Gamdias Zeus M1 Review
Gamdias has become a well known company for developing budget worth peripheral products. But they're mostly famous for making gaming mice. Most of their mice includes responsive buttons, precise sensors and excellent build quality. But most of their high-end mice have a common issue in gripping. They over-design their mice which is the main reason of facing discomfort while gripping and lift-offing. Hopefully Zeus M1 is prevented from this issue. Zeus M1 has a very simple shape which you can easily get adapted with it. It's shape is compatible with most of the gripping styles. This mouse also has a high-end optical sensor which is very accurate and has a high native DPI that let's the mouse produce accurate tracking even at higher DPI settings. Buttons are also positioned well and they're responsive. We've reviewed a bunch of entry level Gamdias gaming mice before and we were really excited to review their high-end mice for the first time. This is Mashhud Hasan and today I'm going to review Gamdias Zeus M1 optical.
This review is brought to you by Gamdias. So before starting the review, let's give a big thumbs up to them. They currently have Zeus M1 at a price of 2.8k BDT in Startech. Here's the link of it-click here
So without further thinking, let's jump into the review.
Body & Shape
This mouse has an evenly shaped body. It's not over-designed like most of the high-end Gamdias mice out there. It's not ambidextrous. It has a length-width-height dimension of 118, 67 and 38.5mm. So the ratio of length and width is almost as same as 2:1 which is one of the reasons why the shape of this mouse is comfortable to grip. It's upper-body is made of plastic and left & right side are covered with rubberized texture. It doesn't have any ledge on it's body but it's rubberized thumb rest has a deep texture that helps the mouse to lift off without slipping it off. It's hump is positioned towards forward and the palm-rest isn't widely shaped. That's why it's shape is not preferred for palm grippers but it's button slope is gradual and you can grip it by fingertip and claw grip with full comfort. This mouse has a total of 3 thick gliding pads and they're handy at gliding the mouse smoothly. It has a base weight of 115g and you can add/remove 2 weight bars that are weighted 5g each. Which means, it's weight can be elevated to 125g. It has a 1.8m long braided cable which has a gold plated USB jack. It doesn't create any friction with the surface. That's why you don't need any mouse bungee for this mouse. Overall this mouse has sleek ergonomic and the durability of it's body makes the build quality even better.
Buttons
Zeus M1 has a total of 8 buttons including left & right buttons, a scroll wheel, 3 buttons for DPI adjustments and 2 side buttons that are programmed as forward and backward browsing by default. It's scroll wheel isn't smooth and rattles while shaking the mouse. It's not a major issue though. Scroll wheel is rubberized and can be scrolled with ease. It's side buttons are light and easy to click. They're also located in good position where I can easily reach up with my thumb. DPI buttons are also agile. They're hard to click and this will avoid unexpected clicking. Left and right buttons aren't separated from the chassis that's why the left side plummets a bit while clicking the left button. Both of the buttons are hard to click. This hardness prevents unexpected clicking and enhances the durability of the buttons. They have a switching life-cycle of 10 million clicks. Left and right clicks are also very snappy and responsive. I've tested their response speed on Bloody Response PK software and I'm going to unveil the result down below.
As we can see above, most of the click has a latency of somewhere around 0.3 to 0.2ms. And the average latency is 2.1ms. This latency is unnoticeable and feels like you're getting your desired outputs right after clicking. No delay, very responsive. So the button managements, their durability, positioning, response speed-everything is satisfying.
Sensor
Zeus M1 contains PMW3320 optical sensor, the same sensor that Corsair Harpoon contains. This sensor's DPI can be adjusted up-to 7,000. It has an Infrared Ray emitter to illuminate sensor's underneath. This emitter is good for optical sensors but they're not effective over bright surfaces, which is the reason why this sensor jitters while tracking over bright surfaces. That's why using it on opaque surface is the first and foremost recommendation. It also has abnormally high lift-off distance and it's not editable. However, the sensor is very accurate and precise. I've played it in pixelated FPS games to actually realize if the sensor really accelerates or not. It doesn't have any noticeable acceleration unless you enable the enhanced pointer precision. It doesn't skip pixels on medium DPI settings. It has no angle snapping and stuttering issues. I've tested it's accuracy and I'm giving the result down below.
