140, which means it’s knocking on the door of the price of our new best gaming mouse pick, the Razer Viper V4 Pro. It’d better be really, really good then, don’t you think?
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