Mionix Avior 7000 Optical Gaming Mouse Review

[Shaqo_Wyn]

Sup LTT, welcome to my honest review of the Mionix Avior 7000 gaming mouse. 

 

First of all, I hope you guys will forgive me for not including my own tests of the mouse as I do not have the time nor the setup to conduct these in an accurate manner at the moment.

Apologies also, for the crappy pics made with my S4.

 

Okay, enough of that. Let's get to it! 

 

Content

1. First Look & Packaging

2. Specifications

3. Experience & Performance

4. Ergonomics

5. Conclusion (Pro's and Con's)

 

 

1. First Look & Packaging

 

 

The outside of the box. I got the mouse from the January 2015 drop on Massdrop. Ordered it on January 28th, got it on March 18th.

Beware that long shipping time is the trade off when using Massdrop. Seeing as the mouse was 50% off the $80 MSRP, it was well worth the wait!

The mouse was nicely packaged in a bigger box with air-filled bags to keep the actual package from bouncing around during shipping.

 

 

Open the box and you find the Avior 7000 covered by a sturdy hard plastic shell to protect it and keep it in place.

 

 

A sticker of the Mionix logo, a small quick-start guide and a moisture absorbing bag were also included in the box. That was it.

 

 

The Avior 7000 as it is right out of the box.

 

 

A better view of the mouse with the LED on and the braided cord unraveled. 

 

 

Side.

 

 

Bottom and mouse feet.

 

 

Front.

 

 

Cable and gold-plated USB.

 

 

Cable.

 

 

Close up.

 

 

2. Specifications

 

Product page: http://mionix.net/mice/avior-7000/

MSRP: $80

US Prices (as of 03-20-2015): NCIX US $54,39 and Amazon / Newegg $58,99.

EU Prices: buy direct from Mionix 80 EUR.

Massdrop: $39.99 excluding shipping, import and tax.

 

Technical Specifications

• 32bit ARM processor 32mhz
• Ambidextrous design, palm or claw grip
• Soft touch rubber coating
• 9 fully programmable buttons
• 3 steps in-game DPI adjustment
• 2 integrated LEDs in 2 colour zones
• Up to 16.8 Million LED colour options
• Color shift, Solid, Blinking, Pulsating and Breathing effects
• 128 kb built-in memory
• Large PTFE mouse feet
• Gold Plated, Full speed USB 2.0 connection with Plug and Play
• Cable 2m long braided cable

 

Sensor Specification

• ADNS – 3310 gaming grade IR-LED optical sensor
• Up to 7000DPI
• MAX tracking speed of at least 5.45m/sec (215 IPS)
• No positive or negative hardware acceleration
• Adjustable Lift Off Distance

 

Software Features

• Up to 5 Profiles saved to the in-built memory
• Adjustable X / Y Axis
• Adjustable Polling Rate
• Live record macro manager
• Up to 16.8 million color LED options
• Customize RGB manger
• Pulsating, Blinking and Breathing LED effects
• Color Shift lighting mode
• Angle Snapping adjustable in 15 steps
• Angle Tuning adjustable from -30 to 30 degrees
• LOD Calibration tool
• S.Q.A.T™ – Surface Quality Analyzer Tool

 

Dimensions & Weight

• 125.3×65×36.6 mm / 4.93×2.56×1.44 in
• Netto (w/o cable): 100 gr
• Netto (cable incl.): 146 g

 

 

3. Experience & Performance

 

The mouse is very well built. No lens rattle, no weird noises or movements coming from the frame.

The Omron switches under the primary buttons have a crisp but soft tactile feeling as is to be expected with Omron switches.

No complaints about the side-buttons either, the upper one on both sides makes a different click noise compared to the lower one.

 

I'm not sure if this was intentional or not but it helps you identify which button you're hitting.

I have to point out that the side-button placement might be annoying for some.

Unless you place your middle finger below the side-buttons or more towards the front of the mouse, it'll probably be resting on the side-buttons.

Making it easier for you to accidentally activate these buttons. Personally I do not mind as I have disabled the buttons on the side I'm not using.

If the buttons on the side where you place your middle and little finger were more towards the front you could use these buttons without having to shift your hand position on the mouse.

However, it's this way because it's an ambidextrous mouse.

 

 

In terms of performance the mouse is absolutely great.

The Avago ADNS-3310 sensor it has tracks perfectly with even the fastest swipes. No acceleration, no prediction, just pure accuracy.

I didn't try every dpi setting but I did try a lot of the more common ones. 400, 800, 1000, 1200, 1400, 1600, 3200, 5000, 7000.

 

The sensor did not track at all on my Ikea table or other hard light colored surfaces.

You should probably be using this mouse with a good cloth mouse pad for optimal tracking anyway.