As we can see here, at 5/11 Windows sensitivity and 750 DPI, it has an accuracy of 82.97%. At the same sensitivity and 1,500 DPI, the accuracy comes out to be 83.99%. At 2,500 DPI with same sensitivity, it's accuracy elevates up-to 86.97%. I didn't test it at 6/11 Windows sensitivity because it causes significant pixel skipping. Sensor also decelerates at 4/11 sensitivity, that's why 5/11 is the perfect Windows sens for this mouse. Even after increasing the DPI up-to 2.5k, the accuracy still elevates. It happens because of this sensor has a high native DPI and it's matrix didn't need to get divided to increase the sensitivity. But the accuracy might derail after customizing it into higher than 3k DPI. Still this sensor is excellent. It's extremely smooth at 750 DPI. From 1,500 to 2,500 DPI, it also tracks smooth and precisely but slightly stutters which is not noticeable at all. From 3.5k to 5k DPI, it stutters noticeably but track well. This level of DPI is out of it's native sensitivity and spins out at fast horizontal flicks. At 7k DPI, the sensor starts interpolating. But anywhere under 3k DPI outcomes precise tracking. Under this range, sensor doesn't interpolate, stutter or skip pixel. It tracks smoothly and due to having high tracking speed, it doesn't spin out as well. Overall the sensor of this mouse is very good and can also be used in competitive FPS matches.
Others
This mouse has a polling rate of 1kHz. I've mentioned before that other than a bit improved responsiveness, nothing really differentiates 1kHz from 500Hz.But since this mouse's sensor can be customized up-to high DPI settings and it causes the embedded micro-controller to process more data and added noise (to determine the true physical movement and convert it into cursor's pixel movement), so high polling rate is important for the micro-controller to synchronize itself with the sensor. I've tested the polling rate of this mouse on "Zowie Polling Rate Checker" and I'm giving the results down below.
As we can see here, the usual polling rate is somewhere around 940-960Hz and has an average of 912.55Hz. It can go down to 900Hz sometimes but can also go up-to 1032Hz. Polling accuracy is 91.255% which is excellent for the mouse to send the processed data for moving the cursor without any delay.
This mouse supports GUI (Graphical User Interface). Gamdias gifted their consumers a dedicating software called Hera which is very handy for customizing various mouse settings. With this software, you can utilize key assigning and make profiles (5 in maximum). You can also customize acceleration/deceleration, vertical scrolling speed, DPI and light illumination. This mouse has light streaming line across both of it's side which you can illuminate with various colors, variations and illuminating modes (there are a total of 9 different illuminating modes including Wave, Breathing, Marquee, RGB Fade, Static, Flash, Responsive, Pulse and Rainbow). You can also edit the the brightness, illuminating speed and color streaming direction.
Conclusion
After testing and analyzing this mouse, let's summarize and come up to the conclusion now. It's contains high-end sensor. It's size and shape is also comfortable for most types of gripping. It has an ergonomic shape. It's build quality is very good except the scroll wheel rattles a bit while shaking. Left & right buttons are very responsive and they're durable as well. All of the buttons are placed in correct positions. Side buttons are comparably light which might cause mis-clicking. Instead of that 3rd extra DPI button, I would recommend giving a sniper button. That would make this mouse FPS oriented. It's MCU is perfectly synchronized with it's sensor. And the external design is also good. At the budget of 2.8k BDT, this mouse has tons of competitors. Aside of competition, buying this mouse is definitely worth the money. Hope this review will help you guys decide whether you should buy this mouse or not. And stay tuned for more.
This review is brought to you by Gamdias. So before starting the review, let's give a big thumbs up to them. They currently have Zeus M1 at a price of 2.8k BDT in Startech. Here's the link of it-click here
So without further thinking, let's jump into the review.
Body & Shape
This mouse has an evenly shaped body. It's not over-designed like most of the high-end Gamdias mice out there. It's not ambidextrous. It has a length-width-height dimension of 118, 67 and 38.5mm. So the ratio of length and width is almost as same as 2:1 which is one of the reasons why the shape of this mouse is comfortable to grip. It's upper-body is made of plastic and left & right side are covered with rubberized texture. It doesn't have any ledge on it's body but it's rubberized thumb rest has a deep texture that helps the mouse to lift off without slipping it off. It's hump is positioned towards forward and the palm-rest isn't widely shaped. That's why it's shape is not preferred for palm grippers but it's button slope is gradual and you can grip it by fingertip and claw grip with full comfort. This mouse has a total of 3 thick gliding pads and they're handy at gliding the mouse smoothly. It has a base weight of 115g and you can add/remove 2 weight bars that are weighted 5g each. Which means, it's weight can be elevated to 125g. It has a 1.8m long braided cable which has a gold plated USB jack. It doesn't create any friction with the surface. That's why you don't need any mouse bungee for this mouse. Overall this mouse has sleek ergonomic and the durability of it's body makes the build quality even better.
Buttons
Zeus M1 has a total of 8 buttons including left & right buttons, a scroll wheel, 3 buttons for DPI adjustments and 2 side buttons that are programmed as forward and backward browsing by default. It's scroll wheel isn't smooth and rattles while shaking the mouse. It's not a major issue though. Scroll wheel is rubberized and can be scrolled with ease. It's side buttons are light and easy to click. They're also located in good position where I can easily reach up with my thumb. DPI buttons are also agile. They're hard to click and this will avoid unexpected clicking. Left and right buttons aren't separated from the chassis that's why the left side plummets a bit while clicking the left button. Both of the buttons are hard to click. This hardness prevents unexpected clicking and enhances the durability of the buttons. They have a switching life-cycle of 10 million clicks. Left and right clicks are also very snappy and responsive. I've tested their response speed on Bloody Response PK software and I'm going to unveil the result down below.
