Pros: Put it this way, I never thought there'd be a mouse that could replace the snappy responsiveness and comfort of my Razer DeathAdder and Zowie EC2-A till I got this mouse. It feels great and it just feels right in your hand. A very light mouse, but not too light, just right. Combined with a decent cloth gaming mouse pad, this mouse is awesome. It also has on-board memory, so you won't have to keep booting up the software just to get your settings memorized (that was one of the ONLY drawbacks I had with the Razer DeathAdder). The mouse buttons have quite a nice feel to them (oh that Omron switch goodness, I tell ya!).
Minor Cons: If you're a palm gripper, this mouse might not be for you. It caters to my hybrid clawgrip style quite well. But if you have huge hands, this probably isn't for you. Also, a light mouse might not be to your liking. I'm not a fan of heavy mice and this mouse has no weight management options. You either get used to the weight or you don't with this mouse. The thumb padding is great, BUT, it's a lint magnet. It's no different than the lint magnet grips of the DeathAdder, but it's a minor chore. The slope of the thumb grip might take a little getting used to, but after a while, this mouse does start to cater to your hand like a comfortable glove.
UPDATE - 02/09/2016: So, I did notice the left mouse button was a lot stiffer than the right mouse button. At first, I thought that was by design. Then, the tactile 'bump' became less and less apparent to the point where the left mouse button was not working anymore. I can't believe I've owned this mouse for less than 2 months and I'm already using the insurance that I paid for this thing to send me a replacement.
UPDATE - 2/17/2016: Mionix returned my messages regarding the defective Castor I had. They said that they'd be more than happy to replace my mouse. But the RMA process was horrible! They wanted the following: a) Provide a VIDEO regarding the issue b) Ship the defective product to SWEDEN. You know how much it costs to send a 1lb box to Sweden? Approx. $115+ USD! I was not happy with this proposition as a customer at all, especially when I was trying to see if they honored their warranty policy.
UPDATE - 5/05/2016: So why did I change my rating back from 1 star to 5 stars? The mouse is fantastic. It just so happened that mine was defective. I respect companies like this that reach out to you to try to make things right. This is rare. A gentleman from Mionix reached out to me to (goes by the name of Christoffer) to see what they can do to make the RMA process for U.S. customers easier. Initially, I was told that I had to ship the defective product to Sweden. Shipping a 1lb box to Sweden isn't exactly cheap. So my initial experience involved Amazon refunding me my money while I ended up with defective Castor (the LMB is now completely unresponsive). Thanks to Mionix and Christoffer, amends were made and the option for U.S. customers to exercise the warranty, return or RMA process has improved drastically (you can now ship the product to a U.S. location!). The final resolution involved fantastic customer service (after my initial experience of course), a change in the return process for all U.S. customers who buy Mionix product and most importantly, they replaced my defective Castor with a fully functional and brand spanking new Castor. This company rocks and I hope computer accessory companies like Mionix keep up the great work. Thanks Amazon and thanks Mionix!
I really wanted to like this mouse, and I most certainly did. It comes in a unique astecally pleasing box. The laser on this mouse had no problems tracking on my Aukey mouse pad and through the well designed software, I was able to set the mouse to a familiar DPI. The mouse has a nice rubberized texture. It's rubberized feel and weight are very similar to a Razer Death adder. Through the software you are able to choose any color you would like for the Mionix logo as well as the scroll wheel. Patterns such as "breathing" or others can be selected. The problem which ultimately forced me to return it, was the shape. In the search to replace my old CM Storm Spawn I have purchased, and returned five mice up to this one in hopes of finding a true fingertip grip mouse to replace the dated Spawn. I have pretty large hands and even still, the bottom of the mouse is too long, hitting my palm during fingertip use. This ultimately stops me from aiming further down in games, putting me at a huge disadvantage as a lift up and move the mouse.
To end, this mouse would work great for Palm, or claw grip. Unless you are a titan, don't purchase this for your fingertip grip.
I hope I was able to help other tip grippers in their purchase decision.
I'm not sure where to begin with this:
I'm a little mouse addicted, I currently have (on my mouse pad) a Razer Basilisk, Logitech g502, Corsair m65, SteelSeries Rival 700, Mionix Naos 7000 and Mionix Castor. I previously have owned a Logitech g402 and Mad Catz Cyborg Rat 7.
