Testing the Keychron M3 and Keychron M1 gaming mice
The M1 was and still is at the time of recording on offer, so I decided to buy both mice to test them out. The M1 model is about one and a half years old at this point whereas the M3 released this year.
DPI and Polling
Before I even start I should make you aware that I will not be looking at or referencing either DPI settings or polling beyond this point. Most people have no clue what dots per linear each even refers to, I didn’t either until I just looked up what the acronym DPI means. So realistically, if you’re not even interested in what it really refers to, it’s just “big number fast – small number slow”. It’s a similar story for the polling rate, most people don’t really know what to do with that information. In this case I did actually know what “polling rate” was, but still. If this is something you’re looking for, you should be looking at someone else’s review who is more knowledgeable on the technical aspects of computer or gaming mice. As for everybody else, feel free to stick around.
Logitech G502 LIGHTSPEED
So what’s the baseline I am comparing these two mice against? I was using a Logitech G502 LIGHTSPEED and there’s technically nothing wrong with this mouse. It works great. I do however dislike three things about it.
The thumb rest
The first one is the thumb rest. This might be great for people that have their wrist touching the table while they operate their mouse, but I grab the mouse from the top, so this groove doesn’t feel all that great in that location. I also keep hitting my keyboard with it, as it extends outward. It’s thankfully a lot less frequent with the K6, being a 65%, but with my Apple Touch ID, which includes the numpad, it was quite aggravating.
G502 Lightspeed is not light… weight
The second thing I don’t like is its weight. I get that weight and heft usually is a sign of quality, but if I want to move something around effortlessly and especially over longer periods of time, like let’s say editing a video, it can get quite tiresome during tasks like masking for example.
The software is awful
Finally, I absolutely hate the Logitech Hub software. That thing has been giving me nothing but headaches on both MacOS and Windows. On MacOS it will keep asking me to get access to all sorts of stuff that I do not want to give it access to. Whereas with other apps, you say no and that’s the end of it, the Logitech Hub App will keep asking every time it’s opened up. There is an argument to be made for people who use a single computer, to simply stop accessing the app then. The configuration is set, so why not just leave it closed? I use a KVM with my Mac, my gaming PC and my work laptop, so I have to keep switching mouse profiles, which means I have to keep accessing the app. The worst part however is that it keeps forcing itself into focus. Which means that if I am typing, all of a sudden I will keep hearing a bunch of error sounds without any of my keystrokes making it into whatever app I am currently typing in, as the Logitech Hub is now the one in focus. Even if the window isn’t visible.
Buttons
It has quite a few buttons, but I really only use the back, forward and scroll wheel click buttons, everything else from the scroll wheel left and right tilt, the little cut out buttons to the left of the left mouse click, as well as the big one for your thumb, on the thumb rest… I never use them. That’s enough about the piece I’ll be using as a benchmark though.
Keychron M1 Ultra-Light Optical Mouse
First up, this thing is dirt cheap, even more so when it’s on offer. Honestly, if I hadn’t fallen in love with the keychron K6 already, I never even would have considered buying this mouse, as the price point wouldn’t have seemed either possible, or legitimate. I am also not the biggest fan of tethered mice, as there’s so much stuff on my desk already, that I tend to avoid having to route even more cables than there are already. I also don’t play games where latency via bluetooth would really affect my performance with a wireless mouse… in fact I have never really played any games that have required a mouse so far. Next month’s Resident Evil 4 Remake is actually going to be my first attempt at playing a game with a mouse. In any case, the cable is extremely light weight as well and actually didn’t bother me at all. Obviously it is also advertised as a wired mouse, so once again, I knew this going in and wouldn’t dock any points for this.
Overall feel
In terms of handling, using it in Final Cut and Photoshop, as well as for my general use browsing, pointing and clicking it’s great. It’s a lot more comfortable for me to use than the G502. The keychron M1 mouse is both symmetrical and ridiculously light weight with its 68 grams, which means it’s a lot easier to operate for me as well. You can move the M1, quite easily in fact, with about the same or even less force than it takes, to blow out a candle. The overall feel here is positive all around in my opinion. The cable didn’t get in the way and the clicks sound and feel satisfying to me as well.
M1 Software
It’s not all bubbles and rainbows though. The M1 software doesn’t feel all that intuitive and also has some issues on MacOS. This isn’t too much of an issue for me, as again, I don’t really use any of the buttons other than the back and forward ones. I still wanted to give the software a proper spin at least.
Button 5
So the first thing that came up was that I cannot rebind Button 5 on MacOS. No matter what I tried, it will always revert back to Forward. I thought that maybe it will just mirror Button 4, but changing Button 4 doesn’t change Button 5 and Button 6 can be changed just fine by itself as well. This does seem to be an issue exclusive to the keychron software on MacOS, as it worked just fine on Windows.
Keybind options
The software does actually offer MacOS functions, but it barely includes any and doesn’t allow you to add new ones either. Whatever, just use macros or something right? Hmm, setting up macros seemed obtuse to me as well, something that was actually super simple to set up within the Logitech Hub app. The lighting options are also a little lacklustre and it seems impossible to make changes to the light on the scroll wheel itself specifically. It will change in some cases, but if you want the whole thing to just glow or pulse in a blue colour, it doesn’t seem to be possible to have the scroll wheel to play along.