As we can see above, most of the click has a latency of somewhere around 0.3 to 0.2ms. And the average latency is 2.1ms. This latency is unnoticeable and feels like you're getting your desired outputs right after clicking. No delay, very responsive. So the button managements, their durability, positioning, response speed-everything is satisfying.
Sensor
Zeus M1 contains PMW3320 optical sensor, the same sensor that Corsair Harpoon contains. This sensor's DPI can be adjusted up-to 7,000. It has an Infrared Ray emitter to illuminate sensor's underneath. This emitter is good for optical sensors but they're not effective over bright surfaces, which is the reason why this sensor jitters while tracking over bright surfaces. That's why using it on opaque surface is the first and foremost recommendation. It also has abnormally high lift-off distance and it's not editable. However, the sensor is very accurate and precise. I've played it in pixelated FPS games to actually realize if the sensor really accelerates or not. It doesn't have any noticeable acceleration unless you enable the enhanced pointer precision. It doesn't skip pixels on medium DPI settings. It has no angle snapping and stuttering issues. I've tested it's accuracy and I'm giving the result down below.
As we can see here, at 5/11 Windows sensitivity and 750 DPI, it has an accuracy of 82.97%. At the same sensitivity and 1,500 DPI, the accuracy comes out to be 83.99%. At 2,500 DPI with same sensitivity, it's accuracy elevates up-to 86.97%. I didn't test it at 6/11 Windows sensitivity because it causes significant pixel skipping. Sensor also decelerates at 4/11 sensitivity, that's why 5/11 is the perfect Windows sens for this mouse. Even after increasing the DPI up-to 2.5k, the accuracy still elevates. It happens because of this sensor has a high native DPI and it's matrix didn't need to get divided to increase the sensitivity. But the accuracy might derail after customizing it into higher than 3k DPI. Still this sensor is excellent. It's extremely smooth at 750 DPI. From 1,500 to 2,500 DPI, it also tracks smooth and precisely but slightly stutters which is not noticeable at all. From 3.5k to 5k DPI, it stutters noticeably but track well. This level of DPI is out of it's native sensitivity and spins out at fast horizontal flicks. At 7k DPI, the sensor starts interpolating. But anywhere under 3k DPI outcomes precise tracking. Under this range, sensor doesn't interpolate, stutter or skip pixel. It tracks smoothly and due to having high tracking speed, it doesn't spin out as well. Overall the sensor of this mouse is very good and can also be used in competitive FPS matches.
Others
This mouse has a polling rate of 1kHz. I've mentioned before that other than a bit improved responsiveness, nothing really differentiates 1kHz from 500Hz.But since this mouse's sensor can be customized up-to high DPI settings and it causes the embedded micro-controller to process more data and added noise (to determine the true physical movement and convert it into cursor's pixel movement), so high polling rate is important for the micro-controller to synchronize itself with the sensor. I've tested the polling rate of this mouse on "Zowie Polling Rate Checker" and I'm giving the results down below.
As we can see here, the usual polling rate is somewhere around 940-960Hz and has an average of 912.55Hz. It can go down to 900Hz sometimes but can also go up-to 1032Hz. Polling accuracy is 91.255% which is excellent for the mouse to send the processed data for moving the cursor without any delay.
This mouse supports GUI (Graphical User Interface). Gamdias gifted their consumers a dedicating software called Hera which is very handy for customizing various mouse settings. With this software, you can utilize key assigning and make profiles (5 in maximum). You can also customize acceleration/deceleration, vertical scrolling speed, DPI and light illumination. This mouse has light streaming line across both of it's side which you can illuminate with various colors, variations and illuminating modes (there are a total of 9 different illuminating modes including Wave, Breathing, Marquee, RGB Fade, Static, Flash, Responsive, Pulse and Rainbow). You can also edit the the brightness, illuminating speed and color streaming direction.
Conclusion
After testing and analyzing this mouse, let's summarize and come up to the conclusion now. It's contains high-end sensor. It's size and shape is also comfortable for most types of gripping. It has an ergonomic shape. It's build quality is very good except the scroll wheel rattles a bit while shaking. Left & right buttons are very responsive and they're durable as well. All of the buttons are placed in correct positions. Side buttons are comparably light which might cause mis-clicking. Instead of that 3rd extra DPI button, I would recommend giving a sniper button. That would make this mouse FPS oriented. It's MCU is perfectly synchronized with it's sensor. And the external design is also good. At the budget of 2.8k BDT, this mouse has tons of competitors. Aside of competition, buying this mouse is definitely worth the money. Hope this review will help you guys decide whether you should buy this mouse or not. And stay tuned for more.
No comments