Product Manufacturer: Mountain
Price: Approx $99
Estimated Time With Gear: 10 Weeks
Where to buy: Mountain, PC Case Gear
What Is It?: MacroPad
Compatible with: Windows Via BaseCamp software
Reviewed with: PC – 5800X, 32Gb RAM, Nvidia RTX 3070
Mountain has been a great designer of PC peripherals and one of my favourite tech companies to cover over the past couple of years. Check out my review of their keyboard and mouse from last year; you will see how impressed I was with them. With their release of the MacroPad, I was keen to get my hands on this and give it a run for its money. The Mountain MacroPad was easy to set up, and having the Base Camp software installed already made it as simple as plugging it in and checking for updates. I was ready to go in a short period.
Having used the Mountain Everest Max keyboard for a while now, the feel and texture of the MacroPad instantly felt similar to me. The product’s design was on par with the Everest Max with a similar design and optional stand. The options to mount on my Everest Max appealed to me, but having the MacroPad on its stand and offset was the best option and preference for my setup. After my initial setup, I decided I needed to do some cable and desk tidying, so I took a day and rearranged everything. Having the additional cable tidies provided by Mountain made a big difference in ensuring the cables were, as implied, tidy. Now I was set up, the next course of action was to figure out what I wanted to do and what the MacroPad was capable of. With so many options, it took a lot of work to nail down what exactly I wanted and needed the MacroPad to do for me.
SPECS
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Colour: Midnight Black
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Switches: MOUNTAIN Tactile 55
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Keycaps: ABS
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MCU: Cortex M0
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Interface: USB 2.0
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Dimensions: 14.7x8x7cm
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Materials: Aluminum plate, ABS keycaps & cover, rubber pad
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Number of Profiles: 5
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Switch support: 3-pin & 5-pin Cherry MX-style
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Polling Rate: 1000Hz/1ms
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Connector: USB Type-C
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Cable Length: 2m
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Weight: 118g (531g incl. stand)
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Software Support: Base Camp™ (Windows only)
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Included Accessories: Stand w/ Rubber Pad, Keycap/Switch removal tool, 2m USB Type-C to USB Type-A Cable, Quick Start Guide
My first action was to play around with the macro wizard. This part of the Base Camp software makes it easy to set up a series of actions and delays in the form of a macro. Of course, being the mature boy, I am, I set out with the only logical choice for a test macro. Once I had the test macro set up, I pressed M1 on the MacroPad and the sentence “I am a butt” was soon being written across my word document. The inspiring words stepped me forward into creating multiple macros with more practical uses, starting with CTRL+C, CTRL+Z and a few other regulars and adding in the snipping tool Windows+Shift+S. These being great resources for my daily PC use and studies, I added some functions for running a slideshow during a presentation for one of my classes. On top of these macros, I also set up the M11 and M12 to open PowerPoint and Word, respectively. This remained my basic setup. The custom settings for the time between button presses made it even easier to ensure these all functioned the way I wanted.
Much like their keyboards, the MacroPad features hot-swappable keys with mechanical switches. The switches in this unit I received are slightly different than my Everest Max Keyboard; they have a louder sound and a more solid press. Changing the keys out is quite a simple process made easier with the removal tool while replacing them is just as quick for cleaning and swap-out purposes. Like its bigger sibling, the MacroPad features per-key lighting so users can vary their setup. I found the matching orange tone and synced it, so my whole setup was uniform. The only other option I would have liked was for it to be the same brushed aluminium as my Everest, but the black looks remarkably awesome.
While I have enjoyed my Mountain MacroPad, I did run into some issues. Unfortunately, at the time of publishing, when trying to run programs except for OBS in Profile 1, the MacroPad had repeated problems with programs not launching. This caused some frustration, and I could not solve it. I also ran into issues when configuring OBS while installed in Steam. I could get it to work once I reinstalled OBS directly on the PC. Despite these issues, the overall function of the MacroPad outweighed the negative, and once I got OBS working, it functioned with no further dramas. As for the other programs, I tried in vain and could not find a workable solution.
I expected big things from Mountain with their newest peripheral, and I was happy with the overall outcome. Although it didn’t do everything I needed for the design, the practicality of the MacroPad performed well, and heavier content-related users would benefit more significantly from it. The peripheral has received multiple updates during its tenure with me, including adding Twitch functionality, and the team at Mountain often have more updates in the pipeline. The MacroPad is a decent alternative to other devices on the market; with its ability to adapt and load more customisations and easy-to-use software, they have developed a gem of a machine.
