Gigabyte Aorus Thunder M7 Gaming Mouse Review

Conclusion

Our time spent with the Aorus Thunder M7 has left us feeling vindicated after the haranguing we received last time we reviewed an MMO mouse. Back then the accusation was that we just don’t like a lot of buttons and so wouldn’t like anything regardless of quality. Whereas our riposte was that the item in question wasn’t designed well enough to be worthy of praise.

The Aorus Thunder M7 is brilliant. It’s an MMO mouse done properly. There are, as always, a couple of minor caveats but in general if you’re in the market for a mouse that has enough buttons to double up as an ad-hoc one octave piano, then this is the one for you.

The design is modern enough to be eye-catching, with ‘headlights’, sharp angles and clear plastic windows, yet it has enough of the old school to be both comfortable and subtle. It’s pointy at the business end and smooth where your palm would suffer the most. It certainly lights up brightly, even if the lack of complete colour change when adjusting the lighting in your profile is one of the things we dislike about it. Why would you want some parts of the mouse always being blue? Hmm.

Button placement is always the most difficult bit of any MMO design and we think the M7 pulls it off very cleverly. Even with my big hands everything was within reach without feeling cramped. It’s the cramped nature that is so difficult to eliminate, but by bevelling the edges of the side buttons quite heavily you can very quickly find the one you’re after on feel alone. This also ensures you don’t accidentally press two at once. The placement of the DPI buttons could be problematic if you’re inclined to squeeze the mouse hard in moments of pressure, but for anyone with even average gaming ability this shouldn’t be an issue. Worthy of note though if you’re worried you might be a “hugger”.

The software has the full range of features available and is both clear and simple to use. All mice could benefit from the ability to include screen coordinates in their macros, but a strategy based one brings this into sharper focus and the Thunder M7 doesn’t disappoint.

When you take into account the excellent design, great software and then add to that the Omron switches and Avago 9800 sensor that dominate the gaming mouse market, you can be sure that the Aorus Thunder M7 will tick all of the boxes. Sure if you don’t need 9 or 10 extra buttons on your mouse then you’d be well advised to save your money for a more standard design, but if you do need them then there is nothing better on the market that we’ve tested so the Aorus Thunder M7 wins our OC3D Gold Award.

The Thunder P3 mouse pad is a more varied experience, but largely because we were sent one so big that you could clothe the homeless in it. All of them. However, if you select a more sensibly sized offering then the spill-proof coating and high quality of stitching surround a very comfortable gaming surface. We like it very much and if we’d have been sent the small one it would probably replace our current pad of choice, such is the excellent performance. It too wins our OC3D Gold Award. Just don’t get the Extra large one unless you own a runway.

 

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