Review: A new entry into the gaming space from another Swedish peripherals maker. No, not Ikea.
There’s something about game peripheral makers from Sweden. You can pick up a mouse made by SteelSeries, and know just from how it feels and sits in your hand that this is made someone in a liberal Northern European democracy. We’re not sure why, but we do know that Mionix has a similar feel of clinical precision in its Naos 5000 mouse.
This is the first time we’ve looked at Mionx products, as distributor Anyware has only just signed the brand on and started bringing product into the country. But we’re glad to see it cross our desk. Even the packaging is premium stuff, a hard black box with a magnet-secured gatefold. And the mouse itself matches the expectations set by the packaging and $100-plus pricetag.
It’s an asymmetrical design that’s only going to suit right-handed gamers, but it’s a very comfortable one. The upper surface and buttons are all coated in a smooth black rubber that feels both grippy and cool in your grip. The ergonomic design provides good resting spaces for both thumb and the outer two fingers of your hand, so if you’re a dragger of your mice (rather than briefly lifting the mouse) it’ll cut down on friction wear and tear on your skin. There are two buttons on the top of the mouse, and thumb buttons, and onboard memory means any macros you program into the mouse will be easily transportable. The buttons are well placed, responsive, and easy to use.
Under the mouse are four hyper-slick feet that feel smooth on any surface, and a unique weight system that lets you place weights to either side of the laser sensor. If getting your mouse feeling just right is your thing, this is a great design choice. A 2m cloth-wrapped cable finishes off the Naos’ design.
In use the Naos is very comfortable, and very smooth. The position of the sensor allows for flat scanning of the environment, and adjusting DPI on the fly is a breeze. However, the sensor is very jittery when you pick the mouse up – just hovering the mouse a couple of centimetres above the desktop made our cursor leap about like it was on crack. The large size of the mouse, while seeming comfortable, actually works against accuracy – at least for our smaller hands. If you’ve larger hands, it might be a better fit.
The Naos is a well made product, but a jittery sensor makes it an awkward choice for some mousing styles, not to mention it’s quite expensive. Not our first choice for mousing.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012