Introduction
The gaming mouse market is in a great spot right now. There are tons of brands that are putting out amazing products for all budgets, and there are many shapes and designs to choose from. As such, getting into a market this saturated is a difficult thing. That didn’t prevent SONY INZONE from going for it, however. Their first esports-focused mouse was developed with Fnatic, and we’ve given one to our reviewer to see how it fares in today’s market. Read our full SONY INZONE Mouse-A review to find out.
At A Glance
SONY INZONE Mouse-A
The SONY INZONE Mouse-A is a very impressive debut. If they keep this shape and work out a couple of kinks, this could be a future classic.
Pros
- Great build quality
- Interesting shape that isn’t a clone
- Top-tier internals and great gaming performance
- Buttons are well-implemented (but the switches aren’t as crispy as they should be)
Cons
- Scroll wheel is too light to press, leading to accidental presses while scrolling
- Scroll wheel isn’t very grippy
- Expensive (at MSRP)
- Coating is prone to showing fingerprints
Specs
| Sensor | 3950IZ |
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| Polling Rate | 500 / 1000 / 2000 / 4000 / 8000 Hz |
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| Button Switches | Optical Switches |
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| Connection | Wireless |
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| Shape | Ambidextrous |
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| Length | 11.9cm |
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| Height | 40.8cm |
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| Weight | 48g |
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| Width | 6.4cm |
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First Impressions
Packaging
Inside the box of the SONY INZONE Mouse-A, you will find:
- A pair of replacement mouse feet
- SONY INZONE stickers
- A USB-C-to-USB-A charging cable
- The wireless receiver
- User documentation
- The mouse itself
For me, that’s pretty much all you need. Some might feel that grip tape is missing from a mouse that’s being sold at premium prices (the Mouse-A has an MSRP of $149.99) but I personally never use grip tape, so for me that’s not a big deal.
The Mouse
The Mouse-A, like most of SONY INZONE’s esports products, is not a flashy peripheral. It’s a plain black mouse with a white INZONE logo on the left side panel. On the bottom plate, you’ll see honeycomb cutouts that have been covered by thin plastic ‘windows’, but other than that there’s not much to betray that this is a gaming mouse.
Something that I immediately noticed after unboxing the mouse was the weight. A lot of mainstream brands that dip their toes in the mouse market fail to recognize the fact that lower weights are mainstream now, but SONY INZONE has been paying attention. At approximately 48 grams, the Mouse-A isn’t a record-breaking product, but it is very much in line with today’s standards for gaming mice.
Shape, Coating, and Mouse Feet
Shape
For reference: I have 18×10.5 cm hands and I use a claw-dominant grip.
Rather than choosing the easy way and cloning an existing and popular shape, SONY INZONE went for something more original. To me, this is absolutely the correct approach. The most popular designs out there (ZOWIE EC and FK, Logitech Superlight, …) have been done so many times that it would be pretty much impossible for a new entry to make a splash. The design they went with feels like a child of the VAXEE XE V2, the ZOWIE ZA line, and a bit of the Fnatic BOLT thrown in for good measure. Some might compare this the ZOWIE S2 as well, but that’s a flatter, more neutral shape with higher buttons.
The Mouse-A has a rather steep hump at the back, which then gradually moves down towards the main buttons. These buttons sit rather low, which makes your hand go into a kind of pencil-holding mode, where your fingers are close to the pad and the middle/back of your hand gets lifted up.
The sides have a slight thumb curve towards the middle, which allows the wider back portion to comfortably lock into the back of your hand, aiding in stability. The front section is rather flat, save for a subtle overhang to help with picking up the mouse.
All of this results in a mouse that, to me, feels great. I personally would’ve liked the grip section to be a bit thinner and the top of the hump to be a bit lower, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Mouse-A regardless. With my grip style, I managed to find a comfortable grip that allowed for stable swiping and tracking, while still leaving room for micro-adjustments with my fingers.
If you’re into ambidextrous shapes and you like this type of design with a sudden hump, this is an interesting mouse to try out.
Coating
The coating performs well. I had no grip issues during my testing at any point, though I should say that I prefer the feeling of more textured coatings over this pretty smooth and almost rubbery coating.
