Contents
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Price
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Design
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Build Quality
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Comfortability
Summary
The ReDragon M601 (view lowest price) is a reputable budget option for our readers who need to save a buck or two. Just, please keep your expectations grounded.
Redragon M601 Gaming Mouse Review
After blowing out all your money on the latest graphics card or the strongest CPU, you probably realized you didn’t save any money for your peripherals. When looking at the big-name brands like Corsair or Razer, you realize that you can’t even pay that much for a mouse. Well fear not, because we’re going to introduce you to a mouse that will sit well within your budget!
About the Company:
For those who don’t know about ReDragon and are skeptical about the price, ReDragon is actually a respected gaming peripheral manufacturer that specializes in the low to mid-tier budgets. In fact, this US-based company has been around since 1996 and began making gaming peripherals since 2012. If you take a look at their Amazon sellers page, most of their products are highly rated with thousands of reviews. They even have a website with clear contact information, driver downloads, and manuals.
They have also been featured in a few tech youtubers’ channels, most notably, TechSource. While they aren’t as market dominating as Razer or Logitech, their products still attract many buyers because of the affordability.
Features:
This mouse has 3 programmable buttons: two side buttons, and a scroll wheel. It’s sporting a sensor that goes as low as 800 DPI, and as high as 3200 DPI– which is a respectably DPI range given the price point. It also has an eight-piece weight tuning system, with each weight weighing in at 2.4 grams, for those who prefer lighter or heavier resistances when gaming.
A couple extra features included are braided wires and red LEDs, which are nicely added touches to make the mouse feel and look a bit more premium. They also include a carrying case to store your mouse during travel.
A side thing to note is that this mouse also comes with software to reprogram the buttons and set gaming profiles, but during testing, the software was barely functioning, so this review will be entirely based on the mouse alone, and not the software.
Build:
The mouse’s chasis actually feels pretty good – it’s a solid ABS plastic that’s molded rather well and is textured in specific places for better grip. The clicks on the left and right buttons feel very tactile, and the side buttons have a little more travel distance than expected, but that’s not necessarily a complaint.
Unfortunately, there were a few bumps along the road when playing around with the ReDragon M601. There’s not much to hide when a mouse is at such a low price point – sacrifices had to be made somewhere.
There’s also a weird rattling sound that’s coming from the inside of the mouse when you pick it up and shake it. Although loose parts inside the ReDragon M601 won’t impede your gaming performance, it does speak a lot about the build quality. You definitely would not be seeing this specific issue in higher-end products. Thankfully, this rattling is not audible when the mouse is moving on a surface. Nonetheless, it’s still a concern to point out.
Unfortunately, ReDragon doesn’t get too much into detail about the two most important factors of a gaming mouse – the sensor and the switches – and we’re very certain that ReDragon cut back costs in those departments in order to get the price so low. On most high-end gaming mice, and even on the mid-tier ones, you can expect Omron switches that are graded for millions of clicks, as well as, either a TrueMove 3 sensor or 3366 Optical sensor. While we can’t necessarily test the amount of clicks the mouse can endure in such a short period time of reviewing, we can at least test the sensor during gaming sessions and provide our opinions on its performance.
Performance:
The ReDragon M601 mouse was tested in the three most popular gaming categories: FPS, MOBA, and MMORPG.
When playing FPS games, it’s clear that ReDragon cut back on a high-quality sensor. When you need high accuracy in FPS games, the sensor will let players down due to the jittering. The ReDragon M601 also features mouse acceleration; those who are actually transitioning from another mouse will probably overshoot their aim because of the feature – especially when flicking. While it’s not optimal for FPS games, it’s by no means a bad choice. Just have your expectations set when you get into a gun fight or are trying to headshot someone with a sniper.
And in our final category, I think it’s quite safe to say that the M601 wouldn’t be a good mouse for the MMORPG players. Any dedicated MMORPG player would much rather prefer multiple programmable side buttons – which ReDragon offers a budget solution for that, as well. With this mouse, you only get two useable reprogrammable buttons – definitely not enough for the average World of Warcraft or TERA player. Mouse acceleration and sensor jittering might become an issue when dueling in PvP modes, but it shouldn’t be a problem during PvE.
Overall Thoughts:
The ReDragon M601 wasn’t a disappoint, per se, but that’s taking the price into consideration. It honestly isn’t the most recommendable mouse that ReDragon has to offer. So, it shouldn’t speak for the company as a whole because they decided to undertake the project (or burden) of creating such a budget gaming mouse. ReDragon’s products are known for their affordability and their performance at those price points, but you can only go so cheap before the sacrifices become too much – which the M601 is an unfortunate victim of.
However, taking everything into consideration, would I personally recommend this? Yes, but only as a temporary option if your budget is that low. ReDragon cut back a lot, and it’s clear that they did so just by looking at the price of this mouse. But there’s no shame in starting off with this mouse.
Despite all that I’ve said, it is more than what I expected to get out of a budget mouse. If I had any feedback to give, it would be to cut back on the red LEDs, braided cable, and carrying case, so they can funnel the savings into a better sensor.
However, make no mistake that the marginal return on investment is really high when you start off that low on the price spectrum. What that means is, while a mid-tier mouse could perform very close to a high-tier mouse, a budget mouse will not come anywhere close to a mid- tier mouse. So, the extra money you can spend at the lower-tiers will have a noticeable effect on competitive gaming.
But, to reiterate, there is no shame in not being able to afford more than the ReDragon M601, because at the end of the day, it will get the job done and you’ll have a blast gaming.
