an ingenious new wireless gaming mouse shape

The Cherry Xtrfy M68 Wireless is the latest addition to the company’s gaming mouse roster that, on the surface, seems a somewhat iterative take on the genre. It’s wireless, its shape is symmetrical, it’s lightweight, and it’s packed with the latest high-end switches and sensors for class-matching response. However, this mouse’s surprise secret sauce is a tweak to its shape that transforms its comfort.

With Cherry already landing a spot on our best gaming mouse guide with the intriguingly-shaped Cherry Xtrfy MZ1 Wireless, it’s no stranger to experimenting with mouse design. And while the M68 Wireless doesn’t immediately seem as radical a departure as the MZ1, its shape is likely to find wider appeal.

Specs

Features

The Cherry Xtrfy M68 Wireless is all about peak performance, with its headline features being a top-rate sensor, low weight, and responsive switches. As such, if you’re after a mouse with lots of extra buttons, a clever scroll wheel, or any other extras, it won’t be for you.

Running through precisely what you do get, there are just five main buttons on the top – left and right click, two side buttons, and the scroll wheel/middle button. There’s not even a DPI switching button on the top.

However, flip over the mouse and you do get a multi-function button and sliding switch on the underside. The latter turns off the mouse or sets it to one or three modes for setting up the features.

The first option – CPI – makes the multi-function button change the CPI/DPI of the mouse, cycling between 400, 800, 1,600, 3,200… up to 26,000, with a neighboring LED indicating the chosen setting. These large leaps in DPI mean you’ll have to fine-tune the sensitivity in your games, as a key aspect of this mouse is that it doesn’t have any software for further changing these settings.

Slide the switch down a notch to PR and you can use the button to change the polling rate between 125Hz, 250Hz, 500Hz, and 1,000Hz.

Slide the switch again and you get to DT, which is debounce time. This is the slight pause made by the mouse between sensing a connection in the mouse’s switches to sending a “click” signal. This is needed because mechanical switch contacts can literally bounce off each other before settling into contact – a behavior that optical switches avoid, but many players don’t like the feel and sound of optical switches. You can choose from 2ms, 4ms, 8ms, or 12ms.

Other settings can be configured via various other button combinations. Hold down the two side buttons while hitting the left or right-click buttons and you can choose between 1mm or 2mm lift-off distance. Do the same while hitting the middle button and you can turn Motion Sync on or off – that’s where the mouse’s polling rate is set to match the output rate of the sensor. Finally, press those side buttons and hold down right-click for five seconds and you’ll give the mouse a factory reset.

Inside the mouse is an ever-reliable PixArt 3395 optical sensor that can hit that peak 26,000DPI setting, track movement at up to 650 inches per second (IPS), and detect changes in motion (acceleration) of 50G. In other words, while some mice claim even higher numbers, this mouse essentially has the firepower to offer flawless tracking.

The one slightly limiting factor here is that this version of the mouse maxes out at a 1kHz polling rate. Step up to the M68 Pro Wireless and you get up to 8kHz polling. In our tests, we’ve been able to perceive a difference between 1kHz, 2kHz, and 4kHz polling, but we’ve found the step up to 8kHz is basically imperceptible from 4kHz. In theory, though, if you’re running at a really fast refresh rate, the higher polling rate ensures you have the very most up-to-date mouse position to match your 360Hz+ frame rate. Higher polling rates do erode battery life much faster, though.

When it comes to other features, this mouse offers wireless connection via a 2.4GHz dongle, which is of the USB-A variety. In the box you also get a USB-C to USB-A adapter so that you can plug the dongle into the end of the mouse’s cable, making it easy to unplug the dongle to charge the mouse.

Speaking of charging, though, while the M68 can technically charge while you carry on gaming, this brings us to the unique design of this mouse, as its charging port is on its right side. This makes for an awkward placement for gaming with a cable, so we essentially consider this a wireless-only mouse in most practical terms. Thankfully, just a few minutes of charging gets you hours more gaming.

Back to the wireless aspects of this mouse, you do miss out on the increasingly common Bluetooth support. Unlike, say, the Razer Viper V3 Hyperspeed, this mouse only offers a wireless connection via its dongle.

Design

We hinted at it just above, but when it comes to design, the big news with this mouse is that instead of having its USB-C connecting and charging port on the front of the mouse – like 99% of other gaming mice – instead it has it on its right side. A rubber bung, which will no doubt be easy to lose, covers the port when it’s not in use.