That’s partially because I like the feeling of those other types of coatings better, but there’s also an aesthetics argument. The Mouse-A’s coating is, for lack of a better term, a fingerprint magnet. Finger oils and prints show up very easily on this mouse, and if you care about that sort of thing like I do, you’ll find yourself cleaning the shell more often than you’d probably want to.
Granted, I get pretty sweaty when I’m playing competitive games, so other people might not have this issue at all, but I can obviously only comment on my own experiences.
Mouse Feet
The feet on my unit glide well on most pads, but they can feel slightly scratchy on softer pads like the XSoft Artisan pads. On most regular pads, I had no issues though, which leads me to think that the feet might be a bit too thin for those types of pads, or perhaps they’re placed so that the frame of the mouse comes into contact with a pad’s surface first when applying pressure. Since soft pads are getting more and more popular, this could be something for SONY INZONE to look into.
With that said, if you have a soft aiming style and/or you use a harder pad, there’s no need to worry.
Recommended Grip Types
This mouse lends itself to all kinds of grip styles. It feels great for claw grip, but it also works really well for palm grip. Even fingertipping can be done here, as the buttons feel as easy to press near the edges as they do near the middle.
Buttons and Scroll Wheel
Buttons
SONY INZONE has really tried to offer all of today’s top tier specs in this mouse, so they also put in optical switches. These feel okay, but they’re definitely not the crispiest optical switches on the market. The clicking sensation that you get here is, to put it bluntly, kind of dull and uninteresting. The clicks aren’t super spongy or anything and they perform fine, but it’s just not quite as snappy as you’d expect from modern gaming mice.
Luckily, the button implementation (which is far more important to me) is stellar. There’s no side movement on either button, and both the pre- as well as the post-travel feel great. There’s no switch grinding or annoying movement when holding down a button either.
All of this results in a set of main clicks that feels good to use to me.
Scroll Wheel
The scroll wheel has some indentations in it, but it’s not the grippiest. I had some minor grip issues when my finger was completely dry, for instance. I’d prefer it if they applied a thicker rubber band here to prevent these issues.
Another thing that bothered me slightly was the tensioning of the wheel click. This is very light. So much so that I had multiple accidental clicks while I was trying to scroll. As someone who has scroll bound to jump and M3 bound to a specific grenade in CS2, this caused some quite embarrassing moments when I was testing out the mouse. It could be a me problem, but I rarely have these kinds of issues so I’m inclined to say that the wheel click should be a touch heavier.
Aside from these remarks, the scroll wheel feels okay. It’s quiet, and the tensioning between each individual step is dialed in nicely. I also had no issues with missed scrolls or accidental scrolls after a flick or anything like that.
Side Buttons
The side buttons actuate with a similar sensation to the main buttons. They feel pretty consistent and are well-placed. They’re also easy to tell apart when playing. They do suffer from the ‘pivot problem’ a bit, where there’s a lot of post-travel if you press them at the edge rather than near the middle, but it’s not too exaggerated here.
Build Quality
The build quality of ultralight mice made by brands with little to no experience with gaming mice is usually hit or miss, but here it’s a hit. The bottom plate is noticeably more flexible than the other parts of the mouse, but that’s the case with many ultralight mice.
Moving beyond that, the entire shell feels very solid and reliable. There’s no creaking or flexing, even when I’m applying targeted pressure at various points.
Shaking and tapping the mouse against the palm of my hand also yields satisfying results: there’s no noise coming from the mouse during these actions whatsoever.
Sensor and Everyday Performance
Sensor
SONY INZONE has collaborated with Pixart to create the 3950IZ sensor. That’s a slightly customized version of the industry standard 3950, so I did not expect any issues here. The mouse behaved as it should throughout my testing, and I did not notice any irregularities that would hinder anyone during gameplay moments.
Keeping up with modern standards, the Mouse-A also allows you to raise the polling rate up to 8000Hz. Whether or not that’s a tangible advantage is something that causes a lot of discussion in the scene, but it’s good to see that it’s here. Optical switches, lightweight design, 8000Hz polling rate: this mouse is equipped with everything you’d expect from a modern S-tier mouse.
