Hello again, we’re back with another
review for you, this time it’s another product from our friends at Mionix.
Today for review I’ve got what I think
is one of the best gaming mice on the market today, the Mionix Naos
5000. This mouse is truly one that is just chock full of features
that even the most hardcore gamer will appreciate, and even if you’re
not a gamer you’ll like this mouse and what it’s capable of. The Naos
5000 has got a 5040 DPI sensor in it, one the highest on the market
today and it features adjustable weights, the ability to create five
profiles and macros as well. The Naos 5000 also come with a surface
analyzer tool so you can truly tell which mousepad works the best,
and you can even change the colors of the LEDs in it to suit your own
tastes. So read on to learn about one of the best mice out there
today…
Product
Name: Mionix
Naos 5000 Gaming Mouse
Author: Kristofer Brozio
Sponsor: Mionix
Tech
Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
A STAR HAS BEEN BORN:
This prominent gaming mouse is
named after the star Naos, a blue super giant and one of the
brightest stars in our galaxy. Naos means “ship” and is enough
powerful to create comet tails and huge clouds of auroras visible
from Earth. Naos is constantly moving away from its original position
in the constellation of Vela and it spins about 100 times faster than
our sun. Since its birth it has covered a distance of 400
light-years. No one knows exactly why Naos has such a high rotation
speed, but an explanation to this phenomenon lies in the
gravitational interaction between many other stars.
MODEL OVERVIEW:
A passioned hunt for perfection
has come to an end. Mionix Naos 5000 has seen its first light of day.
Get ready to meet a gaming mouse with an incredible ergonomic comfort
and stunning technology that offers an outstanding gaming experience.
Mionix Naos 5000 features a new innovative weight tuning system for
an optimal weight distribution of the mouse, carefully selected
high-end components and leading laser technology. Stunning features
such as adjustable lift-distance, 5 onboard profiles, extensive macro
settings and customizable LED-lights give you the opportunity to
customize the mouse exactly to your liking.
FEATURES:
Truly ergonomic design
Truly ergonomic design with
support for all five fingers
Maximum grip
The rubber coating ensures a
maximum grip
Balanced weight tuning system
A unique weight tuning system
for an optimal weight distribution
5040 dpi laser sensor
Remarkable tracking performance
built for gaming
128kb built-in memory
Bring your settings and
recorded macros with you stored into one of the 5 profiles
Customizable LED light system
Personalize your mouse with
extensive color options
S.Q.A.T – Surface Quality
Analyzer Tool
Surface Quality Analyzer tool
to measure the tracking quality on a certain surface
3 steps customizable dpi
in-game adjustment
Set 3 dpi values and switch
easily between them in-game
7 programmable buttons
The buttons can be assigned to
any key, mouse command or macro
In-game profile switch
Switch easy with a click
between stored profiles in-game
Adjustable polling rate
Tune it all the way up to
1000Hz through the software
Plug n Play
Completely Plug n Play,
software needed only for configuration
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION:
-Truly ergonomic design
-Grip friendly rubber coating
-7 buttons (7 programmable)
-3 steps in-game dpi adjustment
-In-game profile switch
-Configurable dpi up to 5040
dpi
-6 integrated LEDs
-Adjustable polling rate
-128 kb built-in memory
-Large teflon feets
-Balanced weight tuning system
(up to 40 gr)
-Gold-plated USB connection
-Full speed USB 2.0 with Plug n
Play
-Cable length: 2 m (braided for
durability)
-Compatible with all kinds of
surfaces
DIMENSIONS & WEIGHT:
-130.84×84.72×38.67 mm /
5.15×3.33×1.52 in
-Netto (w/o cable): 106 gr
-Netto (cable incl.): 158 gr
-Weight tuning: up to 40 gr
SENSOR SPECIFICATION:
-5040 dpi gaming laser sensor
-S.Q.A.T – Surface Quality
Analyzer Tool
-Adjustable lift distance
-1 ms response time
-12 000 frames/sec
-Tracking speed: 5.1 m/sec (200
ips)
-10.6 megapixels/sec image
processing
-Acceleration: 30 g
-40 000 Hz sampling rate
-True 16-bit data path
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
-Windows 2000 / XP / Vista / 7
-Available USB port
-40 mb free space on hard drive
WARRANTY INFORMATION:
Warranty for Mionix products
only covers defects caused by manufacturing. The warranty does not
cover defects caused by any kind of usage that is not attributable to
the manufacturing process.
