Every so often, I think to check Monoprice's lineup of gaming peripherals to see if there are any interesting bargains, and today I'm glad I did. While poking around the site, I found a 'Dark Matter by Monoprice Aether' optical gaming mouse on sale for $24.99.
That's half off its list price, and peanuts for a gaming mouse, assuming it works fairly well. To that end, I can't speak from any hands-on experience, but there are several encouraging signs. One is the PixArt PMW 3389 sensor that sits in the belly of this rodent.
It has a 16,000 DPI, and you can change the responsiveness on-the-fly with DPI buttons just below the scroll wheel. There are six presets—800, 1,200, 1,600, 2,000, 8,000, and 16,000—each with a corresponding LED color.
PixArt is a popular brand in the mouse sensor space, and its 3398 variant is found in several name-brand gaming mice, like Cooler Master's MM710 and HyperX's Pulsefire Pro and Surge.
As to the ergonomic design, this is curved for right-handed users. To my eyes, it looks similar to Razer's DeathAdder V2, the best gaming mouse for most gamers. The main clickers are textured, though, and leverage optical mechanical switches with the promise of "almost zero latency."
There's also an adjustable weight system at play here. It comes with seven 2.8g removable weights to tailor the mouse's heft to your liking.
All in all, it looks like an intriguing mouse for the money.