The Avior 7000 tracks perfectly on the Roccat Taito 3mm I use.

 

The 3-step DPI switching on the mouse is quick and without lag.

I've read complaints where people said the dpi levels above the native 5000 dpi of the 3310-sensor had jitter and other inaccuracies.

Mionix claims they've fixed this with the latest firmware (3.08) and it's true. 

I haven't had any of the cable drag often associated with braided cables. The cable is pretty rigid so you can angle it up to keep it from making contact with your mouse pad.

 

Software

The software is great and easy to use. You need to install it if you want to change LOD, poling rate, LED colors, pointer speed etc. and most importantly, the dpi steps.

Although the mouse is completely plug and play, not everybody wants to use the 400, 1600, 7000 dpi steps the mouse has out of the box. The standard poling rate is 1000Hz.

Within the 5 profiles you can set everything. Functions for the 9 buttons the mouse has, scroll speed, acceleration (dunno why anyone would turn this on..), LOD etc.

The LED's are also very customizable. You can change the scroll wheel and logo LED individually. There are different lighting modes like solid, blinking, breathing and pulsating.

You can also set one color for the LED's or let the colors switch automatically.

 

My one gripe is that for custom colors the LED lighting was a bit of a let down. You can input RGB profiles but many look the same.

There are hundreds if not thousands of shades of blue but most will look pretty much the same despite of the RGB profile set.

The weird thing is that it does look like the Mionix software is registering the colors properly. The on-screen picture accurately show the color you've created, it's the LED's of the mouse that can't output it.

 

4. Ergonomics

 

So I've already covered the placement of the side-buttons, all in all it's not a big deal.

The texture of the mouse is grippy but no too grippy, it stays clean and feels high quality.

Sweaty hands will show on the texture as is to be expected with this kind of texture but they fade away quickly after you remove your hand.

 

 

Mionix claims this mouse is also for palm grippers. This is only true if you have small hands.

When trying to palm grip it, my 22.5 cm hands (middle fingertip to palm base) exceeded the front edges by plenty.

People with 18 cm or smaller hands can probably palm grip it. 

Otherwise, the mouse is very comfortable for claw and fingertip gripping.

 

The scroll wheel steps aren't the most defined but they're defined enough that you won't be skipping scroll steps if you don't want to.

 

5. Conclusion

 

In conclusion I present you with the pro's and con's.

 

Pro's:

• "perfect" Avago ADNS-3310 sensor
• ambidextrous
• solid build quality
• nice texture
• big mouse feet
• Omron switches
• quick, flawless dpi switching
• braided cable
• adjustable LED's (logo and scroll wheel LED individually adjustable)
• good software
• nice shape for claw or fingertip grippers

 

Con's:

• custom RGB color profiles aren't put out accurately
• side-button placement might be annoying for those hoping to use all four side-button, middle finger rests on side-buttons
• doesn't track on hard light colored surface

 

I am very happy with the Avior 7000. It's solid all around. None of the cons are really big deals except for maybe the side-buttons for some.

9/10.

 

 

Thanks for reading. I hope to have informed you well if you stuck with me through all the text. Please notify me of errors, I will fix them.

[Lolzious]

ZOWIE FTW!

[Shaqo_Wyn]

ZOWIE FTW!

 

My second favorite mouse brand.

 

It annoys me that the FK1 has lens rattle though.

[jakjakattack]

 

No complaints about the side-buttons either, the upper one on both sides makes a different click noise compared to the lower one.

 

Can confirm, I have the naos, the right handed one, its the same mouse but a different frame. All the internals are the same. The back and forward buttons make different sounds. I hadn't noticed that. Thanks!!

 

Great review btw. I am in full agreement with you on everything. These mice are great.

[Shaqo_Wyn]

Can confirm, I have the naos, the right handed one, its the same mouse but a different frame. All the internals are the same. The back and forward buttons make different sounds. I hadn't noticed that. Thanks!!

 

Great review btw. I am in full agreement with you on everything. These mice are great.

 

Thanks!  

[AlexStriz]

Nice review! Really in depth

 

I ended up getting a Naos 7000 off Massdrop. Good God that wait was awful

[Shaqo_Wyn]

Nice review! Really in depth

 

I ended up getting a Naos 7000 off Massdrop. Good God that wait was awful

 

Thanks! Yeah, they even delayed it longer because of the Chinese new year.

Luckily, all frustrations slipped away when the package arrived. 

 

The Naos is also nice, is your hand size a good fit for palm gripping it?

[AlexStriz]

Thanks! Yeah, they even delayed it longer because of the Chinese new year.

Luckily, all frustrations slipped away when the package arrived. 

 

The Naos is also nice, is your hand size a good fit for palm gripping it?

I have small, Linus-esque hands, so the Naos is perfect for palming