Mionix NAOS 5000 Review

Introduction

The world of gaming peripherals has seen an explosion with a huge amount of companies entering the marketplace and vying for a slice of your gaming budget.

There are many ways in which they attempt to accomplish this, be it through the introduction of new features, or a lower price point, or a design quirk. With so many mice to choose from making your product stand out from the pack has become harder and harder.

We here at OC3D know that our readers are a discerning bunch and wouldn't default to a "brand" solely because they've heard of it. However, the same cannot be said for the populous at large and that's why hardware gets reviewed. Everyone, even Intel, were a new company once.

Mionix

Todays new company is a small Swedish concern by the name of Mionix.

Mionix have only been around for a couple of years, but like many Swedish companies they have a flair for design and a willingness to push the boundaries that bit further than you expect. With a plan to take on the more established companies such as Logitech and Razer, they cannot be faulted for ambition. With a small range of products catering to very distinct markets they certainly don't suffer from the problem associated with other companies where only a magnifying glass can show the differences between a, for example, 'Turbo 432PW' and a 'Turbo 451WS'.

As no-one will be a sensation by providing average products to the average person, we're going to leap straight in and look at their high-end gaming mouse, the Mionix NAOS 5000.

NAOS 5000

Sometimes a product name can appear to be a random assortment of letters. Not so here as the NAOS is actually named for a part of our Galaxy. I'll let Mionix explain :

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.

Hmm. Well they certainly have got the blurb down pat. A quick trip to the Mionix website reveals a comprehensive list of features with the NAOS 5000 supporting everything you'd expect to find on a gaming mouse, but in a single package.

Specifications

   • 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

We've had a good think and we can't come up with anything that we would want added. Comprehensive specifications indeed.

So we've established it comes with all the toys. Is it truly ergonomic? Keep reading.