YET ANOTHER Mouse Review
YET ANOTHER Mouse Review
XM2W on a cat deskmat
The Endgame Gear XM2W 4KHz is the long-awaited wireless successor to the venerable XM1/R. Coming in at 62 grams and sporting a PAW3395 sensor with Endgame Gear’s in-house firmware, it brings modern specs and new switches to the much-loved XM1 shape.
This mouse was tested on the latest firmware (1.06) with the following settings:
Endgame Gear is generally known for having excellent build quality on their mice, and that extends to my unit. There is no creaking, rattling, or flexing to be had with the shell of the XM2W.
I have seen reports that the frost variants of the XM2W have potential issues with creaking and overall build quality. I cannot confirm whether this is the case but it’s something to keep in mind.
Furthermore– and this is a rarity– the XM2W base is more or less completely flat. You should have no problem using this mouse on a glass mousepad.
Build Quality Rating: 10/10
The XM2W’s main switches are developed in collaboration with Kailh and are called Kailh GX switches. These switches are novel in that they are SPDT switches– not only are they capable of detecting actuation faster than typical mechanical/optical switches, but by nature they should also effectively eliminate any possibility of double clicking.
In practice, these switches are great. They are firm with excellent tactility. They are quite loud.
The scroll wheel click is tactile, and does not require excessive force to actuate. Unfortunately, it has a slight amount of inconsistent pretravel depending on the wheel position (a common issue due to scroll wheels not always having straight stems) and consequently can be more difficult to press at times.
The side buttons are excellent, with a good size and crisp actuation point. The same can be said for the scroll wheel, which is tactile with well defined steps.
Button Quality Rating: 7/10
The XM2W ships with one set of smaller mouse feet installed, and another set of larger feet in the box.
Unfortunately, neither are of exceptional quality. Glide is quite fast, but not particularly smooth (at least on certain mousepads like the Neptune Pro or Venus Pro), and the mouse feet suffer from excessive x/y deviation. This deviation should eventually go away with significant use, but at brief inspection these stock skates are harder than most high quality aftermarket offerings, which means that you will be dealing with x/y deviation for quite a while if you decide to stick with the stock mouse feet.
Overall, these are serviceable mouse feet, but I recommend finding aftermarket options.
Mouse Feet Rating: 5/10
On release, the XM1/R set the benchmark for gaming mouse coatings. Even though half a decade has passed since, it remains a benchmark for top-tier mouse coatings. It’s great that this coating remains unchanged with the XM2W.
Compared to my Vaxee XE-S which has the colored, non-soft-touch coating, it is slightly grippier when dry and significantly grippier when your hands are sweaty.
Which is to say that it remains one of the grippiest mice on the market in all conditions.
One point of concern is wear on the coating of white mice. My white XM1R showed some minor signs of wear and discoloration over time. Assuming that the coating composition here remains unchanged, this may also be a potential issue. Oh– and hand gunk likes to collect in the grooves on the right and left sides of the shell, which looks gross on the white model but is easily cleaned up with a wet wipe (do NOT use alcohol wipes on gaming mice!).
Coating rating: 9/10
Shown below are Interval vs. Time graphs (a graph of the amount of time elapsed between each piece of sensor data received) and XSum vs. Time graphs (a graph of the cumulative number of x-direction sensor counts received, which allows for measuring sensor latency against another test subject– in this case, a Pulsefire Haste 2), taken using Mousetester 1.4 and MouseComparator.
Note that these plots are a little noiser than they will be in future reviews, as I did not set core priorities/affinities when taking these measurements.
| Interval vs. Time (1KHz) | Motion Latency vs Pulsefire Haste 2 (Blue) |
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| Interval vs. Time (2KHz) | Motion Latency vs Pulsefire Haste 2 (Blue) |
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| Interval vs. Time (4KHz) | Motion Latency vs Pulsefire Haste 2 (Blue) |
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The XM2W 4K is capable of three polling rates: 1000Hz, 2000Hz, and 4000Hz. Save for bursts of variance in polling, polling is stable at all polling rates.
Interestingly, there is no significant difference in sensor latency across all polling rates. Sensor latency in and of itself is stellar– matching the Pulsefire Haste 2– making it the fastest wireless mouse I have ever tested.
When it comes to click latency, the XM2W performs just as flawlessly. In bump testing vs the Pulsefire Haste 2, the XM2W had approximately 3.5-4ms less click latency without the SPDT modes enabled. With GX speed mode, click latency is reduced further, but is not recommended to be used due to the risk of accidental clicks. This is a phenomenal result, though you will almost certainly not notice a difference if you already have a modern gaming mouse.
As a side note– the XM2W has noticeable positive DPI deviation. 800 dpi feels closer to 900/1000. This is not a problem, but it’s something worth noting.
