Software & Testing
Software
As we mentioned earlier, the Avatar S comes with its own software that can be downloaded from NZXT’s website, and allows you to tweak the default settings to whatever you like. No software disk, or drive is included which contains the software.The software itself is simple, and pretty much straight forward.
We start off with the software’s home screen which pretty much showcases the bulk of the tweak options. To update the mouse software you simply need to click the NZXT link seen at the top left of the home page.
As you can see the available options aren’t scare. You can adjust DPI settings, which range from 400 to 1600, enable, or disable the Avatar S’s LED, set poling rates, create macro’s and scripts, change mouse wheel settings, and the one option that sets the Avatar S mouse apart from many other gaming mice is the ability to change the orientation of the mouse from right handed, to left handed. Yup you read correctly. The Avatar S is ambidextrous. We have read so many posts over the years about how left handed gamers have seemed to be left out in the cold when designing a gaming mouse, or gaming peripherals in general. It is highly refreshing to see a company specifically accommodate this too often overlooked demographic. One of the last features you will see in the home page is the ability to save up to five different profiles. The Avatar S comes loaded with 16kb of memory. In our opinion this is more then enough profile slots, and memory for the average gamer.
Moving on we check out the Sensitivity Section of the software. Here you can adjust the max overall sensitivity of the mouse as well as the pointer speed. 
Lastly here is the Advanced Settings Section. Here you can adjust the scroll, and pointer speed of the mouse.
Testing:
The specs of the Avatar S are as follows:
Max Speed 30 Inches/Second
Max Acceleration 20g
Resolution 400-1600 DPI
Buttons 5 Buttons
Onboard Memory 16Kb
We used the Avatar S in a number of situations which ranged from basic web browsing, typing, editing, and of course gaming. Overall we found that the Avatar S worked pretty damn well.
Whether playing FPS games, MMO’s, or even action adventure based games, writing up a review, or just scrolling down a long web page, the Avatar S performed great. Using the the scripts, and macro functions to program the buttons was a breeze, and worked well. Button response was equally good as we did not experience input lag. The mouse stayed nice, and steady on our desk thanks to the Teflon grip of the mouse which kept our aim in FPS games on point…well for the most part. FYI we suck at FPS games so any edge we can get to improve our aim, outside of using an aimbot of course, is welcomed. : )
We mentioned earlier that to some the design, and size of the Avatar S would take some getting use to. At first it felt a bit odd using a mouse this small (you could argue the CM Storm Xornet is smaller but honestly it is smaller length wise but thicker in width) outside of using it as a laptop mouse, but we did get use to it. There were times however that the small design got to us while in game, and we wanted to switch back to our regular gaming mouse, but we stuck with the Avatar S, and it turned out to be a pretty good experience. We did miss the grip that some other gaming mice have, but again with the Avatar S we did eventually adjust to the feel. However we could see some not wanting to adjust at all, and want a more non slip grip peripheral. Not to say that our fingers were gliding off the erratically but it would of been nice to have some better grip.
While we are on the subject of complaints, one main complaint we had with the Avatar S was the positioning of the side buttons. With the Avatar S being so slim it seemed as though our fingers were too close, and we had to scrunch to get a decent push on the right side button to execute the desired action when using the mouse in its default right handed orientation, or using the left side button while using the mouse in its left handed orientation setting. An example of this was when we used a script to assign the far right button to be our reload in the right handed orientation setting while playing Battlefield 3, and utilizing the left side button as our melee.
While chasing down noobs, and relieving them of their dog tags via the left side button was a breeze, we found ourselves being finger contortionists to make decent enough contact with the right side button to execute a reload. It basically took away a bit of our concentration from the match just to reach the button with our finger. That use of extra focus just to push a button could mean the difference in surviving a gun fight, or having to pick a respawn point. Although some would argue why not just switch to your sidearm which we would agree with but that really isn’t the point we are trying to make here. After a while we just deleted the script, and used the keyboard key to pop in our clips. Pretty much it seems as though you will lose the use of a side button in whatever hand orientation you chose just because of the awkwardness of reaching the button. Now this was true in our case, but more nibble users may be able to utilize both side buttons with no problem.
