GravaStar Mercury M1 Pro: a wireless gaming mouse with a brash design that unfortunately hampers performance
GravaStar Mercury M1 Pro: Two-minute review
The GravaStar Mercury M1 Pro is built for professional-level gamers, with advanced features and looks aimed squarely at the gaming market. But its design will be divisive, to say the least.
The GravaStar Mercury M1 Pro’s industrial spiderweb body with faux scuffs and scratches (on the combat-worn version) looks dated 20 years ago. The dark gray color of this variant only adds to the sour taste. There is a large RGB light in the center of the mouse, which definitely makes it more eye-catching. However, I have a hard time imagining anyone finding the Mercury M1 Pro to their liking.
You might think that the dimple design helps save weight, but the Mercury M1 Pro’s metal frame and center mass make it feel; at 88 grams, it’s certainly more best gaming mouse About.
Its long shape and webbing are also not ergonomic. The metal material doesn’t offer the best grip, and the mouse buttons are short and feel like they require a long reach – those with smaller hands may struggle in this area.
The concave sidewalls also don’t offer much support or grip when lifted before sliding. Optional grip straps are included on the sides and mouse buttons, but that didn’t improve the problem for me, and the padding feels cheap and too slippery to be of much use.
On top of that, despite their cheap plastic construction, the mouse buttons feel too heavy to click quickly and feel uncomfortable on your fingertips. However, the scroll wheel and side buttons do feel sturdy and secure enough to use.
The thin skates looked scratchy at first, even on a padded surface, until I realized they were covered in imperceptibly thin peel-off flakes – so be sure to remove them before using the Mercury M1 Pro. After that, the scratching feeling disappeared and the sliding felt much smoother. Replacement skates are also included, but they don’t offer any additional padding.
GravaStar software allows you to make various customizations and adjustments. All the standard options are present, such as the ability to rebind five of the six buttons on the Mercury M1 Pro (the main button on the left cannot be changed).
These include some useful system-level shortcuts and features, including custom keystroke combinations (with or without modifier keys), media playback controls, and vertical and horizontal scrolling. However, the selection is a bit sparse compared to what some other peripheral software offers.
Other rebindings include Fire Mode, which allows you to specify a button to rapidly left-click up to three times at intervals between 10 and 255 milliseconds (I’m assuming milliseconds since the software doesn’t do this) (or an unlimited number of times until the button is released ). actually specify the unit). There’s a DPI lock mode that sets the Mercury M1 Pro’s sensitivity to a fixed value, rather than cycling through the six available increments (although these can also be set yourself in the software).
There’s also macro recording capabilities, and of course RGB lighting with multiple pattern and color options to choose from.
To cater to the elite, the lift distance (between 1 and 2 mm) and debounce time (between 4 ms and 8 ms) have also been adjusted. You can also turn motion sync, ripple control, and angle snapping on or off.
However, it’s not enough for many professional-level gamers 4K Turnout. This is achieved by using another USB dongle included in the Battle Worn Edition box, which is much larger than the default bundled 1K dongle, and looks like something that might give birth to the Xenomorph (although why would you Would love to have it on your desk, I) dunno). Many high-end gaming mice offer 8K polling rate, which results in more significant improvements in accuracy and smoothness. Here, though, I have a hard time discerning a performance gain between 1K and 4K, which begs the question: if you’re going to include a separate dongle for higher polling rates, why stop with 8K? ?
When actually playing games, the Mercury M1 Pro didn’t impress in this regard either. The aforementioned ergonomic issues make swiping and clicking awkward; there’s just not enough agility or ease of movement to make it suitable for professional-level gaming in competitive online gaming. The Mercury M1 Pro is accurate enough for casual use, but the feel doesn’t make the Mercury M1 Pro fun to use.
As for battery life, GravaStar’s website just says it’s “extended,” whatever that means. In my testing, I used a mix of power and connected modes and it only dropped 5% after a day of use, which is certainly solid performance.