The reason for this placement is that it allows Cherry Xtrfy to lower the fronts of the left and right-click buttons. Such a change might not sound revolutionary but, in practice, it makes a huge difference to the grip versatility and comfort of the mouse.

Those with larger hands will find their fingers can still engage with the downward-sloping front edges of the buttons far more comfortably than pressing on the front edge of a higher-edged button. The larger, curved surface also gives you a far greater landing area if and when your hand shifts from an ideal grip.

In practice, most of the benefit is for those with larger hands looking to get a more relaxed palm-style grip while still using a compact, symmetrical-shaped mouse. However, even when you’re fingertip and claw-gripping the mouse, the area where you’re pressing the buttons is on average lower than with most other mice.

The overall shape of the mouse helps here too. The sides offer just enough flare at the top to make for an effortless grip when using a fingertip or claw grip. Meanwhile, the left and right buttons also offer pronounced upward-curving sides that really help you center your fingers on the buttons.

What’s more, those buttons are quite wide. At their front edge, they offer 57mm of width – whereas the Endgame Gear OP1 is 52mm and the Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 is just 50mm side – all while still offering a rigid support edge to the buttons. Mice such as the Razer Viper V2 Pro offer even wider 65mm front buttons, but the buttons run over the edges of the mouse, which isn’t the preference for some users.

As for the rest of the mouse’s shape, it offers a similar overall feel to the Logitech G Pro Superlight 2, with a reasonably full middle and rear section that means it can offer a relaxing palm grip-style support for the middle of your hand. Yet, this fullness doesn’t get in the way when you’re using a fingertip grip. This mouse somewhat lends itself to claw grip style too, depending on your hand size.

As for styling, Cherry Xtrfy has taken an interesting approach. The plain black color – which feels great in the hand, as it has a decently grippy matte finish – looks smart enough, but the turquoise accents aren’t the most likely to match up with the color scheme of most people’s setups. Meanwhile, the other color choices of white with turquoise or baby blue with Noctua brown are also a little left field.

It’s actually the Pro version of this mouse that’s the most ordinary, as it has just plain white accents, but even that is a slightly dull-looking option – there’s not really any flair. Nor is there any RGB.

In terms of weight, this is a very light mouse at just 53g. That’s not the absolute lowest available, but it’s right up there with the best and makes for a mouse that’s fairly effortless to sling around your mat.

Performance

The performance of the Cherry Xtrfy M68 Wireless is as flawless as we’ve come to expect from a high-end gaming mouse. The wireless connection is as lag-free as wired and the sensor tracks perfectly. The Huano Transparent Blue Shell Pink Dot switches also offer a precise feel that perfectly balances having slightly more feedback and resistance than some switches, but without feeling like they’re actively reducing the speed at which you can press them.

Cherry Xtrfy claimed that the Pro version of this design is the fastest  mouse in the world at the time of its announcement last year, thanks to independent testing at the time of that statement showing it had the slowest latency from clicking a button to actually seeing a result onscreen – it takes just 3ms. The non-Pro version can’t react quite so quickly, with its 1kHz polling rate limit, but it still certainly feels mighty responsive for a 1kHz mouse.

Battery life, meanwhile, matches up with Cherry Xtrfy’s claims, in our experience, with a 90-hour active life translating to needing a recharge roughly once a week.

Price

The Cherry Xtrfy M68 Wireless price is $99.99, which makes it a premium option but in line with other pared-down but tech-filled options, such as the Turtle Beach Burst II Air. It also comfortably undercuts the likes of the Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 and Razer Viper V3 Pro, offering decent value for money.

Alternatives

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Verdict

With gaming mice now so consistently offering very good performance, the margins on which to base your choice are wafer-thin. For the most part, your choice will come down to whether you want to prioritize lean performance or extra features. And once that decision is made, shape is the next biggest factor, and it’s in the latter that we really appreciate what the M68 Wireless is offering.

As such, if you’re after a lightweight, high-performance mouse primarily for competitive gaming scenarios, the M68 Wireless is a great choice, as it nails the performance part of the brief. Meanwhile, its comfortable and versatile shape really sets it apart. You do somewhat lose the convenience of gaming with a cable while charging the battery – as it’s rather impractical – but this is more than made up for with the extra comfort it provides.

Meanwhile, the fact the mouse is so light, yet includes buttons on the bottom for fully changing all the settings, without the need for software, is a great addition for those that like to keep their PC clutter-free or otherwise don’t have the means to change settings via software.