All of our products have 2 year
warranty. Defect products will be replaced with a new product. For
more information read our FAQ or contact your local vendor.
PACKAGE CONTENT;
-Mionix Naos 5000 laser gaming
mouse
-Get started guide
-Weight box
-8 weights (5 grams)
Price: $98.45
(As
of now there is only one place to buy the Naos 5000 in the United
States and that’s at Medusa-USA)
A
Better Look at Things:
The Mionix Naos 500 comes in a
presentation style box, it opens up to show the mouse and the weight
pack.
Inside the box is only the mouse,
manual and a metal box with the weights in it.
The weights are all 5 grams each
and they’ve got the Mionix logo on them.
The Naos 5000 is an all black
mouse until you turn it on then the scroll wheel, DPI buttons, DPI
settings and the Mionix logo will light up.
On the left side you’ll find two
buttons and the DPI settings indicators.
On the top is the scroll wheel and
behind that are two buttons to change the DPI up and down. Behind the
buttons is the Mionix logo.
On the bottom you’ll find a green
Mioniox logo with the sensor in the middle of it, and of course the slick teflon feet are there as well.
On both sides of the bottom are
doors where the weights go. Most mice have only one place for the
weights to go, with the Naos 5000 you can really adjust the balance
of it to your own liking.
Installation,
Testing and Comparison:
The weights just slide in on each
side of the Naos 5000, then just close the door and you’re set to
play.
Here’s a picture of several mice
that I could find quickly for comparison:
Left
to right: Zowie Branded MS
Intellimouse,
Mionix Naos 5000, NZXT Avatar Rev1, Mionix Saiph 3200, NZXT
Avatar Rev2 and the Logitech
G5 Rev2.
The Mionix 5000 is a rather large
mouse, before I got it for review I’ve been using the Mionix Saiph
3200 for the last few months. It did take me about two weeks to
really get accustomed to the size and feel of the Naos 5000 Mouse. So
if you’re interested in this mouse just be ware that it’s bigger than
most out there, wider that is.
Once I got accustomed to the size
and feel of it though I’ve come to like it quite a bit, but it’s a
toss up between the Saiph 3200 and the Naos 5000 as to which one I
like better, both are Mionix mice of course. What can I say, Mionix
makes a good mouse…
Anyway, nothing except the weights
and manual come with the Naos 5000, it can be used just plug and play
and you’ll be fine, but to really take advantage of the features of
this mouse you’ll need to go and get the software from the Mionix
site. The software really allows you to fully configure the Naos to
your own likings and you can even have five profiles saved for
different games and usages and you can also create your own macros.
The first page of the software
interface is all about the settings of the mouse, the main settings
that is, each button is configurable, and you can adjust double click
and scroll speeds along with pointer acceleration and you can adjust
the polling rate as well.
The next page is Sensor
Performance. The Naos 5000 has three DPI settings that you can access
for each profile. What’s interesting is that you can adjust the X and
Y separately or together, and you can adjust pointer speed and the
left distance. On the sensor settings page you’ll also find something
called the Surface Quality Analyzer which you can actually check the
quality of your mousing surface, I’ll get more into that a little
later where I went and tested a bunch of mousepads that I’ve got on
hand to see how this works exactly..
The next page or tab is Color
Settings, we’re skipping that one for right now, so then the next tab
would be Macro Settings where you can set your own custom macros for
games or whatever.
The last tab is Support where you
can automatically check for Software and Firmware updates and there’s
a link to the Mionix Online Support site as well. Mionix is very good
at keeping things up to date including drivers, software and firmware
updates so check often to get new updates for the Naos 5000.
Ok, let’s jump back to the Color
Settings page… This is a cool feature really, yes it doesn’t have
much to do with the actual performance and function of the mouse but
I like the idea that you can change the colors of all of the LEDs on
the mouse. You have the option to turn off all the LEDs, turn them
all on of you can just have certain ones on like only the Mionix logo
or only the scroll wheel be one. Then you can change the colors of
the LEDs for those, or all.
