First impressions of the Sentinel are that it looks fairly long. It follows a similar style to the ever popular MX-518, but oozes much more style and finesse. It’s quite refreshing to see a full sized mouse on our shelves, the trend recently seems to be to minimize and create products that are smaller with less.



The left side of the mouse, showing the two side buttons

Looking down the Sentinel Advance

The Sentinel Advance gives us eight programmable buttons, two along the left side – typically used for navigating forwards and back during web browsing, standard left and right buttons, two buttons next to an LCD screen to control the sensitivity, a button to manage the colour scheme of the Sentinel Advance and finally the scroll wheel. All buttons feel like they are in suitable places and are nice to use. Aesthetically the Sentinel Advance looks and feels great, it fits into the palm like a glove. It’s nice to see that there has been extra special care taken to deliver a mouse with many intricate levels of texture such as the mesh grill on the top, and the matt rubberized grips at either side for clasping.


The right side of the Sentinel Advance, showing the CM Storm emblem

The crux of the Sentinel Advance is the dual laser sensors. This actually means we can control both the X and Y axis – perfect for gamers who take advantage of high resolution wide screen monitors. The dual laser setup inside the Sentinel Advance also means a huge 5600DPI is available. Via the two buttons next to the LCD there are four preset DPI profiles: 1100, 2600, 3800, 5600. But you can customize these presets with the software bundled.


A very smooth character

On the underside of the Sentinel Advance CM have decided to integrate a weighting system. For a mouse of such a high calibre this is a great move. We are all different and have different needs. Some prefer a light mouse, whilst others prefer their mouse to be weighty and fasten to the surface. Inside this small tray holding give 4.5g weights.


The underside of the mouse, large pressure pads and laser sensor


The weight system, customize the heaviness of that machine!

There is protective sleeve on the cable cord for the Sentinel Advance, this gives some additional defence against cutting the cable or crushing it. The USB lead has a nice gold plated finish to it.

In the next section we will take a look at the bundled software as well as checking out the customizable lighting system that features the ability to actually display images/logos inside the OLED screen.