The Tesoro Saggita Spectrum gaming mouse offers a good balance of features, comfort, and good design for a relatively budget-friendly price. Although Tesoro’s Gram Spectrum keyboard was a bit of a disappointment, the Saggita gaming mouse shows that Tesoro definitely has the chops to hang with some of the bigger dogs. There’s still room for improvement though.
The Tesoro Saggita Spectrum is a mid-tier gaming mouse that provides the “essentials” of a gaming mouse—which basically boils down to a good sensor, a few extra programmable buttons, and a comfortable grip/design. The Tesoro gets most (but not quite all) of the formula right, and its few foibles are fairly forgivable given its budget-friendly $60 price tag.
Feature highlights and specifications
The Tesoro Saggita Spectrum doesn’t do anything unique to separate it from its competition; as a matter of fact it’s very similar in form and design to Razer’s Mamba line of mice.
The Saggita does have an onboard 32-bit ARM Cortex processor, but in practical terms onboard processors serve little function in mice and keyboards aside from making a good bullet point on a box. (Theoretically speaking, they are supposed to offset processing from the CPU and the software drivers.)
Otherwise, the general specifications for the Saggita Spectrum are pretty comparable to competitors in its price range. While it may not boast DPI settings north of 10000 DPI (as is popular in many competing mice these days), I’ve never found much use for DPI settings over 3200 DPI for any game, even on a 34″ 3440×1440 screen. The Sagita Spectrum tops out at a perfectly fine (and still very sensitive) 5000 DPI.
Tesoro Saggita Spectrum Gaming mouse specifications
- Infrared Sensor
- 6 Fully Programmable Buttons
- 32bit ARM Cortex Premium Processor
- 512Kb onboard memory
- 4 DPI settings with max DPI of 5000 DPI
- 8 Million RGB Color Lighting for the scroll wheel and logo
- Adjustable Polling Rate up to 1000 Hz
- Omron switches rated at 10 million clicks
- Braided cable with gold-plated USB connector
Ergonomics and Design
The Saggita Spectrum’s general shape and design are very similar (in a good way) to the Razer Mamba. There are just 2 large thumb buttons, and a single button behind the scroll wheel.
The top of the mouse is covered in comfortable soft touch rubber, but the side panels are (unfortunately) made from shiny, glossy black plastic—the bane of gaming mice (in my opinion). Glossy, shiny black plastic may look gorgeous, but it feels terrible after less than hour of use, becoming vaguely tacky/greasy to the touch. It’s also a smudge magnet.
I can forgive being a smudge magnet, but not when it directly impacts comfort.
Performance Evaluation
The Saggita—like nearly all gaming mice—performs its essential duties well. I love the firm, tactile clicking of the omron switches behind its buttons. It’s a noisy, satisfyingly ‘clicky’ mouse to use. (I like noisy, clicky, tactile products, as evidenced by my love for Razer Blackwidow keyboards). The soft-touch rubber backside and the overall shape of the Saggita makes it a comfortable fit for my hand.
But the Saggita’s glossy plastic sides mar its overall comfort. Even if you love the Saggita Spectrum’s sexy ‘new sports car’ look, your appreciation may fade when the glossy plastic gets that sticky feel to it. Soft touch/textured rubber would have been a wiser construction material here.
But it’s worth noting that Tesoro is hardly alone in its choice of shiny plastic in gaming mice (the Cougar 450M is covered in it, for example.)
According to one of my sources at a major peripheral manufacturer (I forget which), shiny plastic is more popular (aesthetically speaking) in Asian countries, and hence tends to sell better in those countries. Hence there is definitely a market for gaming peripherals with glossy, shiny finishes, despite the fact that it’s less functional than soft touch or textured rubber material.
Tesoro’s Saggita Spectrum software is notably more intuitive and easy to use than the software for Tesoro’s keyboards, although it’s still not quite as robust as competitor products (e.g. Logitech, Razer, and others). Tesoro still has some catching up to do with its software, but it still provides the essential capabilities: multiple DPI levels, profile switching, macro recording, and more.
Overview: 7/10
The Tesoro Saggita Spectrum is generally a very good mouse for its price range, providing essential features at a reasonable (around $60) price. (If you don’t mind glossy plastic sides you can add 1 to my review score, but I generally prefer function over form.)
PC & Video Gaming Examiner 