So with that said as a qualifier, I wasn't even aware of Mionix up until about a month ago. I decided to try the Castor first (and I actually just received the Naos 7000 a couple days ago, so I'm still working through that one) but immediately the Castor felt quite good albeit a bit odd for the first hour or so. It's a bit smaller than I standardly would use. I have pretty wide hands and usually mice of a similar footprint don't suit me very well. I knew it was going to be a bit polarizing going in, given the ergonomic shape.
-Looks: It's not very tacticool, where many gaming mice are very over the top. This is a very much less is more design, almost like the ethos of modernism. I quite appreciate it, it's flat black and the LEDs aren't overly bright. Some of the other mice I have are VERY bright which can cause some issues with certain colors (namely, purple, which if too bright of an LED will appear more pink than purple).
-Feel:
a) I think first and foremost Mionix has absolutely blown the textures of their mice out of the park. It's a very soft/smooth, almost rubbery feeling texture on the 'plastic' parts, with actual rubber on the thumb rest.
b) The shape on its own will be something you'll either love or hate. I feel like it's a lot more versatile than the initial impression might incline you to believe though. You can easily claw / fingertip grip this mouse, though for me palming can be a bit difficult, which is just as well because I don't really use a palm grip ever. Smaller hands (than my 11.5cm wide hands) could probably palm it also.
c) Buttons themselves are tactile without being overly harsh. Perhaps a touch softer than the omron switches that are very popular right now.
d) The mouse wheel isn't anywhere near a free spin and isn't very ratchety at all, rather about a rubbery wheel which you can feel defined bumps in, however it isn't overly ratcheted. I know everyone has their preferences here, so it may or may not suit everyone. It's worth noting that the mouse wheel is fairly recessed too.
-Performance: Between all of the mice I have, I feel that this is probably one of the 'lesser' sensors, or more dated ones. Don't be fooled though, this sensor is incredibly accurate. In fact, I don't really see a perceivable difference in tracking between this and the g502, rival 700 or basilisk which are all very modern 12/16k dpi sensors. In fact, I find the comfort of this mouse (for me) enhances my aim quite a bit in games beyond what I was noticing with the others. It's also worth noting that the Castor is quite a light mouse, coming in about 5g under the 100g standard of FPS mice.
This is currently my favorite mouse of the bunch, along with the Corsair m65, though this might be odd due to their drastically different shapes (and weights). It's quite different from the others and different from just about any mouse I've tried. The software can be a bit of a pain to get setup (definitely not their strong suit) but once you've saved your profile, you don't even need to use it ever again.
My favorite discovery was how the ergonomic bumps on the right hand side of it can be used in claw position as a more horizontal nub to hold to while in claw grip, it's very natural changing between fingertip and claw with this and works amazingly well.
Okay, let's get this out of the way: I have a bit of a mouse problem. Not the kind you need a cat for; rather, I purchased five mice this year. That's one mouse more than I have limbs that can use them (I'm very talented, not an octopus).
With that said, the Mionix Castor makes me happy every time I touch it.
To compare, my Logitech G9x will warm the cockles every once in awhile when I'm FPSing and I pull off some slick magic with a whipped headshot on a huge DPI setting, or when I remember to toggle the smooth scroll wheel on the bottom for scrolling through pages at ludicrous speed. But that's chump change in comparison.
If the G9x is a finely-tuned weapon of virtual war, the Mionix Castor is total nuclear disarmament.
It holds your hand. Now I don't mean it's a bear of a thing that you'll haul around by its rough matte surface - and to be honest, that's what I feared it'd be. Nope! You're holding hands with Mr. Castor, who just really wants to know what's bothering you at work and offer some sage advice that'll turn the whole world right.
It's something about the plastic and its coating - the G9x has this rubberized matte that doesn't rub your hand raw, but it sure catches any dead skin that might've been there and hides it until you manage to accidentally scrape it and there's that white streak and UGH. (Still not a bad mouse, for the record.) The Mionix feels... silky? It's like microfiber had a really nice shave, and since it's sculpted to let your hand just fall into it, it catches the warmth and radiates it back JUST ENOUGH so that it feels indescribable.
But that's just the surface. We have to go deeper!
The Castor claims to have a zero-tracking sensor. Despite buying anything remotely resembling a mouse that passes in front of me, I can't speak to that mechanically. But from a user standpoint, it might have something to do with how intuitive the movement is - there's no learning curve to speak of, and movements come out precisely as you make them and without compromise. And since the software that comes with it allows an absurd amount of customization (want different levels of DPI for vertical and horizontal movement for some reason? knock yourself out!) it's easy to tweak to your liking.
