GIGABYTE Force M9 ICE Wireless Mouse Review

GIGABYTE is one of the bona fide giants in the PC hardware marketplace, having one of the most diverse product lines in the industry. Although known primarily as a motherboard and graphics card solution provider, GIGABYTE also manufactures peripherals such as keyboards and mice.

Techgage recently received a package from GIGABYTE and inside were two of company’s latest peripherals. Today’s review will concentrate on just one, however: the Force M9 ICE, a “performance wireless mouse” as it’s being touted.

The Force M9 ICE is from GIGABYTE’s mobile line, and as such, it’s intended to augment or outright replace a laptop’s touchpad. That’s not to say that you can’t use it with your desktop PC, however; indeed, we used it on a desktop and ran it through many usage scenarios, from the ubiquitous (simple web browsing or moving the cursor to a new spreadsheet cell) to the demanding (gaming, particularly in first-person shooters).

Before we put the Force M9 ICE through the proverbial wringer, though, let’s have a good look at it.

The Force M9 ICE is a right-handed wireless mouse, and predominantly black in color as so many PC components and peripherals nowadays are, it is a good-looking product.

On both of the mouse’s flanks are satin silver-gray accent pieces which serve to visually break up the dark color scheme. Set within the silver-gray accent pieces are rubber grips. Towards the front of the mouse and inset in the left-side accent piece are four red LEDs which indicate the current DPI setting. Just behind the quartet of DPI LEDs are two thumb buttons. By default, the front button is a Page Forward button, and the rear is the Page Backward button. These two thumb buttons work the same no matter what Web browser is currently active, which is a neat convenience feature.

Speaking of buttons, the Force M9 ICE has six. Namely, these are: The left and right button; the aforementioned pair of thumb buttons on the left side; the scroll wheel (aside from the scroll function you can also press down on it); and a fairly unique single button on the mouse’s right flank, just under the right button. By default this button is inactive; however, after you install the Force M9 ICE’s very lightweight (11.5MB) Sim software package you can make it do whatever you wish for it to do. There is also a DPI switch just behind the scroll wheel; rocking this forward increases the mouse’s resolution, while rocking it back decreases it.

Underneath the mouse there are four details of interest. First is the battery compartment. It accommodates two AA batteries, which GIGABYTE very sensibly provides out of the box (my sample came with a pair of Duracells). Next is an off/on switch for the mouse. Third, the ICE Technology laser sensor emitter, which GIGABYTE claims enables the mouse to work on almost any surface, including glass. Finally, there is a storage compartment for the USB dongle.

Now that we’ve had a good look at the mouse itself, let’s shift our attention to the Sim software.