Introduction
Pulsar has quietly worked itself up as a sleeper brand in the pro scene. Their products see some good usage across various games, with the Xlite line of mice being their most popular one. Naturally, this meant that it was high time for us to take a look at their newest iteration. In our full Pulsar Xlite V4 eS review, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about the mouse.
For full transparency: in this review, we talk about sensor performance issues. We reached out to Pulsar about this. They responded initially, stating that such issues should not occur and that they had not been reported by other testers. We received no further communication after our follow-up inquiry. As such, we are publishing this review based on our findings. Should any additional information or updates become available, we will amend the review accordingly.
At A Glance
Pulsar Xlite V4 Es
Used by 4 players ()
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electronic
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Kaze
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dgt
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Graviti
The Xlite V4 eS sadly falls short of expectations.
Pros
- Great main clicks
- Great side buttons
- Good build quality
- Good scroll wheel
Cons
- Sensor performs inconsistently, which is a big deal for an esports mouse
- I had some accidental scrolls even when not touching the scroll wheel
- Coating is a fingerprint magnet
Specs
| Sensor | XS-1 Sensor |
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| Polling Rate | 500 / 1000 / 2000 / 4000 / 8000 Hz |
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| Button Switches | Optical Switches |
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| Button Force | 86g |
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| Connection | Wireless |
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| Shape | Ergonomic |
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| Length | 12.2cm |
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| Height | 4.3cm |
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| Weight | 65g |
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| Width | 6.6cm |
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First Impressions
Packaging
Inside the box of the Pulsar Xlite V4 eS, you will find:
- The mouse
- User documentation
- Pulsar sticker
- USB-C to USB-A charging cable
- Pulsar 8KHz receiver dongle
That’s of course everything you need, but since this is an esports-branded mouse I would’ve loved to see a set of replacement mouse feet included in the packaging.
The Mouse
If you’re considering this mouse, you should know that Pulsar usually puts out two versions of their mice. There’s the eS (eSports) version that I’m reviewing here, and there’s the regular version. The eS version is focused towards esports players, and comes with an 8K dongle. Additionally, it is also driverless and has an aluminum scroll wheel. Due to this, the eS version is a bit heavier than the regular version, which is kind of curious to me since most companies focus on reducing the weight for their esports-focused mice.
At first sight, the V4 eS is basically a regular ZOWIE EC clone. There are some unique features here, though. There’s the aluminum scroll wheel, for starters. And at the bottom, Pulsar have placed an OLED screen. This might seem like a gimmick, but I actually kind of like its inclusion. I’ll speak more about the scroll wheel and the OLED screen further down in the review.
Differences between the V3 eS and V4 eS
The Xlite V3 eS released less than a year before the V4 eS was announced. As such, the differences are quite small.
The shape is the exact same and functionality-wise, not much has changed either. This V4 can go up to 8000Hz and has their own XS-1 sensor (more on that later) but that’s it according to Pulsar themselves. Thus, if you have a V3 eS that you are still perfectly happy with, you can just stay on that one unless you really need 8KHz polling.
Shape, Coating, and Mouse Feet
For reference: I use a regular claw grip and my hands are 18×10.5 cm.
Shape
The Pulsar Xlite is a clone of the ZOWIE EC in pretty much every way. I will do a more in-depth comparison in the ‘alternatives’ section, but in short: it is ever so slightly larger than an EC2 and, as such, falls somewhat in between the EC2 and EC1 when it comes to the feeling.
What this means is that you’re getting a supremely comfortable ergonomic shape that allows for a large variety of hand sizes and grip styles. The design flows naturally and there aren’t any sudden curves or bumps to be found. The subtle curve on the left side allows your thumb to ‘dig in’ slightly, whereas the concave curve on the other side helps with ring finger placement.
Rather pronounced comfort grooves accentuate the formed feeling that you get with this mouse while the gradual, centrally focused hump ensures that the design remains comfortable for a variety of grip styles.
This shape is based on one of the most copied shapes in the mouse scene, and there’s a good reason that it’s so often copied. It’s supremely comfortable, and while it may not be the best shape for dexterity or high-sens aimers, I highly doubt that anyone will find this mouse outright uncomfortable.
Coating
The coating that Pulsar have used on the Xlite V4 eS performs well under pretty much all circumstances. However, when it comes to keeping it clean, it’s one of the most difficult coatings I’ve experienced in recent times.
Fingerprints show up on the mouse extremely quickly, and I found myself wiping it down quite often during my testing period. Granted, I get sweaty hands quite quickly when gaming, but this is definitely an area where they can make some improvements.
Feeling-wise, it’s okay. The coating is quite smooth and I personally prefer more texturized coatings in general, but I can’t say that I had any real problems with the Xlite V4 eS. It is a smudge magnet, definitely, but this is merely cosmetic. When gaming, it doesn’t start feeling nasty/dirty any quicker than most other mice, so that’s nice.
