Vaxee XE Mouse Review

This mouse has a matte-finish solid plastic shell and a solid baseplate, with no obvious adornments or logos; the only sign of the mouse's manufacturer is found on the label on its underside. There's no RGB lighting, though a few LED status lights are peppered around the mouse. The pair of lights just behind the central function button display what mode you're in, while the LEDs under the mouse indicate the current CPI, polling rate, and debounce settings. Our test unit is an unusual but handsome powder blue color. However, the mouse is also available in several other eye-catching hues, including pink, orange, and yellow, as well as the standard black and white.

While this mouse has an ambidextrous shape, the side buttons are only usable if you're right-handed. The body's matte-finish coating is pretty grippy, as long your hands don't sweat too much.

This mouse isn't all that portable. It's too large to easily fit into bags and laptop cases. Thankfully, its cable is detachable, so you can stow it away in a more convenient spot when not in use.

Build quality is only alright overall. The matte-finish plastic shell feels nice to the touch, but you can cause the mouse to emit a noticeable popping sound and actuate the side and right-click switches without pressing any of the buttons by applying moderate pressure against its sides. That said, this won't be too big an issue unless you habitually clutch your mouse tightly. When shaking the mouse around, we also noticed a quiet rattle from an indeterminate source. The mouse wheel has a very minor rightwards tilt, too, as seen here, though this has no impact on overall functionality. The left/right click buttons have a bit of play in them. Ultimately, build quality falls short of the high standard set by other Vaxee mice we've tested, like the Vaxee OUTSET AX.

Note: User reports would seem to indicate that this mouse suffers from inconsistent quality control. A large number of XE owners have reported no issues with their mice, while others have experienced similar deficiencies to what we encountered. Our test unit showed no signs of previous damage before testing. In the discussions below, let us know about your experience with the mouse.

This mouse is fairly lightweight. It's noticeably heavier than alternatives like the HyperX Pulsefire Haste 2 but also a long way from a heavyweight. Its weight distribution is well-balanced, making it a cinch to move accurately.

In profile, the Vaxee XE is faintly similar to that of the LAMZU Atlantis, though the rear hump is shifted slightly forward and doesn't drop towards the front quite as steeply. From the front and rear, the Vaxee is closer in shape to something like the Logitech G PRO X SUPERLIGHT, though it's noticeably smaller, and its sides slope gently outwards to a flared bottom instead of dropping off at a sharp angle. This results in a fairly wide, flat shape that better supports a palm or claw grip for those with medium and large hands than those with really small hands, who can have trouble reaching the front buttons.

If you're looking for the wireless version of this mouse, check out the Vaxee XE Wireless.

This mouse has a lightweight, flexible paracord-like cable that glides well across desks and mousepads without getting stuck. However, it does retain some permanent kinking from its packaging.

The Vaxee XE has excellent feet. The two virgin-grade PTFE feet are large but somewhat thin, and they glide across mousepads pretty smoothly, albeit with a bit of scratchiness. Third-party replacement feet, including glass options, are available to provide a smoother, more sensitive feel.

• Vaxee XE
• Detachable USB-A to USB-C cable
• QR Code for user manual

This mouse's left- and right-click buttons use Huano 70g mechanical switches.

You can only reprogram the function button just under the scroll wheel. Out-of-the-box, it acts as a page-down key, but you can swap between three preset functions by pressing and holding it down along with the two side buttons. You can see which of the presets is being used by looking at the two LED status lights just below the function button: the bottom light being illuminated indicates that you can use the function key to capture a screenshot, while both lights being lit up indicates that the function key will bring up an emoji menu. Only the top LED is illuminated in the default 'Page Down' setting. There are three extra buttons on the underside of this mouse to adjust the CPI, polling rate, and debounce setting.

This mouse has excellent click latency, providing a snappy and highly-responsive gaming experience for any genre.

This test was conducted with a polling rate of 1000Hz and the lowest debounce setting of 2ms.

The Vaxee XE delivers fantastic CPI performance. Its sensor provides remarkably good tracking accuracy, and the physical movements you make with your mouse translate extremely close to your cursor movements on-screen.

Sensor latency performance is superb. The PixArt PMW3389 sensor reacts exceptionally quickly when you move your mouse, and these movements match the timing of the cursor movements you see on the screen extremely closely.

This driverless mouse has no companion software, though several preset settings are built into the device. The available polling rate options are 125Hz, 500Hz, and 1000Hz. Out-of-the-box, you can also toggle between 400, 800, 1600, and 3200 CPI presets. You can also change the lift-off distance through three preset modes by following this guide.

The scroll wheel on the Vaxee XE has a rubber grip and operates much more quietly than other Vaxee mice, like the Vaxee ZYGEN NP-01. It also rotates precisely, with well-defined steps. That said, it does require a bit of force to press down, and the wheel on our test unit felt as though it could be tilted to the right, as mentioned in the Build Quality section of the review.

Noise from the right and left mouse clicks, side buttons, and the scroll wheel isn't too loud and will be sufficiently discreet for office use.

This is a driverless mouse with no associated software.

All default button functions work in Windows and macOS.