Peripherals

Marsback Zephyr PRO RGB Gaming Mouse With Built-In Fan Review

A Closer Look & Performance

There are a lot of cool gaming mice on the market today, however, this one is literally designed to keep you cool, and that’s pretty cool! OK, I’ll stop. It does look good though, and apes the design of the extremely popular ultra-light gaming mice that have been hitting the market. A lot of material has been cut out of the body, reducing the overall weight, but also allowing plenty of passive airflow too.

Down the left side, you’ll see there are two side buttons, which is all pretty standard “mouse” stuff really.

The switches feel nice and responsive though, with large control surfaces that are easy to actuate, but not so much that you trigger them by accident. Plus, there’s a really nice contour to the side of the mouse, allowing a very natural and comfortable gripping point for your thumb.

I can lift the mouse with minimal effort and a light grip. This is partly due to the comfortable shape, but also because the mouse is just 69 grams overall!

As you can see, there is quite a bit of ventilation and weight saving on the rear. That exoskeleton look does look fantastic though, and uhm, Fan-tastic it is indeed, as there’s that tiny RGB fan just below it; more on that shortly.

On the right side, another nice ergonomic shape. I think it’s fair to say that while the mouse looks very unique, it feels very familiar and Zephyr haven’t reinvented that classic mouse shape here.

There are four buttons up on the top, with the LMB and RMB, a profile button, and a clickable mouse wheel. Of course, thanks to the software suite, these are all fully programmable to suit your needs.

Both the LMB and RMB consist of their own individual panels, giving them a much tighter and localised response with no feedback from one to the other. Combined with some Omron switches and a tensioned spring, they’re extremely responsive with no pre-travel. You don’t have to be an eSports pro to enjoy a responsive click like this, it just feels tight and snappy, and the click is pretty satisfying too.

The mouse wheel is a good size, with a soft grip covering and a soft tactile bump when turned. It’s pretty responsive, and while small movements are accurate, you can spin it at a good speed easily enough too.

The mouse is wired, and you’ll find that super-sexy soft braiding compliments the design really nicely.

The underside of the mouse has a lot going on too, with even more ventilation and weight saving. It looks pretty cool actually, not that you’ll spend much time looking at the underside.

There are some lovely quality PTFE feet on the mouse, which give it exceptionally good glide. However, that’s further enhanced by the fact this mouse is already extremely light. There are two buttons down here too, one for lighting and one for the fan. While there is desktop software, I really appreciate having hardware control of these features that do not need the software to be loaded. It means you can quickly turn either feature on or off as you see fit. In the middle, there’s that lovely sensor. It’s a Pixart 3389 optical sensor, which delivers 400 IPS and a huge DPI range of 50 to 16,000, and you can set up to seven stages to this and save them to the mouses on-board memory.

Powered up, the mouse springs to life in a shower of RGB. There’s a lovely U shaped trim around the bottom of the mouse that provides a lot of edge/under lighting effects.

It looks gorgeous, and the colours and brightness are really vibrant. Of course, you can tinker with brightness and colours in the software too.

However, the one that really stands out is the RGB fan. I really expected the mouse to have RGB and a fan, not both in one. I didn’t think you could get an RGB fan in such a small form factor, but there it is!

The fan has been redesigned since the first-gen Zephyr, and they’ve changed the angle of the fan from 45° to 180°. I haven’t tried the old one, but this new version is said to be cooler, quieter, and has reduced any vibrations, which all sounds good to me.

The software is pretty decent too, which is a rare thing for me to say. Everything is clearly laid out, easy to understand, and all the settings save directly to the mouse so you don’t always need the software loaded to use the mouse, which is great.

It’s certainly worth using the software at least once though, and ensuring everything is configured to your liking.

You can also tinker with the lighting and fan profiles here, and given that they’re such major features for the Zephyr Pro, you would be mad not to.

So, what about that fan? Well, I was hoping I could adjust the speed of it, but apparently not. It’s fairly subtle, but it does make a difference. Now, I do not get sweaty hands when I’m gaming, albeit I know quite a few people do. However, I can’t deny that on a warm summers day, this will be a nice little addition.

If you’re expecting more than a light breeze though, keep in mind it’s a tiny fan. What it does it just keep the airflow moving around your palm and the mouse. It encourages a more natural cooling feeling rather than blast air at you, which I think would likely just become annoying if it did anyway. I can’t hear it on a night while gaming, it’s super quiet. You have to put it to your ear to hear it. Which, incidentally is a good way to test the force of the fan, and tickle your ears. Also, I now want a headset with fans in it for summertime. As for the mouse itself, it’s bloody fantastic, all of the fan pun fully intended. It’s a very competitive mouse, with a quality sensor and switches that can rival anything else in this price range.

Also, with it being an ultralight, it’s really well-tuned for comfortable usage and fast-paced gaming, and I’m sure the eSports and FPS scene in general will fall in love with it.

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Peter Donnell

As a child still in my 30's (but not for long), I spend my day combining my love of music and movies with a life-long passion for gaming, from arcade classics and retro consoles to the latest high-end PC and console games. So it's no wonder I write about tech and test the latest hardware while I enjoy my hobbies!

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