Mouse Feet
The mouse feet on the Pulsar Xlite V4 eS are smooth and require no break-in, but they do feel quite unique to me when using them. I don’t know if it’s something to do with my unit, but the feet felt almost like there was a slight magnetic attraction between them and the pad at times. I tested this on multiple different pads, and had the same experience on all of them.
For me, this is great. I don’t like very slick glides, so this slight bit of extra control that I got from the skates was really enjoyable. If you want a frictionless glide, however, you may want to look out for replacement skates.
Recommended Grip Types
The Pulsar Xlite V4 eS can be used by pretty much all grip types. Fingertip grippers should generally steer clear of an ergonomic mouse like this one, but all other grips should feel very natural with this shape. Do note that the palm support is quite limited due to the shape, so if you’ve got larger hands and like a lot of palm contact, you may want to look towards the Xlite V4 eS Large. There’s also an Xlite V4 eS Mini.
The buttons on the Xlite V4 eS utilize pre-sorted optical switches, and these feel okay, though they’re not the crispest feeling switches when clicking. Purely judging by feeling, I haven’t personally encountered optical switches that beat good mechanical switches, but the differences these days are quite small. Unless you’re someone who is really particular about their switches, you won’t have any problems with these.
More importantly, the buttons have also been implemented well. Both pre- and post travel is limited to well within acceptable margins, and there’s no side travel to speak of. For me, these are great.
When it comes to the required pressure, they’re on the firmer side. They are in line with ZOWIE’s Huano switches, which is something that I like. Personally, I am all for heavier switches, but if you want a hair-trigger type of switch, you should probably steer clear.
The aluminum alloy scroll wheel, to me, does not feel very different from a regular scroll wheel. According to Pulsar, it ‘ensures precision and longevity,’ but obviously I can’t test for the longevity of a wheel so I’ll have to take their word for it.
I can obviously test for precision and reliability, and that’s -mostly- great. I had no accidental scrolls, and the wheel performs consistently.
In terms of its feel, it’s a wheel with medium-rigidity steps that doesn’t make too much noise. The wheel itself isn’t rubberized, but due to the thick grooves it feels grippy under all circumstances.
Finally, the click tensioning is also spot on. It’s easy enough to click when gaming, but not so loose that it invites accidental clicks when you’re trying to scroll.
In a vacuum, the scroll wheel feels great, but I did have a couple of instances where I accidentally scrolled in-game while I was nowhere near the wheel with my fingers. Since I use my mouse wheel to jump, that lead to some rather embarrassing deaths. These jumps occurred immediately after swiping while I was using my regular keyboard (which is to say that I highly doubt that I accidentally pressed the space bar) so I am inclined to say that there’s an issue with the mouse here.
The side buttons on the Pulsar Xlite V4 eS feel great. There’s no undue pre- or post travel, and the buttons feel consistent no matter where you press them. Furthermore, they actuate with a nicely tactile sensation.
Absolutely no complaints here.
Build Quality
Pulsar specifically highlights the structural integrity of the V4 eS in their marketing materials, and they have every reason to. My unit feels extremely solid, and there are no parts of the shell that feel weak or creaky.
Furthermore, tapping or shaking the mouse does not reveal any undue noise.
As far as the build quality is concerned, the Xlite V4 eS absolutely delivers. Perhaps that’s to be expected of a mouse that weighs 65 grams (which isn’t very light in today’s market) but it’s good to see that the brand delivers on what was promised.
Sensor
Inside the Xlite V4 eS, Pulsar has placed their XS-1 sensor. This is, by all accounts, a slightly revamped version of the famous 3950 sensor. That is today’s benchmark sensor, and its major benefit over older sensors is that it can go all the way up to 8000Hz in wireless mode. Is that worth the upgrade if you’ve got an Xlite V3 eS lying around? That’s for you to decide, but do note that the performance difference between 4000Hz and 8000Hz is going to be extremely small.
Sadly, the performance of the sensor on my unit isn’t up to par. When gaming, there were moments where the sensor randomly stopped responding for a second or so. This was rather rare, but it did happen a couple of times over the course of my testing period. I made sure to blow on the sensor to confirm that there wasn’t any dirt stuck in there, but that didn’t fix it. The issue didn’t occur frequently enough for me to verify it in MouseTester, but it’s safe to say that the sensor on my unit doesn’t function flawlessly. Oddly enough, these issues occurred far less frequently after I (accidentally) let the battery drain completely and then went back to the default settings for the mouse. I’m not sure if that’s a coincidence or not, but it’s definitely strange.
Another thing that I found odd is that the mouse goes into sleep mode quite quickly. After 30 seconds, to be precise. Moving your mouse even a bit is enough to wake it up, but clicking obviously isn’t. I didn’t run into any gameplay issues due to this (even if you’re holding an angle for 30+ seconds, you are always moving your mouse a little bit) but I would like to see this time period be extended just to be safe. As far as I can tell, there’s also no way to manually adjust this.