At least the software itself hasn’t given me any issues, like forcing itself into focus. That rebinding doesn’t work properly isn’t much of a problem in my case, because again, I know I sound like a broken record at this point, I don’t really use those other buttons anyway. If you are on MacOS and require all of the buttons however, there is a chance that it might not work the way you want it to. Again, on Windows the software worked just fine for me though.
Keychron M3 Wireless Mouse
If you take a look at the page for the M3 wireless mouse, you will no doubt have seen that there is currently no functionality for customisation on MacOS available. Again, not a huge deal for me, and say it with me now, I only use the back and forward buttons anyway. With that you are also locked out of the slightly more in-depth RGB lighting customisations.
Actual bluetooth connectivity
Something I wasn’t aware of and that I was positively surprised by is the fact that I don’t need to use a dongle. I will, because, again, KVM, but having an actual Bluetooth option means I can just take the mouse with me, without worrying about the receiver. It doesn’t stop there though. It comes with two receivers, one USB-A and one USB-C. Which means technically speaking, I could use the USB-A one for the KVM and the USB-C one for my Laptops. So now you have the option to use a receiver or not, which is really nice. The G502 only works with the receiver, so this really was a pleasant surprise for me.
Overall feel
The M3 is also symmetrical which means it feels comfortable to me regardless of how I grip it. Being wireless makes it a little heavier, as the battery needs to be accommodated of course. With its 79 grams it’s still quite a bit lighter than the G502 wireless’ 114 grams, but as I had tested the M1 first, the extra 11 grams can be felt immediately and this one doesn’t blow off the table at all… I did just recently recover from pneumonia, so maybe someone with less battered lungs is required here, or I’ll try again in a month or so, but I probably won’t.
The M3 doesn’t seem to glide as smoothly as the Logitech G502. The skates… actually I am not sure if they’re even called that, or if it’s just the additional ones you buy that are referred to as such… either way, they drag and you can’t buy different skates, as far as I could tell. At the very least I couldn’t find a vendor that offers them for Keychron mice. Granted this one is still relatively new, so there might be some down the line. I don’t use any mouse pads though, so if that’s something you are using, this might not even be an issue for you, but I can’t guarantee that.
The last one is the click feel of the actual left and right click buttons. I don’t know how to describe this feeling exactly, but it feels like the click is sticky. It’s not actually sticky of course, but it has this weird delayed feeling of release. It’s the point afterwards that feels slightly odd. A desync or latency is the best way I can describe it I guess, which makes close to no sense, as we are talking about reality here. But that is something I kind of didn’t like.
Keychron’s M3 mediocrity can be offset
While 79 grams is still very light, the most direct competitor in terms of ergonomics I could think of is the Logitech Pro X Superlight. At 63 grams it is lighter than even the M1, but it is wireless as well. So the M3 kinda loses here. I considered buying the Superlight at first, but at that price point I didn’t want to buy a model that old and even worse, as it’s another Logitech mouse, I would have been forced to continue to use the Logitech Hub App. That was an immediate red flag to me. As mediocre as the M3 might come across at first, the fact that I can connect it via bluetooth, without the need for a dongle is really nice.
Battery life
The battery seems to hold up as advertised. Between work and personal stuff I am a good 10 to 11 hours at my desk, that’s Monday to Friday, but the battery hasn’t died on me yet. If you have a heavier use case scenario than mine, one that also includes heavy use on weekends, your experience may well be different from mine. I tend to charge my peripherals about once a week, regardless of power levels and that seemed to work out fine with the keychron M3 as well.
Software
The software offers all your usual stuff from setting up specific actions for each button, changing the RGB settings and of course your DPI settings, but as I mentioned in the beginning, I am not really gonna go into this. As for the MacOS software, I’ll get to that in June I guess? Honestly though, it’s not going to set the World on Fire, so even if I do go back to that, it’s probably just going to be a YouTube Short I’ll upload for that.
Choosing between the two
Interestingly enough, as I kept using the two mice, I ended up preferring the M1. Yes I am forced to use a cable with that one, which isn’t ideal, but the feel of using it is quite amazing. I think it isn’t just the weight difference, but also the fact that the M1 doesn’t have this weird dragging sensation that the M3 has. Again, if you are using a mouse pad or mat, this might be completely irrelevant to you and the M3 might just be the more comfortable choice in that case. In terms of design, I much prefer the look of the M3. Especially the much more sleek RGB line around out, when compared to the M1’s rather, for the lack of a better word, “LOUD” RGB integration.
The future
In April the keychron M4 is going to be available and I will try to grab one of those as well, because I am curious. Plus they are quite cheap, so it doesn’t really hurt. At 60 grams, being lighter than the M1 and with the same bluetooth functionality options as the M3, it does actually sound quite exciting. RGB is neither a turn-off, nor a big selling point for me. While I do like how it’s been implemented on the M3, I don’t think I will miss it much on the M4. The product page doesn’t reference Macs yet, so there’s a chance this one too will not have any functioning software until June, if not later. The release is still more than a month away though, so we will figure it out then.
What about you, have you tried any of the keychron mice yet? What mice did you use before that or if you’re not using a keychron one, which mouse are you currently using? Let me know in the comments. Don’t forget to leave a like on this video and subscribe to the channel if you want to see more stuff. Thank you for watching my impressions on the keychron’s current line up of mice and see you next time. Bye bye.
