The Sandio 3D Game O Mouse in five lines:
- It’s a gaming mouse; the normal buttons work well, but aside from some fun in Google Earth, the extra joysticks are not useful for other things.
- The joysticks are digital, not analog. In simpler terms, they are either going in one direction or not, with no sensitivity.
- The top joystick is brilliant, especially for first person shooter games and very useful in strategy games. It does not interfere with using the scroll wheel.
- The thumb joystick is useful in MMORPGs, FPSs, and for macros in strategy games, but its opposite twin is very hard to use.
- An “advanced” pre-teen PC gamer and older should be able to use it, but the software it requires is too complex for younger children.
The packaging is the wonderful type where don’t need to break out a knife or saw in order to extract the technological treasure from within. This is becoming unfortunately very rare in my experience; side from that, it is nice enough, but not worth a second mention. Inside is the mouse itself, a driver CD, and a guide. The drivers are on a mini-CD, which does not work with most slot loading drives; however, the drivers are also available online — both the original included ones and an updated version.
The mouse itself is well made, but very light. My model was a plain but shiny white, but it is available in other colors. The most striking feature are the three joysticks positioned on the top and to either side. There is also a detachable base; the mouse is fully usable with the it clipped on, although I preferred to use it with the base removed.
On Windows XP, OSX, and other operating systems, the mouse was immediately detected and worked without any drivers. In order to enable the joysticks in Windows, however, the software must be installed from either the CD or Sandio’s website. No OSX software for the mouse is available.
The software is able to assign keys to the various joystick directions or combinations, and I found it very well written and easy to use, although there were certainly aspects that could be improved. It includes a small collection of presets for various games; more presets and software updates are available from the previously mentioned website. I did not notice any difference between the version of the software from the CD (1.04) and the upgraded version available online ( 1.08), aside from 64-bit support.
It’s easy and straightforward to create your own custom way of assigning keys to the joysticks if your favorite game is not one of their presets or you’d prefer a different layout, but I had two major gripes with the software. The first goes is less relevant, as its consequences go against the gaming mouse’s purpose: it is impossible to assign any of the hotkeys for the application or global hotkeys to the joysticks. This isn’t a problem with most games, which don’t use those key combinations; however, it makes it impossible to use the joystick buttons to switch programs (alt-tab) or documents (ctrl-tab). In my case, this would have made the 3DGame O a perfect replacement for my current desktop mouse and its program switch wheel.
The second is a much larger deal, particularly given the mouse’s emphasis on games and configuration schemes: several of the buttons on the mice are not reconfigurable. Like most modern computer mice, Sandio’s offering has “back” and “forward” buttons for use with a web browser; unfortunately, the 3D Mouse software does not allow the user to customize these. While most recent games support these two buttons, there are still a significant amount which do not, or do not allow their functions to be configured. Additionally, the middle mouse button and scroll wheel’s actions cannot be changed.
It seems strange the ability to change these buttons would be overlooked, particularly given how otherwise thorough the software feels — in addition to assigning keys to individual joystick directions, it allows keys to be executed when the two side joysticks are moved in opposite directions at the same time. While an interesting option, I never used this feature, due in large part to the difficulty I had in manipulating the right joystick.
The mouse is very light. Weight is a personal thing for using a mouse, but most people will find the 3DGame O lighter than they are used to. An option to partially compensate for this is provided in the form of a large base for the mouse to snap into. While thus docked, your wrist rests on the extended mouse while using it. I initially thought it was a very creative idea, and the combined mouse moves very smoothly, but I had to remove the base after a few minutes of playing around with it; my movements became very imprecise without the solid, unmoving surface of the table for my wrist to rest on.
The top joystick, left joystick, and thumb buttons are all very easy to access and well positioned. The top joystick’s position and feel is especially impressive, as the scroll wheel is still both accessible and easy to use. It did not feel tacked on our out of place at all.
While the right joystick fell naturally my ring finger, I didn’t have the dexterity to actually use it as a joystick. In games where an extra button came in handy (such as my MMORPG of choice), I assigned all of the directions on the left joystick to the same key combination and flicked it toward whenever I wanted to execute my macro. I may have gotten a lot more use out of it if I had been willing to get used to the extra movements, but it felt very unnatural to use my ring finger in such a manner.
My experiences with the 3DGame O varied greatly depending on what game I was trying to use it with. My best gaming experience with the 3D mouse was playing the MMORPG Final Fantasy XI; due to its console heritage, the game normally has notoriously bad controls. Playing it using the 3D Game O was the first time I’ve felt the controls made sense and worked. In other games, such as Civilization 4, the only real use the special features of the mouse had involved panning the map.
While I have no intention of ever using a normal mouse to play FFXI again, I rely too much on the document switch features of my logitech mouse to use the 3DGame O as my mouse for non-gaming applications on my computer. In addition, the software requires manually switching do different game presets in order to change the mouse’s control layout; the software for changing between control schemes adds itself to the notification area, but does not automatically detect which application is active. While it is easy for an adult or teenager to change preset layouts or to create their own, it may be too difficult for children. If Sandio could improve the software side of the mouse, it would be a much more useful and easy tool.
At the $80 pricetag Sandio is currently selling their star product at, it’s not a low-end investment, and the extra joysticks may not be as well positioned for other people as they were for me — particularly for children or those with smaller hands. The light weight of the mouse is also a factor to consider; I would recommend people try the mouse to see if it’s right for them before committing to an actual purchase.