SteelSeries refreshed its original Sensei mouse with modern hardware

(Image credit: SteelSeries)

Some things go out of style and never come back, like those poofy hairdos from the 1980s. Yet others have a way of circling back, such as vinyl records. SteelSeries hopes its original ambidextrous Sensei mouse design from a decade ago will fall into the latter category. Either way, the new Sensei Ten is a throwback to the original Sensei in form, with new guts for improved function.

"The original Sensei is the most beloved mouse in the history of PC gaming, and we’ve devoted our engineering expertise to bringing that original shape and feel back to gamers," said Brian Luu, product manager of mice at SteelSeries. "Our team has done a fantastic job staying true to the Sensei design, while upgrading its performance for the demands of modern esports."

Not everyone will agree with the assessment of the original Sensei being the best gaming mouse of its era. Wes, for example, prefers the redesigned Sensei 310 (released in 2017) to the original.

For gamers who liked the original design, the Sensei Ten brings it back, while upgrading the internal hardware with a TrueMove Pro optical sensor designed by SteelSeriees and PixArt. It offers 18,000 counts per inch (CPI) and a tracking speed of 450 inches per second.

Beyond the raw specs, SteelSeries claims the upgraded sensor does a better job at tracking and stabilizing from tilted mouse maneuvers, "eliminating false tracking during angled drops, tilt slams, and quick flicks."

There are eight programmable buttons in all, along with two RGB lighting zones and onboard memory to save the polling rate, keybinds, and up to five CPI settings directly to the mouse.

The Sensei Ten is available now for $69.99.

Paul Lilly

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).