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Hardware / Peripherals / The Armageddon Aquila: a cheap-ass Kana
« on: December 02, 2014, 11:19:53 am »
So Armageddon has a history of making legendarily shitty mice, save for one: the Aquila. This thing, for some bizarre reason, actually turned out to be really good for the price (around 3.5k). So, purely for the sake of comparison, I bought one. Here it is beside my old Roccat Lua.

Holy shit, it's a Kana
The shape's obvious. Steelseries took the Microsoft Intellimouse, made it flatter and called it their own ambidextrous shape. Armageddon did the same to Steelseries. Why spend on design when someone else is doing it for you, eh?
Size-wise, and it terms of feel, it's exactly like a rubberized Kana. It's not as large as the Sensei, not as small as the Kinzu, and very comfortable to hold. Minus a little bit of the build quality: you can see the light peeking out through the sides of the left and right click buttons. Even the underside is the same. Armageddon supplies you with extra teflon mouse feet that are almost a 1:1 match to the steelseries feet.
The reason I compare this to the Kana is because of its sensor. I took the mouse apart. Inside is a Pixart PAW3305DK sensor running at a maximum of 3200DPI.
Guess which mouse used the same sensor? The Steelseries Kana, v1. Some bugger over at Overclock.net even managed to replicate the pixel jump bug that affected some V1 Kanas. http://www.overclock.net/t/1333180/armageddon-aquila-review
Real-life usage
The blasted DPI switch turns green past 1600 DPI and the software is shitty rebranded OEM junk. You'd be better off writing your own. It looks shadier than Slim Shady.

As for me, I found the tracking at 800DPI acceptable with a slightly faster mouse speed in Windows, and again at 1600. 3200 seems a bit off I operate two monitors at two different resos, so that might be it. I settled for 1600 with a mouse speed one notch below normal. Make sure you turn off that "enhance pointer precision" option in Windows as this seems to introduce some odd acceleration into the mouse.
Final words
This thing is a Steal(series). It literally is a Kana for much cheaper, and it's also very comfortable. I'm not surprised - Steelseries's sensors aren't anything special; their bling is more reliable performance and the build quality. If the Armageddon Kana (read: Aquila) lasts at least a year, it's totally worth the money. Next stop: introduce it to my cat.

Holy shit, it's a Kana
The shape's obvious. Steelseries took the Microsoft Intellimouse, made it flatter and called it their own ambidextrous shape. Armageddon did the same to Steelseries. Why spend on design when someone else is doing it for you, eh?
Size-wise, and it terms of feel, it's exactly like a rubberized Kana. It's not as large as the Sensei, not as small as the Kinzu, and very comfortable to hold. Minus a little bit of the build quality: you can see the light peeking out through the sides of the left and right click buttons. Even the underside is the same. Armageddon supplies you with extra teflon mouse feet that are almost a 1:1 match to the steelseries feet.
The reason I compare this to the Kana is because of its sensor. I took the mouse apart. Inside is a Pixart PAW3305DK sensor running at a maximum of 3200DPI.
Guess which mouse used the same sensor? The Steelseries Kana, v1. Some bugger over at Overclock.net even managed to replicate the pixel jump bug that affected some V1 Kanas. http://www.overclock.net/t/1333180/armageddon-aquila-review
Real-life usage
The blasted DPI switch turns green past 1600 DPI and the software is shitty rebranded OEM junk. You'd be better off writing your own. It looks shadier than Slim Shady.

As for me, I found the tracking at 800DPI acceptable with a slightly faster mouse speed in Windows, and again at 1600. 3200 seems a bit off I operate two monitors at two different resos, so that might be it. I settled for 1600 with a mouse speed one notch below normal. Make sure you turn off that "enhance pointer precision" option in Windows as this seems to introduce some odd acceleration into the mouse.
Final words
This thing is a Steal(series). It literally is a Kana for much cheaper, and it's also very comfortable. I'm not surprised - Steelseries's sensors aren't anything special; their bling is more reliable performance and the build quality. If the Armageddon Kana (read: Aquila) lasts at least a year, it's totally worth the money. Next stop: introduce it to my cat.