Sensor Performance and Click Latency Rating: 9/10
The XM2W is a medium-size symmetrical mouse designed for claw grip. It has a relatively large rear hump and a flared out rear.
XM2W (blue) vs G Pro X Superlight 2 (green), bottom view. Credit: RTings’ 3D Shape Compare Utility
The defining– and polarizing– characteristic of this shape is the aggressively slanted sides and the aggressive rear hump. This makes gripping the mouse more secure at the cost of grip freedom, as the slanted sides and short-ish length force your hand into an aggressive claw grip.
But as someone with an aggressive claw grip, is the XM2W endgame (pun intended)?
Unfortunately not.
The XM shape suffers from a too-wide front with a front flare that feels more aggressive than it really is due to the slanted sides. I actually do like the slanted sides– which is why I also like the Lamzu Mini shape a lot– but the front flare kills this mouse for me. I find it to feel inconsistent and uncomfortable to grip after a while, and this is because my ring finger cannot find the same degree of purchase that it can on other mice that have flat sides or are deliberately designed to allow you to wrap your ring finger around the front (eg. GPX). I’d also argue that the XM2W is missing a couple of creature comforts we’ve come to see in more modern shapes, like finger grooves in the main buttons.
It might sound to you, dear reader, that I absolutely loathe this mouse shape– and that couldn’t be further from the truth. The XM1 is still fundamentally sound. The slanted sides are wonderful, and the rear hump provides excellent palm contact and support. In 2019, it was truly an endgame shape.
But we’re 6 years from the original XM1’s release date, and in those 6 years we have an absolute smorgasbord of mouse shapes to choose from– many of which are iterations of and arguably improvements over the original XM1 shape.
Shape Rating: 6/10
A little about me: I am currently Unreal 6k in Fornite ZB (not like that matters). My performance in this game informs the following section.
I’m going to rip the band-aid off: I don’t like the XM2W for Fortnite.
As cringe as it sounds, lighter mice are truly better in games like Fortnite, where tracking and landing hits on moving targets is important. Obviously, the XM2W is by no means heavy at 62g– but when compared to my lighter mice– it is much less pleasant to use. I also find the shape also throws me off slightly when aiming in the y-axis. But this is more of a problem that I will address in the next section.
Ultimately, you can do much worse than the XM2W. But I also think that you can certainly do better.
Fortnite Aim Performance Rating: 3/10
A little about me: I am currently Ascendant 3 in Valorant. My performance in this game informs the following section.
The XM1 was a fairly revolutionary mouse, being tailored specifically for claw grip. When I first tried it, I revelled at the fact that it– compared to other mice at the time– “fit like a glove”.
But I believe that this one quality is also its undoing in Valorant.
In TacFPS like Valorant, where gunfights last for fractions of a second and flicking is paramount, aiming in most cases is a knee-jerk reaction to seeing your enemy unlike the kind of “focused” aim you engage in when you play an aim trainer. This knee-jerk reaction is accompanied by the tensing of your arm and wrist muscles, as you race to tap your opponent’s head first.
I found that in game, if I whiffed with the XM2W, I whiffed horribly. I attribute this to the fact that the XM2W shape exacerbates the negative effects associated with tensing your arms/wrist when in a gunfight. Because it forces your fingers to curl aggressively inwards, the XM2W ends up locking your aim further when you’re aiming in a tense situation. This is in a large part due to the wide front and front flares– about which I bellyached plenty in the shape section of this review.
But on the other hand, I’ve hit some of the nastiest shots I’ve ever hit on this mouse.
Valorant Aim Performance Rating: 6/10
Software for the XM2W 4K can be obtained from the Endgame Gear Website here.
It is an extremely lightweight application that is similar in functionality to softwares such as Logitech OMM (Onboard Memory Manager), where you toggle your desired settings and close the application when you’re done– there’s nothing here to run in the background and suck up CPU cycles.
As such, I personally think that this software– as ugly as it is– is the absolute gold standard for mouse configuration software. Although one might argue that a web app would be even better, in the event that the mouse company providing said web app goes defunct, you would be completely DOA. Not so with light executables such as that provided by EGG.
Software Rating: 9/10
The XM2W 4K is, in my opinion, one of the better mice you can purchase in 2025. Aside from its mediocre stock skates and minor nitpicks in build quality, it nails practically every tangible you could desire on a modern gaming mouse, while also having stellar sensor performance.The shape is, in my opinion, a little outdated, but it is still more than serviceable. The weight is also quite competitive for a TacFPS gaming mouse.
At $130 on Amazon US, it’s an easy recommendation if you’ve used and liked the XM1 in the past. I wouldn’t call it a value champion at that price, but at the same time– $130 for a high-quality and well built gaming mouse is nothing to scoff at.
Read about how I rate things here.
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