I tend to go through a couple of mice per year, I’m a heavy user, being that I’m a potato person that spends approximately 90% of their time in front of a computer screen. LOL, nahh, it’s only about 85%. Anyway, I am always interested/excited to try out mice using new designs and technologies, so when Amazon offered me the chance to review this, I was pretty excited.So, first impressions are favourable, the mouse comes in a nice box, nothing too extravagant but it does present as a high-end product. Quite impressive considering that this is from a generic brand, and actually resold under various brand names.The mouse itself is no great beauty, I find the applied gold accents to be a slightly tacky, but no worse than many “gaming” peripherals. The actual form of the mouse is EXCELLENT, it reminds me very much of Razor’s DeathAdder, but the shape here is symmetrical. For me, the shape and size are just about perfect.The skeletonised design looks quite nice. Supposedly it’s made of some carbon fibre/plastic composite, it does feel and look just like plastic to me, but I’ve got nothing against plastic! It’s certainly light, weighing in at a fraction over 42g. The market is certainly trending towards ultra-light mice now, and this mouse feels like nothing in the hand, actually I have heavier mice that still feel like nothing.. 42g is crazy-light, you can add another 20g on before the weigh starts to become apparent, and that’s still well before it would impact on gameplay. Really, I do think that the light weight of this and similar designs is a gimmick, as it comes with significant compromises. In terms of features, this mouse is fully loaded. For connectivity, you can use it via bluetooth, RF or wired. I think most people will be opting for the 2.4G RF option, the provided dongle comes with a long lead so it can be positioned right next to your mouse for the lowest latency possible. However, if you must use Bluetooth, this does come with a decent BT chip, a Nordic 52840, that promises good performance. The sensor in this is a Pixart PAW 3950MAX, and I guess that accounts for most of its purchase price. It’s fast as hell, ultra smooth and just an absolute pleasure to use. With 8k polling and up to 42kDPI, this is on par with some of the best and most expensive gaming mouse available, which makes sense considering most of them use the same Pixart sensor!The interface for actually changing the settings is not so great.. Supposedly it has a driverless web-based interface, but I couldn’t get that to work. I tried various web addresses, realised I actually had to install drivers, but still couldn’t get it working, and finally just downloaded and installed the manufacturer's software.. The web based interface would have been a nice feature had it worked.. The app is basic, but fine. Once you’ve got things to your liking, you’ll likely never touch it again anyway.In terms of accuracy of tracking, I have found this to be flawless, I just cannot see how this can be improved upon, it’s ultra-smooth and precise. However, everything is not perfect. My main criticism, is the battery life. I get maybe 8-10 hours out of it between charges, ever so slightly short of the claimed 200 hours!!!! This is a major annoyance, and the short life is compounded by the fact that there is no obvious way of checking the remaining charge, no indicator LED, no warning beep or anything like that. It’s working one minute, and the next, it’s dead! It charges quickly and the plug is right on the front, so it can at least be used as a standard wired mouse during charging. It seems to me like the weight savings here have been made almost entirely by using a minuscule battery. Personally, I would gladly take an extra 20g of weight if it doubled or tripled the runtime. As it is right now, if you’re playing anything competitive, be sure to charge the mouse first, or you will be caught out.. Even knowing this, I have found myself screaming and cursing a few times when the battery has died in the middle of play! Final point. This is sold under various brand names. On Amazon it is selling as the Attack Shark R5 and the MAMBASNAKE M5. Off Amazon, I see other brands also selling it. So be aware that you may be able to get a significantly better deal by buying under a different brand-name. At the current price of around £60, after savings have been applied. This is not a cheap mouse, particularly for one from a generic brand with dubious support/warranty, but the performance is EXCELLENT, you’d have to spend significantly more to get a big brand gaming mouse with similar performance, and with that in mind, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND this mouse, amazing performance and great value, let down only slightly by the tiny battery.