If you decide to get this mouse, I’d make sure that there’s a robust return policy in place.
Configuring The Mouse
Pulsar’s eS mice are driverless, and have to be configured with on-board controls. I love this driverless aspect, and Pulsar has laid everything out very logically here. I also like the fact that you can set custom DPI levels here, which is something that not a lot of driverless mice offer.
This granularity is possible thanks to the OLED screen. Whereas other driverless mice have to resort to LED combinations or pulses to let you know what they’re set to (meaning that they have to limit the amount of options), the eS V4 can simply display all of that on the OLED screen. Because of this, I don’t find the screen to be a gimmick at all. In fact, I find it to be a very elegant solution.
Now that we’ve arrived in a peripheral era where there are more and more options for consumers to configure their product, I think OLED screens can be a nifty way to display information without having to resort to drivers.
Another big boon of an OLED screen is that it can accurately display the battery level, which is another factor that is becoming more important in this high polling rate times. With the screen, you don’t have to guesstimate what level your battery is at based on some broad indicators; you can see the exact battery percentage.
Battery Life
Pulsar says that the Xlite V4 eS has a battery life of 70-1000 hours. That’s obviously at 1000Hz, but I do the majority of my testing at 4000Hz and did not have an issue with the battery life of the mouse. I don’t have a way to accurately test it the battery life to the hour, but from my experience I would say that it’s in line with what other 8000Hz products offer. I did not have any instances where I felt like the battery depleted unusually quickly.
Alternatives
Since the Pulsar Xlite line is based on the ZOWIE EC, there are a ton of alternatives to consider. The EC line is one of the most copied mouse shapes of all time, after all.
Pulsar Xlite V4 eS vs ZOWIE EC2
Compared to the ZOWIE EC2, the Xlite V4 eS is little bit larger. In terms of size, it falls somewhere in between the EC1 and the EC2.
The shape very closely resembles that of the EC, but the Pulsar has noticeably sharper edges. Near the bottom, for example, the ZOWIE EC is very rounded, whereas this edge feels pointier on the Pulsar.
In terms of specs, the Pulsar Xlite V4 eS is more or less on par with the ZOWIE EC2-DW. On paper, that is. The Pulsar has some sensor issues, which aren’t present on the ZOWIE EC-DW line.
Pulsar Xlite V4 eS vs Pulsar Xlite V3 eS
Aside from the sensor, there are no major changes between the two mice.
Pulsar Xlite V4 eS vs Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro
The Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro is another larger ergonomic esports mouse, but that is where the similarities end for me. In terms of shape, the DeathAdder quite simply feels a lot larger in the hand. It is also less curved and formed, making it feel more neutral to hold.
In terms of performance, both mice are incredibly similar. Based on what I can judge, the DeathAdder V3 Pro takes the cake though, as Razer’s mouse performs absolutely flawlessly.
Read our Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro review
Pulsar Xlite V4 eS vs Lamzu Thorn
In terms of shape, the Lamzu Thorn feels flatter towards the front and curvier towards the back. It also has a more backward-oriented hump that’s more sudden. All of this makes it so that the Thorn feels very different in the hand than the Xlite V4 eS.
In terms of performance, the Pulsar has better specs on paper. However, the Lamzu did not show any sensor issues during my testing, whereas the Pulsar did.
Read our Fnatic x Lamzu Thorn review
Conclusion
The Pulsar Xlite V4 eS has everything to be a fantastic gaming mouse. It has a great shape (based on the ZOWIE EC), fantastic build quality, and a best-in-class set of clicks. I also really like the innovations that they’ve added to this tried-and-true design such as the OLED screen.
However, all of that it outdone by the fact that the sensor (Pulsar’s XS-1 sensor) does not perform flawlessly on my copy. I also experienced multiple instances where my game registered a scroll, even when I wasn’t even near the wheel itself when it happened.
The scroll wheel issue could be ignored if you’re someone who doesn’t use it when gaming, but given how important the sensor is to gaming mice (especially those tailored towards competitive players) I cannot recommend this mouse as it is. Sure, the issues were not common and did not drastically interfere with my gameplay, but ‘flawless’ is the standard in today’s day and age, and the Xlite V4 eS sadly falls short of expectations.
If these issues were just theoretical issues (some minor sensor flaws when ‘lab testing’, for example) that weren’t noticeable when gaming I would’ve been more tolerant towards them. But if you’re a competitive gamer, you really don’t want your mouse to suddenly stop tracking or your wheel to actuate at random. If Pulsar polishes these issues for their next iteration, they’ve got a winner on their hands, but right now you should probably skip this. The mouse sadly falls short of expectations.
This product was received for free from the manufacturer and given to our reviewer to test and review. Brands and manufacturers have no editorial control over our reviews. For more information, check out our review FAQ.
Former semi-pro gamer turned writer, product reviewer, and community manager.
