INTRODUCTION

     Whether we like it or not the PC industry doesn't release serious and highly anticipated game titles as frequently as it did in the past and that's quite disappointing even more so if you like using games in order to sufficiently test gaming peripherals like we do. Certainly there are always some multiplayer online game titles which one can play again and again like Star Citizen, Planetside 2, World of Warships, Elite Dangerous, Battlefield 1, Dreadnought and others but nothing beats playing a brand new game which you've been waiting for years and years to get released. Luckily thanks to Mass Effect Andromeda we did manage to test a significant amount of gaming peripherals like the latest Neon M50 Optical Pro Gaming Mouse by Ozone Gaming.

   Ozone Gaming was founded in Spain in 2009, our mission was to create a company where we could all enjoy and relish our work. Our own space, a gaming environment from where we could show our particular point of view to the rest of the world. We love videogames, we love to experience other lives, conquer other planets and fight against hard opponents. We wanted to live like this for all the days to come. We made it, our company shares passion and love for what we do. We have fulfilled our most desirable dream. Oh, in case that you didn't notice, we craft gaming products to share our passion with you. And here we are, soldiers of the game. Get to know us.

   Just like many other gaming peripheral manufacturers today Ozone Gaming decided to equip their brand new Neon M50 Optical Pro Gaming Mouse (currently available with rubber coated black and glossy white right handed shells) with the Pixart PMW3310DH-AWQT IR-LED sensor which this time delivers its full resolution of up to 5000DPI (dots per inch) via four hardware controlled pre-defined DPI settings (800/1600/2400/5000) with a speed of up to 130IPS (inches per second) and up to 30g acceleration. The Neon M50 also features a total of 6 programmable buttons, primary buttons made by OMRON (secondary probably by Kailh), 128kb of onboard memory and a two-zone RGB LED illumination system (logo and ring - not adjusted separately). So let's take a closer look at the Neon M50 Optical Pro Gaming Mouse and see what its capabilities are.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

A large product picture is placed at the front of the box right over the main product features and next to the G2A free coupon, the RGB feature and the company logo.

A side picture of the Neon M50 is placed on the right side of the box.

Yet another product picture is placed at the rear of the box right over a product description printed in 8 languages.

The front opens up to reveal the Neon M50 Optical Pro Gaming Mouse.

With the Neon M50 Ozone Gaming has also bundled a 3 Euro G2A card, case sticker, replacement feet and the quick guide.

THE NEON M50

The 115.5g heavy rubber coated shell of the Neon M50 is medium sized and measures 132.63mm in length, 73.48mm in width and 41.29mm in height.

Two long programmable buttons are placed on the left side of the Neon M50 right over a rubberized textured area.

Ozone Gaming has placed their logo at the rear of the mouse and is part of the RGB LED illumination system.

As expected the DPI selection button is placed at the top of the mouse.

The entire right area is also rubberized and textured.

Ozone Gaming has used soft rubber coating on the clickable scroll wheel.

At the base of the Neon M50 we find 4 medium sized PTFE feet, hardware DPI range selection switch and the Pixart PMW3310DH-AWQT IR-LED sensor.

The 1.8 meter long braided cable of the Neon M50 ends on a gold plated USB plug.

CONTROL SOFTWARE

Ozone gaming markets the control software of the Neon M50 as "clean" and we tend to agree with them.

From within the control software you can program all 6 buttons (8 including the scroll wheel forward and back functions), create and assign macro commands, adjust sensitivity on both axis, set the 4 DPI presets, choose colors and effects for the RGB system, adjust polling rate, set the cursor/double click and scroll speeds and finally you can also enable/disable angle snap.

Here you can see some of the available colors for the two-zone illumination system (looks nice right?).

CONCLUSION

   Ozone has released many award winning gaming peripherals in the past but the Neon M50 Optical Pro Gaming Mouse is one of the very few that we were very interested in checking out. This was in large part not only due to its enclosure claw/palm grip design which we happen to like a lot but also because of the RGB LED ring which surrounds it. So grip is pretty much excellent, gliding is extremely good and the PMW3310 is not only very fast but also very accurate. We can’t say that it’s the best optical sensor currently used in a gaming mouse but it’s certainly among the best. Unfortunately the Neon M50 was designed solely for right handed gamers but so is the majority of gaming mice in the market so we can’t really hold that against Ozone (however we do consider it a slight drawback). We were also surprised to find the DPI range selection switch at the base of the mouse since we haven’t seen that in the past. Now we can’t say that it has anything to offer compared to what we always see but it’s never a bad thing for a manufacturer to follow a different path compared to the competition. As for the RGB illumination system we didn’t like the fact that you simply can’t change the color individually for the logo and the ring. Small details but it shouldn’t be hard for Ozone to implement that.

  The Neon M50 Optical Pro Gaming Mouse by Ozone Gaming currently retails for just USD49.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 49Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) a price tag which places it right between several similar models. The good news however is that Ozone has designed one of the best RGB illumination layouts so gamers looking to get their hands on a very fast, accurate, ergonomic and nice looking gaming mouse the Neon M50 is a great candidate and that’s also why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Ergonomic Shape
- Near Excellent Grip
- Very Accurate & Fast (Pixart PMW3310 IR LED Optical Sensor)
- RGB Illumination System
- Available In Matte Black and Glossy White
- Braided Cable with Gold Plated USB Plug
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Right Hand Design
- Lacks Individual LED Color Selection