Published: June 22, 2014 | Source: i-rocks | Author: Bryan Waters

i-rocks M09 Gaming Mouse Review

Conclusion

There is much to like about the i-rocks ROCK M09 gaming mouse.

Like so many products at this end of the price spectrum, there have been areas that have been reduced to enable it to hit that price point, but unlike a lot of models we’ve reviewed i-rocks have decided to go away from a high-DPI sensor and focus their efforts on the rest of the package.

That isn’t to say that the sensor is bad in any way. Sure it’s not an Avago offering, but it still tracks well. We know that many of you, ourselves included, don’t always want to run your mice at 8000DPI all the time. It’s just too fast for casual browsing. Now whilst you can always detune a high DPI mouse, it seems an expensive option if you’re not going to take full advantage of it. It would be akin to owning a Double Decker bus for own use, or a McLaren P1 to drive round central London. 500DPI is probably too low unless you own a 5 foot mouse pad, but the highest speed of 1750DPI is perfectly usable.

Build quality is good. We love the design which is comfortable in your hand and stands up to long use without causing fatigue. The soft coating ensures a good grip on the mouse, and we particularly like the lighting. The switches don’t feel at the same level of quality as an Omron switch, but they’re still nice and solid in use.

Whereas the K10 was very much of a price, the M09 ticks all the boxes for a good value mouse. If anything the price-point is the biggest problem. There are a load of mice even at £20, with the majority coming from brand names that have a much larger market share than i-rocks. Of course this is a new company, but Roccat came out of the blocks with exceptional products. Speaking of Roccat, we imagine that their lawyers are already on the phone to i-rocks. The panther head on the palm spot of the M09 is such a rip off of the Roccat icon that it would be extremely easy to get them muddled up.

As a good quality mouse for the price, albeit with no customisation, the i-rocks M09 is a bargain if you don’t require insane DPI resolutions. For that reason we’re happy to award it our OC3D Silver Award.