Configuring the Mouse
For any customization you’ll have to download SONY’s INZONE Hub. For me, it’s a bit of a miss that they haven’t gone for a web-based driver here, but I don’t really have any issues with the Hub. It’s lightweight and easy to understand and use, so as far as downloadable drivers go, this is pretty good.
Inside the software, you can rebind buttons, change the DPI, polling rate, and LOD, and you can also turn on Motion Sync and angle snap, should you want to. There’s no support for creating macros or doing any more in-depth customization. That’s fine with me (I never use macros) but it’s good to know for readers who like to do those kinds of things.
You can save up to 4 different profiles to the mouse itself, so you only really need to download the Hub once to configure your mouse in case you don’t want to keep the driver on your PC.
Battery Life
At 1000Hz, you can expect up to 90 hours of ingame time before your battery runs out. If you go for the full 8000Hz experience, that drops to around 20 hours. That’s on par with what you can expect in today’s market.
If you ever find that your mouse is running on fumes right before you’re starting a gaming marathon, you only have to charge it for around 5 minutes to get 10 hours of playing time (at 1000Hz). Charging the mouse completely takes around 90 minutes.
Alternatives
The SONY INZONE Mouse-A has a unique shape, so there are no 1:1 alternatives right now. I will compare it to some mice that offer a similar experience so that you can better conceptualize how this mouse might feel in your hands.
SONY INZONE Mouse-A vs VAXEE XE V2
Both mice have a similar front and mid section, so they end up feeling quite similar. However, there are some noticeable differences. The Mouse-A has a much steeper hump at the back, giving it a more aggressive feeling when holding it, whereas the XE’s more gradual hump feels more gentle. Furthermore, the Mouse-A is also higher at the top of the hump, making it even more palm-filling than the XE. The XE, on the other hand, flares out a bit more towards the back. If you’ve ever played with a VAXEE XE and you wished it would have a more aggressive hump towards the back, this might be it.
In terms of performance, both mice are very similar. The VAXEE is (a lot) heavier at 59 grams, but in terms of real-world performance, it would be difficult to separate the two.
See our VAXEE XE V2 review
SONY INZONE Mouse-A vs ZOWIE ZA13-DW
There are a lot of similarities between both mice, and the back portion (i.e. the hump) feels pretty much the same. The mid section is noticeably thinner on the ZOWIE ZA13-DW, though, and the front flares out more as well. This gives it a pretty different in-hand feeling so I wouldn’t say that it’s a 1-for-1 replacement. With that said, if you’re looking for a ZA13-DW that’s more filled out towards the middle, this might be the tonic for you.
In terms of performance, both mice will be very similar, though the ZA13-DW weighs more at 65g.
See our ZOWIE ZA13-DW review
SONY INZONE Mouse-A vs Logitech G Pro X Superlight (2)
Given how the INZONE Mouse-A has a shape that looks very safe, it’s always tempting to compare to the Superlight. However, both mice feel completely different. The middle section feels similar, but that’s where the similarities end. The Superlight has a higher front portion and higher front buttons, for starters, giving it a very different feeling in your hand. It’s also a lot longer, which further differentiates it from the Mouse-A.
See our Logitech G Pro X Superlight review
Conclusion
The SONY INZONE Mouse-A is a very impressive debut. If they keep this shape and work out a couple of kinks, this could be a future classic.
As of right now, there are some kinks to work out. The switches could feel a bit more crispy, for example. The scroll wheel could also be grippier, and mouse 3 should be made heavier to prevent accidental clicks.
How much those drawbacks matter to you will of course come down to personal preference, but it’s good to know about them before purchasing this mouse. Doubly so since SONY INZONE is asking for flagship money.
That aside, I personally find it refreshing to see a company debuting a new shape while trying to do everything right. You’ve got an 8000Hz sensor, optical switches, a lightweight design, and a unique shape that feels amazing for a variety of hand sizes and grip styles. All of that is housed in a nicely built shell. It’s clear that the brand has paid attention to what the market wants, and I salute them for that.
There’s plenty to love here, and I can’t wait to see how SONY INZONE mice will evolve in the future.
This product was received for free from the manufacturer and given to our reviewer to test and review. Brands and manufacturers have no editorial control over our reviews. For more information, check out our review FAQ.
Former semi-pro gamer turned writer, product reviewer, and community manager.