The switches on this thing, too. MAN. Clicking is crisp and offers some real tactile feedback, but the actuation window (where the actual "click" happens and the mouse registers your input) is thin enough to reliably double-click at lightning speed without missing a single press. And it's not like some mice that will only click reliably and comfortably if your fingers are right on the switch - they just work!
Really, the best feedback I can give is that this mouse is subtle. It shows a lot of design knowhow from a usability standpoint, and an appreciation for its breadth of potential use. The sculpted finger rest on the right side? Uninvasive if you're not using it, but that slight little ridge is heaven if you're palming the Castor. Surprising for me, since I'm usually more prone to claw or rest my pinky and thumb on the mousepad for precision movements (which you can still do, by the way).
And you may have noticed in the photos: it's Not Ugly. The amount of control you have over the lights is actually pretty funny - pink blinking lights? Sure! Two different colors for your scroll wheel and the logo? Why not? Shove your favorite color code in there and get to work. I have mine set to slowly pulse through a gradient on just the mouse wheel, and it's gradual enough that it's actually really pleasant. And I'm someone who generally hates LEDs on input devices.
So, worth it? You bet your firstborn it is. Seriously, if you're in the market for a mouse and this is within your budget, give it a shot. My only criticism is that it'd be nice if you could set it to ratcheting or smooth scroll, but I think that's just coming from the G9x (and as I mentioned previously, I forget about it often).
Replaced my 7 year old Razer Deathadder that finally died. I've got to say I'm loving this mouse. I'm a claw grip guy and this mouse feels great. I love the design of it as well. Doesn't have that extreme "gamer" aesthetics. Very comfortable. Side buttons are nicely out of the way. Love the rubberized side grip on the left of it as well.
As for configuration, one great thing about this mouse is that it is driver-less. It allows you to customize a lot of details about it, but the tool that does it is a simple executable and all configuration is saved and processed on the mouse itself. Allows you to plug and play on any PC without worry about to reconfigure it.
The sole reason it's not a 5 star is because the RGB lighting is really not that accurate. This seems to be a common problem across Mionix's mice from my research. All colors it can produce have some weird violet rainbow coloring bleeding through and just generally inaccurate. It's especially bad on lighter colors. It really cannot do white at all well. White was what I was hoping to set it at. Given how expensive this mouse is I'd expect better here. I set it on a blue and it looks pretty good.
Mionix's motto of "It's all about the craftsmanship" definitely feels present here for the rest of the mouse.
Feature Product
- Premium 6 button multi-color optical right-handed ergonomic gaming mouse. The unique award winning shape and has been developed to be used by right-handed gamers and to equally support palm, claw and fingertip grip style. The mouse has a dedicated pinky- and ring-finger support-groove which makes it most comfortable to hold and lift even for low sensitivity FPS play styles.
- The mouse has a dedicated pinky- and ring-finger support-groove which makes it most comfortable to hold and lift in RTS Game like LOL, DoTA further it suits low sensitivity FPS play styles in game like CS:GO, Overwatch, Battlefield, Quake.
- Get a Fresh Desk and make the Computer Desktop a style statement with Castor's in beautiful color. Whether you're in the mood for ice cream blue, frosting pink, french fries yellow or shark fin grey in monochrome colorizations including case & cable
- The Castor uses a PMW-3310 gaming grade optical sensor which has no positive or negative hardware acceleration set at native 5000 DPI.
- Whether you are gaming at high or low sensitivity, the Castor will always respond onscreen with razor sharp accuracy and the natural fluidity only possible with our phenomenal MAC and PC software.
Description
For gamers and artists.
Pops your personality. Smooth, fresh and addictive. Oh yes!
Try it, you'll like it!
For right hands.
Supports all grips.
Flawless ring and pinky finger groove.
Awesome smooth coating.
Too much DPI.
Optical and zero acceleration sensor.
The mouse is great. It has a very high quality feel and performs really well. The mouse is better suited for those with medium to small(er) hands. The profile and height of this mouse is smaller than most. With that said, the ergonomics are really nice. The mouse feels natural.
My downgrade was because my front mouse button is not as snappy as the back and for a company that's all about craftsmanship this seems incongruent. Also the price is high for the feature set when compared to other premium mice.
Update 1 Jun 2016:
I have been using the mouse for almost 2 months now for well over 100 hours. All I can say is "Wow". I have never liked the advice to "wait until you get used to it". However, in this case, it is relevant. The more I use the mouse the better it feels. The slight adjustments made over time make a big difference. The combination of comfort and senor make using this mouse very enjoyable. I have found myself purchasing more FPS games just to enjoy it more. And even replaying old favorites (Half Life 2 and Thief 2). I still think it's a 4-star rating due to my previous justification, but I felt it important to update this review after some time using the mouse.
