Sandberg Wireless Sniper Mouse 2 Review

I wasn’t convinced that I liked this gaming peripheral at first, here’s my Sandberg Wireless Sniper Mouse 2 review with all of my thoughts on it. Because I wasn’t completely convinced It’s took me a little bit longer to write this review than usual. I wanted to give it a good chance to change my mind.

I’ll try to keep the intro spoiler free so I won’t go into to many details here, you’ll have to read my full take on this mouse below.

Sandberg aren’t as well known as they should be in all honesty. They sell a wide variety of things from gaming chairs to portable power stations, they make it all. There’s one particular trend in everything I’ve reviewed from Sandberg so far and that’s the build quality. It all seems to be extremely well made which means I’m hoping the mouse I’m reviewing today will be too.

As the name suggests the mouse I’m checking out is second generation, I’m expecting a few design tweaks and overall performance improvements over the first gen. Enough with the intro then, let’s check it out and get into the full review. And, as usual I’ll start with my first impressions.

Sandberg Wireless Sniper Mouse 2 Review

What stuck out like a sore thumb from the very moment I glanced at the packaging was that it’s completely recyclable. From the label, the plastic shipping information pouch, the external shipping box, the tape it was stuck down with. Everything! I was really impressed right away.

I’ve said it loads of times on the blog now, plastic single use packaging is a real problem and it’s a measure I use in all of my reviews. The complete lack of any single use plastic in the Sandberg Sniper Mouse 2 is completely refreshing. If Sandberg can remove the problem packaging other companies can too.

I opened up the shipping box and was greeted with an awesome looking Sandberg branded product box. The different colour gradients of blue and purple with the lightning strike look superb and really elevates the look and feel of the entire offering. It looks like a genuine premium product and I can’t wait to check it’s performance.

Next up, let’s boot up the PC and play some games to test out the performance. I’ll also use it for a few days as my daily mouse for work purposes, office tasks etc.

The Helicopter Game is a great test of the Wireless Mouse 2

Sandberg Wireless Sniper Mouse 2 Performance

My first dilemma here was deciding what to play? Firstly I started off with an in-browser game called ‘The Helicopter Game’. It’s a good test of your reactions aswell as the Sniper Mouse 2’s button switches. Basically you have to dodge obstacles by clicking and holding the mouse to fly the helicopter. Back when I was at school it was a game that we all played whilst we were supposed to be in our I.T class!

I managed a fairly rubbish score of 896, which if this was 20 years ago at school, I’d have been ripped to shreds by my mates for that! It might just be me being rubbish at games, which is a possibility or it could be the fact that the Huano switches Sandberg have used in this mouse require quite a robust button press to actuate.

I have checked out a mouse that’s used Huano switches recently, check out the Genesis Krypton 550 review.

Huano switches have a reputation for being a bit stiff (at least in my experience anyway) and that certainly felt like it was the case in the 30 minutes I was playing The Helicopter Game for. Because this game requires lots of button clicks in very short time intervals my finger tired quickly.

Don’t get me wrong, the Huano switches feel robust and give a fantastic amount of tactile feedback, but I didn’t really enjoy playing The Helicopter Game with the Sandberg Wireless Sniper 2 Mouse. The switches are far too stiff for games like this and DOTA 2 type games aswell.

I wanted to give it a try on something that still needed a mouse but not as much as above. So, I loaded up the only FIFA game I have available, FIFA 19. I’m really glad I gave it a chance to redeem itself. Whilst I wouldn’t describe the Sandberg Wireless Sniper Mouse 2 as being a gaming thoroughbred after a few games of FIFA I didn’t have any tired or achy fingers, it was a pleasure to use.

After playing FIFA for around an hour I came to a few conclusions. The first is that I found the mouse is really comfortable in terms of wrist support and the second, it’s super responsive, even with a lower DPI setting.

So, after a somewhat shaky start and glossing over the achy fingers of The Helicopter Game, I started warming to this mouse. It’s not a general all round gaming mouse that I’d use for my everyday gaming needs, but it does have it’s use cases. In particular, it’s not expensive by any stretch of the imagination so it’d be a perfect mouse for the budget conscious.

Day To Day PC Use

This is something this mouse really excelled at. I’m at my computer for over 8 hours a day doing my day job. I’m a software engineer by trade and I split my time between writing code and updating collaboration boards and I use my mouse, I use it a hell of a lot!

Working with applications such as visual studio, visual studio code and Excel, the mouse performed as you’d expect it to. The stiff button clicks didn’t cause any problems here and the scroll wheel was receptive and super useful for scrolling through hundreds of lines of code.

It may not be on my shortlist of go-to gaming mice, but it’s definitely a contender for an all rounder as it it just works and works well.

Now let’s move on and take a look at the build quality.

Wireless Sniper Mouse 2 Review Top Down View

Build Quality & Battery Life

The built in lithium-polymer battery puts out 400mAh at 3.7v and is recharged using the included 1.5 meter cable. I’m not really impressed with the battery life and that did disappoint me. I have a simple budget bluetooth mouse that’s powered by a single AA battery and that lasts months; the Sandberg Sniper 2 barely lasts 2 days which is rather upsetting.

To extend the battery life I could switch it off but if I’m leaving the office because I’m late for a meeting, I often forget. It should ideally come with a sort of ‘sleep’ function where it goes into standby mode if not used in a few minutes. Other mice at this price point have a sleep function, so why not this one? I imagine it’s a cost saving.

You can leave it plugged in permanently, but I wouldn’t recommend it. This is partly due to the cable being so stiff because of the braiding. This doesn’t sound like a problem, but an issue does arise when you’ve not got much room at the back of the mouse and the cable get’s caught on things (like the monitor stand etc). Because it’s so stiff it can restrict your movement which then causes you to miss the target when gaming.

So that’s the bad bits out of the way. Now for the good.

I really like the actual build quality. It’s built like a tank, it really is. It feels very robust and I imagine it’d stand up to a lot of punishment. To test that I didn’t think my usual ‘scratch test‘ would suffice, so I did what any sane reviewer would do, I dropped it down my stairs onto the tiled floor below. It survived without as much as a little scratch to the black plastic body. Sandberg products do tend to be extremely well built and the Sniper 2 is no different.

On the bottom of the mouse are the feet which help it glide along your mouse matt. In fact, because the feet are so smooth and offer so little in the way of friction I’m not even using one. The mouse glides along my desk with ease.

At the front of the mouse is where you’ll find the USB-C charging port. I’m pleased they’ve gone with the latest USB standard which will help future proof it. It’ll also help if the cable breaks, I’ve got plenty of USB-C cables to hand and I’m sure most people have too.

I’m a fan of the understated styling of this mouse, it looks great in my opinion. The RGB lighting is also good looking, whilst not exactly subtle it’s not too in your face either. Sandberg haven’t just vomited a load of RGB onto the mouse like some other companies do.

Sandberg Wireless Sniper Mouse 2 Review

How Much & Where To Buy

You can buy it from the Sandberg website and it’ll cost you around £30. Hit the link here and you’ll be able to go right to the Sandberg store to buy it.

Summary & Verdict

Overall, I have mixed feelings about this mouse. It certainly isn’t the best mouse I’ve ever reviewed. It does have it’s flaws but then again, it’s well built, looks good and is fairly reasonably priced at £30.00. There’s also the plastic free x factor which I really really liked. If it wasn;t for that, I’d have scored it a 6.

I’ve reviewed other Sandberg products and you can check those out by clicking here.

SCORE: 7/10

I just can’t rate it any more than a 7/10 because of the battery life, stiff switches and super stiff cable.