Notebooks are a part of our lives these days, which means we either have to deal with the dubious accuracy of a touchpad or toss a mouse of some sort into our notebook bag. Wireless mice are nice, but they require a receiver, lose their sync, and tend to run out of batteries at the worst possible time. Wired mice get rid of those problems, but then you have a wire to get tangled up.
Gigabyte aims to solve all of the above problems with their Aire M1 mouse. It’s a wired mouse, so the problems involved in wireless mice are not an issue. It also deals with the general issues with wired mice as well though! It does this with a retractable cord. Now retractable cords are nothing new to the mouse world, but so far they have always involved an external reel that drags on the desk when you use the mouse and gets in the way when it comes time to store it. Gigabyte took things to the next level and put the reel in the mouse! Better yet, the USB plug folds down into the bottom of the mouse as well, so nothing is sticking out at all.
Innovation is nothing new to Gigabyte, they were the first motherboard company to use two ounces of copper per square foot in their “Ultra Durable” (UD/UD2) motherboards, as well as being among the first to switch to ferrite core inductors and “solid” polymer capacitors. The Aire M1 brings that kind of innovation to the ultra portable mouse world.
Features, Specifications, Photos
First up are the features, straight from gigabyte.com
- Ultimate Choice for Notebook
Mini size and light weight make it the ultimate choice for notebook. - Super Durable Cord
The high-quality retractable cord is so durable that can be swung over 10,000 times, and be pulled out over 4,000 times. - Reduce Cable Clutter
AIRE M1 is ideal for your desk, because it brings no tangled cable, and the USB connector can be perfectly hidden. - Compact Design
Stylish and ergonomic design is what we pursue. The comfortable rubber grip on both sides pampers your fingers. - No Battery Needed
No more concern about low battery at crucial times. More environment-friendly. - Two Stylish Colors
Shiny Black and Glossy Blue Two stylish colors for you to choose from. (Note: We have the blue flavor here today)
Gigabyte.com also has some specs:
| Interface | USB |
| Tracking system | Optical |
| Resolution | 1000 dpi |
| FPS(Frame rate per second) | 3000 frames per second |
| Report rate | 125 reports per second |
| Certificate | CE/ FCC |
| Color | Shiny Black / Glossy Blue |
| Dimension | (L) 86*(W) 63*(H) 36 mm |
| Weight | 61g |
| Packing Contents | Mouse |
| OS Support | Windows 98/2000/ME/XP 32bit/ Vista/ Win 7 |
61 grams is a touch over two ounces, not a difference you’ll notice in your notebook bag! I think that’s less than the pair of AA batteries a cordless mouse requires actually. I have to admit I was amused by the “Packing Contents” box.
1000DPI, 3000FPS and 125 reports/second aren’t spectacular numbers, but they’re no slouch either.
Photos
I have to lead this section off by saying that I love the container the Aire M1 is shipped in. It’s staggeringly cute and also does an excellent job of protecting the mouse.
It’s tough to get a good idea of the scale here, but the box is about 4″ in diameter and 2″ tall. Not big.
There are a few amusing marketing claims, such as “No battery needed!” (I’d hope not, with a cord!), but by and large it is straight to the point and pleasing to look at.
Popping the top we find the mouse, surrounded on all sides and the top by foam:
Under the mouse is just the box, which seems odd to me. I would be very surprised if the mouse suffered damage in normal lugging around though. I wouldn’t stomp on it though.
The mouse itself is a snazzy looking little thing, it has a metallic blue finish on the top, rubber pads on the sides for your thumb/fingers and buttons that go almost the full length of the mouse.
(That’s a quarter on the left, for scale purposes)
The finish on the Aire M1 turned out to be nearly impossible to take pictures of, it looks far better in person color wise.
The retractable cable is a very cool setup, unlike most mice that have an external reel the Aire M1’s reel is inside the mouse. Better yet the USB plug folds over and clips into the bottom of the mouse! Nothing is left dangling.
You get lots of nice big teflon pads for easy movement, as well.
The LED involved is red, I would have liked to see a blue LED to match the color of the mouse, but at $15 I can’t really argue colors!
Unclipping the USB plug is quite easy and the cord spools out easily as well, with a good tactile feel for the lengths it will hold itself at. The full length is a generous 24.25″ and the cord itself feels like it uses silicone insulation, it is very flexible and doesn’t hold itself in annoying kinks/loops.
As you can see the cord comes out of the plug at an angle to fit the bottom of the mouse better, if you’re lucky it will help align the cord as it comes out of your notebook. Even if it is pointed in the wrong direction it doesn’t cause issues due to the cord’s flexibility.
Usability and Durability Testing
As mentioned on the previous page I found that the cord on the Aire M1 is quite nice, I find it highly annoying when a mouse cable interferes with mouse movement and the Aire M1 did not do that in the slightest. Very nice.
With default windows settings the sensitivity is higher than I am used to, but with a little practice I found the Aire M1 to be very accurate. Alternatively the sensitivity settings can always be adjusted to slow it down or to speed it up even more.
Despite its small size I found it comfortable to use, Gigabyte place the shaped rubber side pads quite well and they fit both my hands (L-XL glove size) as well as the much smaller hands of one of my testers.
As with most small/travel mice there are only two buttons plus a scroll wheel (which is a third button). I’m used to a mouse with two more on the side, so that took some getting used to as well.
As a test of traveling abilities and durability I took the mouse on a road trip, its small size made it easy to pack and it worked perfectly despite being banged around in the car. Gigabyte appears to be correct about its durability! I didn’t stop there though.
For long term and more durability testing I loaned the Aire M1 to a friend of mine who works in an auto repair shop, there aren’t many harsher environments out there and the shop computer’s mice generally lead a rather short life. In testing the Aire M1 has performed perfectly. My friend is a fan of more sensitive mice and found the Aire M1 to be perfect in that regard as well as fitting his hand well. Best of all there have been absolutely no mouse related issues since he switched over
All told the Aire M1 does exactly what it says it will do!
Verdict and Conclusion
All told I am impressed by the Gigabyte Aire M1 mouse, it has plenty of features I like and no real issues to speak of. For starters it is nice and compact, especially in storage mode with the cable retracted.
Despite the small size it fits my hands quite nicely. Only having three buttons will slow you down a bit if you’re used to more.
It has excellent accuracy and fairly high sensitivity, some users may want to adjust the windows settings to slow the cursor down a bit. I’d love to see a blue LED to match the blue color scheme, but that isn’t a serious con.
At $15 on Newegg for the Gigabyte Aire M1 the price is excellent.
All told there are plenty of pros:
- Very compact.
- Fits even large hands.
- Very accurate.
- Sensitive enough for FPS gaming.
- Inexpensive.
- Retractable cable really retracts, leaving you without any dangling cables.
As always with things on this physical plane of existance, there are cons too:
- Only three buttons will slow web and windows browsing down a bit.
- Red LED doesn’t match the blue styling.
All told the pros outweigh the cons and the Gigabyte Aire M1 gets a final score of 9.1/10. If you’re looking for a traveling mouse I recommend you give the Aire M1 a solid look!
SCORE
9.1/10