There’s 24 color settings to
choose from, but here’s just a few of them for you to get an idea of
what they look like:
I like the color changing feature
quite a bit and I like how you can just change certain things to the
colors, but there is one wish I have and that would be to be able to
actually assign different colors to each thing separately. Like
having the Mionix logo green, and the scroll wheel blue and then the
DPI settings red and the DPI buttons purple, that’s just an example,
but that would great if you could do that. Who knows maybe with a
firmware update they could enable it…
So let’s jump back again to the
SQAT or Surface Quality Analyzer Tool. I collected several mousepads
of varying surfaces like metal, cloth, glass and plastic and tested
them with the SQAT tool to see how it works and to see if I could
actually feel a difference between them.
The pads I tested are:
Raptor-Gaming Cloth
SteelSeries
5L Hybrid Cloth/Plastic
Ultimat Cloth
Xraypads Aqua3 Cloth
Xtracpads Hybrid Cloth/Plastic
Zowiegear Cloth
When you click the Analyze Surface
button you’ve got to move the mouse all around the pad for it to
analyze the surface, then it gives you a result on a scale from Poor
to Excellent.
None
of my pads registered totally Excellent, but I had one that came very
close, the SteelSeries
S&S Plastic Mousepad.
Here’s the results of the pads:
As you can see, some are better
than others. Yes I could tell the difference while using the Naos
5000 on the pads as well, especially between the low performance ones
and the higher performing ones.
I like the SteelSeries S&S
plastic pad, so I’m more than happy to use the Naos 5000 with it, and
it works great.
Tracking is excellent overall,
even with the lower performing pads.
I’ve been using the Naos 5000 for
a while now and I do like it quite a bit, it’s one of the best mice
I’ve ever encountered. It’s shame that not many people know about
Mionix and that their products really aren’t readily available here
in the states like other companies products are.
The price of the Naos 500 is a bit
high, the highest priced mouse I’ve ever had the chance to review I
think, coming in at just under $100. Is it worth it? I think it is if
you need a mouse like this, if you want the best you’re going to pay
for it right? Still though I think it could be priced a bit lower,
but that is of course up to the company and not me. It’s an
enthusiast product that might be priced out of reach for the average
user and even gamer.
I personally like mice with the
ability to change the DPI settings, this has become commonplace these
days on gaming mice so it’s not really considered a main feature
anymore I think, but it’s still something that I think I couldn’t
live without. I do some gaming on the PC when I have time and yes I
do change the DPI at times, and it’s also nice to be able to change
the settings for even regular work usage. I run four monitors and
having a speedy mouse is nice to be able to get across them all
quickly, but I can then slow it down a bit when need be.
Summary
and Comments:
The Mionix Naos 5000 gaming mouse
is one of the best out there period.
It offers everything one could ask
for in a gaming mouse and then some.
The ability to change the colors
is not some major performance enhancing feature but it’s a great one
really, it’s nice to be able to customize the Naos 500 to your own
liking.
Having weight chambers on both
sides of the mouse is nice as well, you can truly adjust the balance
of it to suit your own tastes.
I had no issues with tracking at
all, it worked perfectly on pretty much every surface I tried. The
Surface Quality Analyzer Tool is a nice addition as well so you can
really tell which mousepad will work the best with the mouse.
It’s a bit large yes and it will
take some time to get accustomed to but it’s worth it in the end.
The price is a bit on the high
side, I’d like to see it come down a bit to be more competitive with
other gaming mice out there. It’s an excellent mouse overall that I
think with the high price has put itself out of reach from the
average user really.
DragonSteelMods gives the Mionix
Naos 5000 a 4.5 out of 5 score and our Editor’s Choice Award as well.
Pros:
+Excellent tracking
+Can change colors
+Fully customizable settings
+Separate macros and profiles
+Surface analyzer tool
+Mionix fully supports with
firmware updates
+Adjustable weights
Cons:
-Large mouse
-Right handed only
-High price
review# 631
Disclosure: This product was given to DragonSteelMods for review by the company
for review purposes only, and is not considered by us as payment for
the review, we do not, never have, and never will, accept payment
from companies to review their products.
To
learn more about our review policy, testing methods and ratings
please see this page.