The various connection methods work well, although switching between 1K and 4K adapters isn’t simple and requires re-pairing each time, which only adds to the inconvenience. However, the process is relatively quick and easy, and you probably won’t be switching between these modes much on the same machine.
It’s hard to find anything to praise about the Mercury M1 Pro, especially because of its hefty price tag. With the same money, you can have a Cherry XTRFY M68 PROwhich offers higher 8K polling rates and better design and performance, although it lacks any tuning software. various Razer Products like the DeathAdder V3 Pro beat it across the board in every aspect.
GravaStar Mercury M1 Pro: price and availability
- US$129/£101/AU$198
- Battle Worn version includes 4K adapter
- High end of the market
The Mercury M1 Pro is priced at US$129 / £101 / AU$198 and is available now. It comes in two colors: gunmetal gray and silver mist, the latter being the older version. It has the aforementioned fake wear feature and comes with a 4K dongle, so it costs more than the gunmetal gray version, which costs $99 / £78 / AU$152.
it’s cheaper than some The best wireless gaming mouse Options we consider include the Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro. However, the mouse can achieve 8K polling rates (although an additional adapter is required to achieve this). It also integrates with Razer’s peripheral software, Synapse, offering many advanced customization features.
You can also buy the Cherry XTRFY M68 Pro for about the same price as the Mercury M1 Pro. Likewise, this mouse has an 8K polling rate, which is supported out of the box. At 55 grams, it’s also much lighter than the Mercury M1 Pro. But it doesn’t come with any peripheral software, so all adjustments have to be done via some rather fiddly button combinations.
GravaStar Mercury M1 Pro: Specifications
interface | Wireless (2.4GHz and Bluetooth) |
Ergonomics | Right-handed symmetry |
button | 6 |
Deep PI | Up to 26,000 |
switch | not specified |
weight | 3 oz (88 g) |
Should you buy the GravaStar Mercury M1 Pro?
value | The Mercury M1 Pro 4K Edition is priced at the same level as Razer and other big-name products, and its performance is not inferior to them. | 2/5 |
design | Its adolescent appearance is not only unpleasant, but also uncomfortable, as its webbed body is difficult to hold comfortably. | 1.5/5 |
Performance | The above design issues will naturally affect performance. It’s also quite clicky, and the 4K polling rate seems meaningless compared to 8K on other pro-grade gaming mice. | 2.5/5 |
Comprehensive | The Mercury M1 Pro doesn’t have many redeeming qualities. From its looks and design to its performance, I wouldn’t use it for any type of competitive gaming. | 2/5 |
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
GravaStar Mercury M1 Pro: Also consider
Header Cell – Column 0 | GravaStar Mercury M1 Pro | Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro Razer Viper V3 Pro | Cherry XTRFY M68 Pro |
---|---|---|---|
price | US$129/£101/AU$198 | US$159/£159/AU$299 | US$129/£139/AU$214 |
interface | Wireless (2.4GHz and Bluetooth) | Wireless (Razer HyperSpeed) | 2.4GHz wireless |
Ergonomics | Right-handed symmetry | Right hand asymmetry | Right-handed symmetry |
switch | 6 | 6 | 6 |
Deep PI | 26,000 | 26,000 | 26,000 |
switch | not specified | Razer 3rd Generation Optical Switch | not specified |
weight | 3 oz (88 g) | 2.22 oz (63 g) | 1.94 oz (55 g) |
How I tested the GravaStar Mercury M1 Pro
- Tested for several days
- for gaming and productivity
- More than 10 years of PC gaming experience
I put the Mercury M1 Pro to the test for a few days and used it for gaming, productivity, and general use.
I’ve played things like Counter-Strike 2 and I am your beast – Fast-paced shooters are the perfect proving ground for gaming mice. I also used as many features in the GravaStar software as possible and used all connection modes, including the 4K adapter.
I’ve been playing computer games for over 10 years, and during that time I’ve used many gaming mice. I’ve also reviewed a variety of products in the field, covering a variety of sizes, feature sets, and prices, from both big brands and lesser-known manufacturers.
First review: November 2024