Many manufacturers claim gaming mice with ergonomic designs, only for the products to fall short of providing any real benefit or added comfort to the user. The Mionix Naos 8200 (Rs. 7,200 on Amazon.in) actually lives up to the hype. It’s one of the most comfortable gaming mice I’ve ever used. On top of that, it offers strong performance and customization options that include sensitivity adjustment, lighting settings, and programmable buttons. If you’re looking for excellent construction and features in a gaming mouse, you should strongly consider the Naos 8200.
Design and Features
An all-black rubber-coated mouse, the Naos 8200 has a thumb rest on the left side and two sloped ledges on the right for your pinky and ring finger. As a result it measures a rather wide 1.52 by 3.33 by 5.15 inches (HWD), but the added width is worth it for the extra comfort you get from the finger rests. The ledges are contoured to almost the exact curve of my hand as it would naturally rest on the mouse, a feat that seems simple enough to make you wonder why more mice can’t quite get it right. Between the thumb rest, the comfortably curved left- and right-click buttons, and the two finger rests on the side, the Naos 8200 offers support for all five fingers.
Unfortunately, this carefully-sculpted right-handed design means lefties are left out in the cold. The sloping supports on the right side of the mouse are shaped for ring and pinky fingers, not a thumb, meaning zero ergonomic benefits if you’re left-handed. The mouse is still usable, but not particularly comfortable, and the side buttons on the left of the mouse are in the wrong place for easy thumb access. Left-handed users are better off looking into more ambidextrous options.
There are no adjustable weights on the Naos 8200, so it’s locked in at 3.49 ounces. It’s lighter than most gaming mice, but much less compact. However, that is a matter of preference.. The Naos 8200 features a laser sensor with an 8,200dpi. You might not always need super sensitivity in most gaming scenarios, but the option is good to have.
Mionix offers free software to customize the Naos 8200’s lighting and sensitivity, a common feature now for high-performance gaming mice. The software is easy to use, and the Naos 8200’s seven programmable buttons can be changed from the software’s main page. These include customization for the left- and right-click buttons, the mouse wheel, back and forward thumb buttons, and dpi up and dpi down buttons beneath the scroll wheel. You can set scroll and double-click speed, as well as the polling rate, and there are five profiles into which you can save different settings. The X-axis and Y-axis dpi numbers can be set independently, which is a nice touch, and you can also calibrate lift distance and pointer speed.
You can customize the four areas on the Naos 8200 that emit light—the palm logo, the scroll wheel, the dpi switch buttons, and the dpi indicator on the side that shows which sensitivity you have selected. There are options to make the color change or to make a specific color blink, pulse, breathe, or stay solid. You can also record and save any macros you need in a different tab, allowing you to save your own button combinations for various games. What could be complicated is made pretty straightforward here, and the macros work as intended.
Performance
In testing, the Naos 8200 remained comfortable through long playing sessions, thanks to the contoured hand support, and its smooth tracking never faltered. The four plastic feet on the underside of the mouse glide across traditional surfaces like a mouse pad with ease, and I didn’t experience any lag while gaming. The feet even seem slightly more slippery than most, which may prompt you to keep the dpi a bit lower than you normally would.
The lack of a dedicated sniper button (similar to those seen on the Logitech G303 and the Corsair M65 RGB) means you can’t instantly snap your sensitivity to a preset level for sniping with one click, but ratcheting through three levels is easy enough with the dpi buttons under the scroll wheel. It’s not ideal if that feature is really important to you, but playing on the middle sensitivity with the lowest one set to your preferred sniper dpi means it’s still one click away. You can even save this setting as one of your mouse’s profiles.
Conclusion
Mionix has created a simple and well-performing gaming mouse in the Naos 8200, with its customizable lighting and sensitivity settings and a design that’s very comfortable to use, even during long gaming sessions. It does lack some extras, like the Corsair M65 RGB’s adjustable weight and a dedicated sniper button, and it’s a little pricier than that model, but the Naos 8200 is worth a look for its superior ergonomics and smooth performance.
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