Review Cherry Xtrfy M42V2: The Best Budget Ultra-Light Gaming Mouse

Cherry Xtrfy is best known for their keyboards, but perhaps we should be paying more attention to their mice. The M42V2 was just released and it's the best introduction to the popular ultra-light mouse category I've tested for years - lightweight, comfortable and adjustable to any grip style. Its internals aren't absolutely bleeding-edge, but for £34/$40 this doesn't matter in the slightest. Best of all, it works well right out of the box, with no advanced features or resource-sapping software to get your head around.

Despite the low price, the M42V2 includes two rear shells in subtly different shapes - one is taller, the other flatter. The taller option allows for comfortable palm or claw grips, nestling in the heel of the hand, while the flatter alternative makes the mouse ideal for a fingertip grip. Normally you'd have to buy two different mice to decide between these two design philosophies, so it's smart design to provide both options and therefore allow the mouse fit a wider swathe of potential players. I used the taller option of the two, which was ideal for my relaxed claw grip and 20x10cm hands.

Both shapes result in a weight of 45g, which puts the M42V2 amongst the lightest wired options on the market. Paired with a matte coating, smooth UHMW-PE skates and a flexible "shoelace" cable, the mouse feels both comfortable to use and responsive in fast-paced games. The buttons also well-chosen, with good tactile response from the venerable Huano Blue Shell Pink Dot microswitches and little pre-travel on the side buttons. The only real limitation here is the mid-tier PixArt 3327 sensor, which tops out at 6200 DPI - which is perfectly usable but some distance away from the ~50,000 DPI sensors in flagship mice like the Viper V4 Pro or X3 Superstrike.

That pleasant introduction also extends to the software experience. In short, there isn't one - you just plug in the mouse and make adjustments using a slider and button on the bottom. Here you can adjust the sensitivity, polling rate (up to 1000Hz), lift-off distance and debounce time. If you hate having to boot up complicated peripheral software packages just to change a setting, this mouse might be for you. That said, I wouldn't have minded seeing a web app for the M42V2, as it would also hit the desired zero-install ethos while providing absolute certainty over what value you've set the DPI to.

In-game, the M42V2 is a reliable performer. It never missed a trick when tracking targets in Hades 2, gunning down blueberries in Wardogs or calling down psionic storms in StarCraft 2, with the comfort curves in the left and right mouse buttons and the matte coating providing a good amount of grip throughout. The mouse cable took a bit of getting used to after testing a long series of wireless mice - which are very much the trend these days - but its flexibility and upturned end obviate any actual discomfort or competitive disadvantage.

It feels weird to end a mouse review without remarking on the secret sauce that sets it apart - Logitech's magnetic haptic switches, SteelSeries' swappable batteries, Corsair's independently adjustable directional sensitivity - but here there's nothing like that beyond the swappable rear shells, which are more of a set and forget situation. The M42V2 is just a good old-fashioned ultra-light at a good price, and that's honestly refreshing in a period of time when computer hardware as a whole is getting more expensive, and even flagship gaming mice are rocketing up to the $200 mark. The M42V2 is 90 percent as good and costs 20 percent as much - what's not to like?

Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.