The Zephyr Gaming Mouse is an innovative new peripheral designed to keep your hand cool and dry. Though I personally don't experience a sweaty palm while gaming, I can say with confidence that the design of the mouse is effective at cooling and the airflow is better than in any other similar device. I'm not completely sold on the internal fan as it seems to have more drawbacks than benefits, but the Zephyr has enough cool features𒁏 and unique qualities that it's easy to recommend. If you're looking for something light with a quality build, the Zephyr is my favorite in its weight class. If you have hot hands, this should be a no brainer.
Light And Airy
I've actually never used a mouse quite this lightweight. I've always been a stickler for a heavy mouse because of my tendency to overcorrect when FPS games. Having said that, there's something satisfying abou🧸t the near-weightlessness of the Zephyr mouse.📖 I use a hard mouse pad, and the Zephyr mouse literally slides across my desk with the softest touch like a hockey puck on ice. It's only 68 grams, so if you think light is right, this is one of the lightest.
The Zephyr mouse has a honey-comb shell which reduces weight and creates better airflow and I must say I actually like the design a lot. We've reviewed mice with similar designs like the Model D from Glorious PC Gaming, but the Zephyr shell exposes the internals completely. It's a truly one-of-a-kind desig🍰n works on every level: it's light, it stays cool, an🍬d it looks awesome.
The Deal With The Fan
The design and natural airflow are doing a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to keeping your hand cool and dry, but the big selling point of the Zephyr is the built-in fan. Aimed at the center palm, the miniature fan has 2 speeds (4,000 RPM and 10,000 RPM) and can be toggled from a hidden button under the mouse. I could not feel the force of the fan atജ either speed, which is not to say it doesn't work, but I was expecting to actually feel some air movement on my hand at the highest speed.
What I did feel was a pretty significant vibration at the high speed. It wasn't necessarily unpleasant, and I could definitely get used to it if it was helping me keep my hands d๊ry, but nevertheless I found it a little too distracting.
There's also the sound. The Kickstarter page says the sound that the fan produces is just under 30 Decibels and "extremely quiet." I don't disagree completely, it is quiet, but it's a bit of a high pitched whine. With my headphones on I can't hear it at all and I honestly never thought about it while I was playing. With headphones off, I found the frequency of the sound pretty grating. It's a teeny tiny fan spinning 𝔍at 10,000 RPM so I expect there's not much that can be done about it. Definitely not a deal-breaker, especially if you play with headphones.
Now That's Some Awesome RGB
My favorite thing about the Zephy🍸r mouse has got to be the RGB because it's just so unique. There are three variable "zones" across the mouse. One zone includes the light around the middle mouse button and in the vents on either side of the mouse. This is a static color that matches the DPI you have the mouse set to (adjustable from 800 to 16,000). I don't think I've ever seen a mouse with an RGB indicator for the DPI and, while I would prefer to be able to customize these lights, it's nice to have a color that matches my preferred setting and save me from my normal ritual: click, move the mouse, click, move the mouse, click, move the mouse until I find the right sensitivity.
The 2nd zone is strip that wraps completely around the front half of the mouse on the outside and two strips the run down the front half under the shell. I've never see a mouse that has a rim around the M1 and M2 buttons and, though it looks strange at first, it didn't affect usability at all. There are a small handful preset effects you can cycle through, and while they're pretty standard options, the combination of the unique external LED shape and the lights beneath the honey-comb shell makes all of the lighting effects look really unique and interesting. I'm surrounded by RGB periphera𒀰ls eve🍬ry day and I still found the Zephyr mouse especially mesmerizing.
The last RGB zone is around the fan. This light does a slow color cycle that can't be customized. Even if you set the other lights to color cycle, they don't sync with the fan light. Overall the look is really unique, but it's not nearly as customizable as similar devices and there's really no way to get a cohesive look out of it. I like how weird it is, but there's no way to get it to fit in ꦿwith the aesthetic of my whole set up.
A Great Deal At 50% Off For Backers
The Zephyr has a ton of features and designs that I've never seen beꦯfore in a mouse. As someone that looks at a ton of gaming products, it's pretty rare to find something as unique as the Zephyr mouse. I'm a bit dubious about the cooling properties of the fan, but there's no denying that the extremely lightweight design and honey-comb shell are effective at keeping things cool.
The version of the Zephyr mouse I tested is a prototype and not exactly what backers will be receiving in October, but even if it was the final version, I'd be happy to recomme𓆉nd this mouse for anyone looking for something super lightweight and visually striking.
A Zephyr Gaming Mouse was provided tꩵo TheGamer for this review. Check out their for more information.