I read all of the glowing reviews about this mouse on the net about how it is the most magical, comfortable mouse ever so I had to give it shot, especially when it was listed as a Prime Day lightning deal.
This mouse is covered with the soft touch rubber that I love, which makes it smooth and somewhat grippy at the same time. The texturing on the sides is a great touch and not too aggressive, which makes it easy to lift off. There are slight finger grooves on the right of the mouse for your ring and pinky fingers that are great if your hand size fits. The buttons are tactile and responsive, no complaints there. The sensor is spot on and I did not detect any acceleration or jittering when using the mouse.
Ergonomically, the mouse is fantastic for people with mediumish hands. I wear a medium sized glove but I can see this mouse fitting people with small to large hands fairly well. Those of you with monster mitts, this mouse may be too small for you unless you claw grip. I use a hybrid claw grip and this mouse is perfect for it. It has a pretty versatile shape so you could easily use a palm grip as will if you have medium to small hands.
My only complaint really is with the software, which I feel is a bit unpolished and cluttered, making it not intuitive to use. Also. the scroll wheel is average at best, the tactile response is kind of mushy but that isn't really important to me.
Overall, I was highly impressed with this mouse and recommend it to anyone looking for a comfortable, do-it-all mouse.
I tried the MIONIX NAOS before the CASTOR, and was disappointed that it was hard to lift without it slipping out of my hand. The CASTOR effectively fixes this problem. It is easy to grip and still fairly comfortable. Love the look and feel. Definitely the most comfortable gaming mouse I've used. Also, the application is an upgrade over the NAOS allowing you to set each DPI setting the button cycles through. Very cool and very customizable. But... I'm afraid it just isn't comfortable enough for my arthritic hands. I finally switched to the Microsoft Sculpt and have found a mouse that causes me zero pain, unfortunately at the expense of some of the nicer gaming features of the CASTOR though. So, if you are a looking for a good, comfortable gaming mouse and don't have bad arthritis like I do, then the CASTOR will probably fit the bill. But, if you have really bad pain from mousing, you may want to try it, but be prepared to move on if it isn't comfortable enough.
A mouse that definitely proves that quality, and proper engineering can make or break a product. The buttons are a dream to click, and work regardless of where you press, the sensitivity is perfect too (no more missing double-clicks, or accidentally doing them). The two side buttons are placed in a good spot, easy for my thumb to find and press either of them with perfect accuracy. Only complaints i have are minor ones, that really only detract from the user experience, rather than the overall high quality of the product. The scroll button is smooth, but to me feels a little mushy as I roll it. I'm used to Logitec mouses, that are known for having beautiful, really crisp ratcheting scrolling, or ice-smooth glide free-wheeling. However, the scrollwheel, like everything else on the mouse, works perfectly, just the small user-end issue of the feel of it. Second complaint, and a prominent one for why I detracted a star, is the thumb grip on the left side. it's rubbery, feels nice on the touch, but it makes my thumb sweat a fair bit, and gets quite slick from oils, and sweat. Also, the finish on the mouse is matte, so shows off your fingerprints and hand-oils rather annoyingly. It's a regular thing for me to clean it with alcohol wipes. The rest of the mouse is perfect; great, smooth texture, that doesn't make my palm sweat or stick. Love the extra long reinforced braided cord on this thing, and the weight and feel of the mouse is very balanced. It's a lighter weight mouse, but doesn't feel like a flimsy piece of cheap plastic. Another small downside is you -must- have a mouse pad for the optics to track properly, they will sort of work on solid, dark surfaces, but very erratic, skittish, and inaccurate.
All in all, this is a very solid mouse, that has great performance, top-notch ergonomics, and looks and feels great too. But with the downsides I listed in mind, for $70, this is a little pricey. If you can get this little guy around the $40-$50 range, go for it, but otherwise you might want to consider waiting for a 2nd iteration of the Mionix Castor, or pay a little more for a Razor, or a little less for a Logitech.
I've been looking for something to replace the g9x as it was the best mouse by far for me.
The g502 was too heavy, g303 too small, m65 too awkward/heavy, deathadder too big, the rival 500 was great but it was slightly too big and too heavy.
I've tried so many and this mouse is the one. Even better than g9x, so happy to finally end my search for a great mouse.
I have small to medium hands and use in between fingertip and palm grip.
I'd definitely recommend this mouse!
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