INTRODUCTION
Mionix is a company known for their premium, high-quality products and the Castor is no exception. Today, I am taking a look at the Mionix Castor, sent over to me by the good people at Mionix.
Mionix claims the new design is suitable for all types of grips, right from a claw grip to a palm-type grip. Well, let’s see if that claim holds true in this review.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The packaging in which it comes is pretty nice and cool. But, once you open up the package, you see the Castor in its full glory. From the moment you first see it, you know that it’s a premium device and once you hold it, the Castor becomes your new primary gaming mouse.
The Castor comes with a braided cable which is really good and I didn’t find any resistance from the cable during intense gaming sessions.
The box contains a small sheet of stickers of the company name and logo too. Providing the stickers was a nice touch.
SPECIFICATIONS
Technical Specifications
- 32bit ARM Processor running at 32Mhz
- Right handed truly ergonomic design
- Supports palm, claw and fingertip grip
- Grip friendly soft touch rubber coating (4 layers)
- 6 fully programmable buttons
- 3 steps in-game DPI adjustment
- 2 integrated LEDs in 2 color zones
- Up to 16.8 Million LED color options
- Color shift, Solid, Blinking, Pulsating and Breathing effects
- On-Board memory 128 kb built-in memory
- Large black PTFE mouse feet
- Gold Plated, Full speed USB 2.0 connection with Plug and Play
- Cable 2m long PVC cable with cable reinforcer
Sensor Specification
- PMW – 3310 gaming grade IR-LED optical sensor
- Up to 10000DPI
- MAX tracking speed of at least 5.45m/sec (215 IPS)
- No positive or negative hardware acceleration
- Adjustable Lift Off Distance
As you can see the Castor is packed with the best internals money can buy.
Let’s Start
The Castor is an ergonomic right-handed gaming mouse. Mionix’s main selling point for the mouse is craftsmanship and it holds true. The mouse is really well made and feels really good while holding it. Whether I play using a claw grip or a palm grip the Castor doesn’t disappoint and proves itself true that it is suitable for any type of grip. The mouse even has RGB lighting but that is not their selling point. Their main motive behind this mouse was to create a mouse that can be used by all and feel perfect when you hold it and Mionix delivers it.
It’s got a PMW- 3310 sensor in there, adjustable up to 10,000 DPI, which is an overkill for most of the gamers out there but it’s always nice to have an option. It is adjustable in 50 steps so that you will be able to finely tune to the DPI of your liking. The PMW-3310 optical sensor has no positive or negative hardware acceleration, an amazing accuracy with smooth tracking.
[PC: Anuj Jena]
The mouse does have a 32-bit 32 MHz ARM processor handling all the processing on the mouse. All your profile will be saved on the mouse, so that when you switch the mouse between your laptop and desktop you don’t have to re-configure your mouse. The mouse has 6 fully customizable profiles so that you can save your different settings for different games and select between them without any problems as you switch from an FPS game to MOBA as each type requires different types of mouse movements so you can create the profiles and save them depending upon the games that you play.
The Mionix Castor Gaming Mouse has 16.8 million full RGB lighting with two separate color zones which can be customized by the user. The LED is fairly bright and vibrant and is clearly visible outdoors (if you are an outdoor PC gamer LOL!). The mouse is all black when the lights are turned off which is good and its beautiful matte finish stands out. The mouse has a pretty soft touch matte finish because of its 4 layers of soft rubber coating on its entire top body. The 4-layer coat is really good as it is long-lasting and you don’t slip your fingers from the mouse just in case you have a sweaty palm. Now, below its back and forward buttons on the side is a textured rubber padding which adds extra grip to the already grippy and beautifully contoured mouse. I had thought the pad might attract some dust particles to come and stick to it but, that wasn’t the case it is still clean even after a lot of use.
The software has a nice feature known as the S.Q.A.T, Surface Quality Analyzer Tool, which tells you the quality of the surface on which you game. It’s a nice feature to have.
Another important feature that the Castor has is the adjustable lift-off distance. What is basically does is lets you adjust how far the mouse has to be lifted off the surface before it no longer registers the mouse movement. This feature is more important for Mobas as they tend to have more lift-offs as compared to FPS games. Imagine while a serious MOBA gaming period you lift the mouse a little bit and move but, the cursor on the screen moves as well, this can be irritating. So, with this feature, you can adjust to your own liking.
While my gaming period with the Castor I was really impressed by its performance, almost every other shot was a head shot. The mouse was really smooth even at high DPI settings and it responded immediately to all of my sudden wrist twitches and movements. The real performance advantage of the PWM-3310 sensor is that it does not suffer from positive acceleration like its laser counterparts, which is something most low-to-medium sensitivity gamers might feel as they game, mostly in FPS games.
THE VERDICT
If you are in for a lightweight, premium, ergonomic mouse which doesn’t break the bank yet offers you the best performance you can get, then the Mionix Castor Gaming Mouse is for you. The mouse is medium in size and is perfect for my large palm. This is the most accurate mouse I have ever used and it will definitely be on my computer desk for a long time. If you want to get the fine piece of craftsmanship yourself then click the link below.
Mionix Castor Gaming Mouse Official Website