Mionix Avior 7000 Mouse Review
Overview
I have only looked at one Mionix product before and that was the impressive Mionix Nash 20 headset, today I’ll be taking a look at another product from the Swedish peripheral specialist.
The Mionix Avior 7000
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The Mionix Avior 7000 comes in a rather small, very subtle lack box with nothing more than an image of the mouse on the front and the name. No bright colours, no endorsements, no shouting about features; and to be fair, no bad thing!
The back of the box highlights (subtlety) the following features:
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On opening the box we can see very little other than the Mionix Avior 7000, protected by a plastic cover.
Hidden away to the left of the mouse (other than the cable) there’s a small guide (maybe the smallest I have ever seen!) and a sticker, Mionix is obviously big on ‘less is more’. 😉
At the time of writing the Mionix Avior 7000 is retailing for approximately £60 on Amazon
Specifications/Features
courtesy of Mionix
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
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SOFTWARE FEATURES
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SENSOR SPECIFICATIONS
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DIMENSIONS & WEIGHT
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* Additional details available here
First Impressions
First impression are mixed; on the one hand (hold on, is that an ambidextrous joke!?) there’s no doubt that the Mionix Avior is a well made mouse and it uses high quality materials. But the shape of the mouse seems to have been compromised (read more in the Performance section) due to its ambidextrous design, meaning the mouse feels a little odd (at first) to grasp (palm or claw). The other worry is that there’s nothing here (yet) to set the Avior 7000 apart from countless other mice in the £50-60 bracket, hmm…
- Top
Looking at the top of the Mionix Avior 7000 we can appreciate its rather long thin design, it actually looks rather elegant! At the front we have the mouse wheel (sporting 16.8 million colour illumination) followed by two DPI buttons (up/down). Looking nearer the back of the mouse we can see the Mionix logo also sporting 16.8 million colour illumination.
- Front / Back
At the front of the Mionix Avior 7000 we can see the captive 2.0m braided cable, being both nice and thin and quite flexible. We can also marvel (well look) at the uncomplicated and simple ergonomic design.
At the back there really is very little to see, other than we can just make out (image below right) the illuminating Mionix logo.
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- Sides (left & right)
Being a true ambidextrous mouse I can talk about the left and the right side of the Mionix Avior 7000 at the same time; although, to be fair there’s not that much to talk about! Both sides feature two well placed thumb buttons as well as an ergonomic contoured section to the sides; both sections feel as if they have an area for your thumb to rest. Which is fine on the left (as I’m a right handed Gamer), but it means that my outer two fingers (ring & pinkie) feel somewhat at odds with the contoured section that’s on the right. Of course (due to the ambidextrous design) my ring finger also rests on the other two (thumb) buttons!
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- Underside
Looking at the base of the Mionix Avior 7000 we can see that centrally mounted ADNS – 3310 gaming grade IR-LED optical sensor supporting up to 7000DPI, nicely surrounded by the Mionix logo. Surprisingly there’s only two large glides, one at the front and a larger one at the back.
Overall I like the Mionix Avior 7000, it’s a sleek, good looking Gaming mouse with a seemingly high build quality. Although I have concerns over its ambidextrous design, as comfort (at this point) does not seem so good, the mouse just feels a little odd with my right-handed, hybrid palm/claw grip…
Hardware Installation
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The Mionix Avior 7000 is simply connected by way of its single gold plated USB plug and via its 2.0m braided cable. |
Testing Methodology/Setup
The Mionix Avior 7000 was tested using our Intel Test Rig with a fresh installation of Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit (service pack 1) installed together with all the latest relevant drivers and software.
The latest version of the Mionix Avior 7000 software is required for full operation of the mouse, version 1.21 was downloaded (here) and used throughout testing. Version 1.62 firmware was also used throughout testing, there was an option of an updated firmware version on the Mionix website but this was labeled as Beta, therefore it was not used. I’m not really a fan of labeling stuff up as Beta when it appears to be for public consumption, Beta firmware such as this (I think) should be kept behind closed doors…
Mouse Surface:
The Mionix Avior 7000 was tested using a OcUK Mega-Mega Mat 3XL Elite Tactical Gaming Surface.
The following games were used to help in the evaluation of the mouse:
Hardware Performance
- MOUSE
From a pure performance point of view the ADNS – 3310 gaming grade IR-LED optical sensor aboard the Mionix Avior 7000 performed extremely well. I had no issues during any Game during my test period, no signs of acceleration and no sign of lag. At all times I felt totally in control with the Avior 7000, in slow games, like Alien Isolation and during those frantic fire-fights in Survarium the tracking of the optical sensor was spot on. I did not venture much past 2000 DPI, so 7000 DPI is a little wasted on me, but to be honest unless you know you’re a twitch Gamer, then best stick to 2000 DPI or less, that’s my advice! 😉
One area of early concern was the comfort of the Mionix Avior 7000, this is down the the compromised design. Compromised as it’s not a right hand mouse it’s an ambidextrous mouse (or as I like to call it a left hander’s mouse!). The shape is a little odd as both sides of the mouse appear to have an ergonomic grip for your thumb (but of course I only have one thumb per hand!). This means that the contour on the right side of the mouse (for a thumb) feels very odd at first, but I did find that over time (48 hrs) I began to get used to it. Although having two buttons beneath my ring finger never really felt right and of course I could never really use them successfully either…
Both the main Left Click and Right Click buttons worked well during Gaming, with a reassuring click during depression, high speed clicking (or is that spamming!?) was easy and fast. The central scroll wheel also has a nice rubberised grip, is easy to move and features well defined graduations.
