Mountain Makalu Max is available for purchase on Mountain website, coming to Amazon soon.
As the name suggests, Makalu Max is an upgraded version of the Mountain Makalu 67 mouse, so it’s no wonder that they share many design features. However, one major departure from its predecessor is its more subdued design with solid plates. What helps to make it a bit more eye-catching is the excellent RGB implemented around the scroll wheel and the DPI buttons.
Speaking of buttons, the Makalu Max has 8 programmable ones – the two main clickers, a clickable scroll wheel, two DPI buttons, two thumb buttons and a DPI sniper button underneath. The main clickers feature Kailh GM 8.0 switches with fairly low travel distance and a pretty meaty and loud clicking sound. The side buttons are well-placed and have a bit of texture to them for a grippier feel. Now Makalu Max is a right-handed, 127 mm long, 70 mm wide, and 42 mm high mouse, meaning it will better suit gamers with larger hands. Although it is a right-handed mouse, its shape is not aggressively contoured and is almost symmetrical in its design, making it comfortable to use in both palm and claw grip styles.
Probably the main feature here however is the modularity. In that regard, the mouse comes equipped with two interchangeable side panels and three additional weights. These serve to boost the already great ergonomics, but don’t bring much new functionality to the table. It’s important to mention that the Makalu Max weighs around 110 grams even without the weights and larger panels, so it could be a hard sell for someone looking for something a bit more manageable. Mountain definitely made some sacrifices to make Makalu Max wireless, with much about the modularity aspect of the mouse feeling like a missed opportunity that could have made this a much more appealing package in line with some competitors.
At least the performance is absolutely on point. The Makalu Max can either be used in wired mode via USB-C or wireless using the 2.4 GHz USB-A dongle. In wireless, the mouse is quick to connect and the connection itself is absolutely rock solid and reliable. There’s also no latency or lag whatsoever, making the mouse great for both casual usage and gaming. This is boosted by the high-end PixArt PAW3370 sensor that goes up to 19 000 DPI and has a 400 IPS tracking speed. All of this translates to excellent performance where I found the mouse to be extremely responsive, accurate, and precise for a bunch of different games and scenarios.
The 1000 mAh battery enables the Makalu Max to keep going for around 80 hours with the lights turned off. While this is a fairly good result, it falls off dramatically with the RGB turned on, and here you can expect somewhere around 10 hours of total usage. For more information on the design, performance and the modular features, be sure to check out our full video review.
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- Ergonomic side panels
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- Suitable for larger hands
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- All modularity pieces
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- A subdued design
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- Excellent sensor performance
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- RGB looks great but it hits the battery hard
