In typical SteelSeries fashion the mouse comes in a colourful box, the front is clear giving you a glimpse of what's inside. There are the features and specification details on both the front and back.

Inside the package we have just two items, an instructions manual/quick guide and the Kinzu itself. There is slightly less packaging than usual, due to the simplistic design and the fact the Kinzu is significantly smaller than the standard gaming mouse.



So with the Kinzu out of the box, we can take a closer look. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, the Kinzu won't strike you as being particularly exciting visually. It looks like any other mouse. But when you handle the Kinzu, this is where things change. It has a really nice texture covering the top, SteelSeries don't actually specify what has been used but the surface looks to have a matte finish but its actually smooth. The sides are similar but offer a little bit more friction to reduce sliding.





If you have been over to the SteelSeries website you will notice the Xai, which is actually very similar to the Kinzu except it offers more customization (and laser rather than optical) in the same shell. There are also more buttons on the Xai (James will be reviewing this soon). There are only 3 buttons present on the Kinzu, you will notice there are no side buttons present which may frustrate some if they are using the Kinzu for more than just gaming.





On the underside of the Kinzu, there is the glide pads and the imprint of the SteelSeries logo. The optical sensor is said to react in less than 1ms, and offers some interesting statistical performance with regards to polling rates. It will be interesting to see how this translates when in real use a little later on.

Lastly the USB cable for the Kinzu is corded for extra protection, something we see on most gaming mice nowadays - a nice idea nonetheless.