- SOFTWARE
This is the first time that I have taken a look at software from Mionix and I have to say that I’m pretty impressed from what I’ve seen. The Mionix Avior 7000’s software is both good looking, easy to use and functional. There are five main tabs, let’s take a quick tour of them one by one…
- SOFTWARE – (MOUSE SETTINGS / SENSOR PERFORMANCE)
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The first tab (MOUSE SETTINGS) allows you to assign functionality to any of the Avior 7000’s nine buttons, well seven really, as two (buttons 8 & 9) are disabled by default (quite rightly) for right handed Gamers. Here you can assign simple Windows functions, single key presses or a Macros. You can also adjust the double click speed, the scroll wheel speed, the Polling Rate and even (perish the thought) enable and manage mouse acceleration. All of these functions can be assigned to any of the five supported Profiles.
The second tab (SENSOR PERFORMANCE) allows you to mess with your DPI settings, a total of three DPI steps are supported, one short of the more common four (why I have no idea, maybe it’s something to do with the economy!?). You can also enable separate X and Y axis values should you be brave enough. In addition to this you can also turn on angle snapping and angle tuning, a well as manage the lift off distance if you’re in the habit of lifting the mouse while in Game, something I do tend to do! What’s also cool here is the Surface Quality Analyzer Tool, that basically scans your mouse surface and gives it a rating out of 100%. Our test mat the OcUK Mega-Mega Mat 3XL Elite Tactical Gaming Surface was rated at 60%, I wonder how a Mionix mats would compare… Or is this a secret ploy to just sell more mouse mats… 😉
- SOFTWARE – COLOR SETTINGS / MACRO SETTINGS)
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The COLOR SETTINGS tab allows you to adjust the two main color areas (mouse wheel & logo) aboard the Avior 7000. 16.8 million colours is also so say supported, but I’m not so sure, but to be fair I haven’t counted them either! There’s various lighting effect on offer too; Color Shift, Blinking, Pulsating and Breathing etc. Each illumination area can be controlled separately, but if you do this you seem to get limited to just 20 colours, and (also rather surprisingly) there’s no white. And, if you do dial in white via the Custom Color RGB section it comes out a rather nice shade of pink…
The MACRO SETTINGS tab allows you to create and edit Macros, these Macros can be recorded with a real time delay or against zero milliseconds. The Macro can only be edited by way of a pop-up menu that can be accessed via a right click, commands can be inserted, delays changed and mouse commands added. There appears to be no way of recording mouse input during the Record stage, they have to be added in after, which I think is a little weird…
The final tab is the SUPPORT tab, here you can access various support options as well as check on the current version of both the software and the firmware of the Avior 7000.
Final Thoughts
The Mionix Avior 7000
The Mionix Avior 7000 came well packaged in what must be the smallest and most understated box that I have seen; no endorsements, no flashy colours, just a black box, a picture and a name. Opening the box reveals very little, other than a mouse you’d think there’s nothing else in the box! But there is (a basic guide and a sticker!), but it’s still not much. There seems to be no doubt that Mionix’s motto is ‘less is more’, and sometimes it is!
The mouse itself is, as you would have guessed somewhat understated also, but I have to admit I rather like its pure simplicity. The ambidextrous design looks good, but at first it feels odd in the hand, I did warm to it over time (about a week) though. The issue with its design is there appears to be an ergonomic contour on the left side of the mouse for your thumb, this assumes that you are a right hander. The oddity is that the same contour (for your thumb!) is present on the right of the mouse also, it is ambidextrous after all! But, this meant that my ring finger and my little finger would rest here, but as it was designed for a thumb it just feels weird! This is also made worse by the fact that your fingers will also rest on the thumb buttons on the right side of the mouse, but of course you’ll be unlikely to use them. As I have already stated, the Avior 7000 seems to have been compromised by its own, ambidextrous design…
Performance wise the Mionix Avior 7000 performed like a dream, being one of the best optical mice that I have tested. The ADNS – 3310 gaming grade IR-LED optical sensor with its 7000DPI (although I never ventured past 2000 DPI to be honest!) tracked beautifully in all Games whether fast or slow, and precision was always high. The mouse buttons exhibit a reassuring click and are easy to Spam, should you wish to, the mouse wheel also scrolls well and has well defined graduations. Overall I would have to say that the performance of the Avior 7000 was pretty much faultless.
The Mionix software was good to look at and easy to use, with pretty much most of the options a Gamer would want. The Macro recording function was a little complex (see above) and the illumination selection seem to be somewhat limited for a 16.8 million colour device.
There’s no doubt that the Mionix Avior 7000 is a good Gaming mouse with great tracking, but its ambidextrous design seems too have compromised its shape somewhat. Also, and unfortunately for Mionix at around £60 a lot of other Gaming mice offer the same or more for less…
Verdict
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Where possible we always use Amazon’s price for Value… |
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Many thanks to Mionix for providing this sample for review
