Mountain Makalu 67 Mouse Review - The lightweight mouse that captured my eyes and attention

Price: $99
Estimated Time With Gear: 70+ hours

Where to buy: Mountain, PC Case Gear, JB Hifi

What Is It?: Lightweight wired mouse
Compatible With: PC

Product Manufacturer: Mountain

The Makalu 67 mouse captured my eye while looking at the other products in the Mountain brand range. With the lightweight look and design, the white mouse seemed to fit my PC’s appearance and feel. I had to have this mouse as a part of my setup, and Mountain was extraordinarily helpful in fulfilling this request.

The Makalu 67 is an interesting mouse, wired, and with a ribcage external enclosure, it is a beauty to behold. The white colour with the ribcage look fits with my PC’s personality. The mouse has a lightweight feel while also boasting some of the best switches, cables, and sensors on the market. While the mouse is cabled, the cable’s flex, design, and angle make it feel closer to a wireless mouse for movement. The easy-to-use software made it simple to set up and update.

Makalu 67 Mouse Specs

Sensor: PixArt PAW3370 sensor
Encoder: ALPS
Max DPI: 19000
Lift-Off Distance (LOD): 1-2mm
Tracking Speed: 50g
Buttons: 6
Color(s): Black / White
Grip: Claw / Palm
Backlight: RGB
Polling Rate: 1000Hz / 1ms
MCU: Cortex M0
Connector: USB Type-A
Cable length: 1.8m
Product Dimensions: 127×70.2×42.2mm (LxWxH)
Product Weight: 67g*
Onboard memory: Yes, 5 profiles
Material: ABS
Microswitches (L+R): Omron 50M
Software Support: Base Camp
Warranty: 2 years

In The Box

Brand stickers
Cable tie
Manual

* w/o cable and ± 2 grams variance

Mountain displayed thoughtfulness and finesse when it came to the design of this mouse. The lightweight feel and the smoothness of movement make this a great go-to for gaming. The buttons are solid and responsive while also having enough heft to make them feel comfortable for daily use. The mouse’s underside has smooth feet that easily glides along my mousepad. Although the mouse is light, it still feels structurally sound and has a delightful feel for either claw or palm grip.

The Makalu 67 has a few buttons on board and optional profiling and lighting options to go with it. The default button ranges from the standard, left, and right-click, and the mouse wheel also has a clicking function for higher speed scrolling. There are back and forward buttons on the left side of the mouse above where the thumb sits. Lastly, the DPI selection button is situated behind the scroll wheel, and the user can modify all these functions via the software. Forcing them to take on alternative characteristics or just setting them to default functions for the everyday user. The highly versatile software is one of the many perks of this mouse. On top of these settings, the mouse has a small array of RGB around the scroll wheel and DPI switch. Unfortunately, this lighting didn’t function as fully as I had hoped and getting the right colour was difficult. While the LEDs are beautiful, they didn’t have the range I have had on other devices, and I found it hard to select the correct colour choice without a lot of fiddling.

Using this mouse for the last few weeks has made my wireless mouse feel heavy and sometimes sluggish in comparison. Even though I have a wireless preference, the lightweight and flexible nature of the cable attached is amazing in the way it feels like it’s not there at all. Previous mice models have had me utilising cable risers to try and match the feel of wireless while maintaining the speed and connectivity of a wired mouse. The Makalu 67 has surpassed all of them. The on the fly DPI switching makes the mouses onscreen counterparts move like lightning, topping out at a 19000 DPI; the Base Camp software gives you enough flexibility to swap between five preset DPI speeds and more settings. My personal preferences range from 1000 to 9000dpi. There is a range of settings to have the mouse feel perfect for any user, and these include polling rates, sensitivity, click speed, button response time, angle snapping and even lift-off distance. These settings can be made to branch across all profiles or be individually selected for each profile.

The Base Camp software offers a multitude of features, as discussed throughout this review. While it isn’t perfect, it is some of the better offerings of software I have used. The sheer range of flexible options is staggering, but it allows you to make the mouse your own. My main grudge is that I couldn’t get it to stay in the system tray, even with the option selected, and the LED lighting for the mouse had difficulty getting the colours to the right hue.

Overall, the Makalu 67 is a brilliantly designed mouse, with the look and feel of others that I have used or seen in a higher price bracket. Although I have mentioned my preference for wireless devices, this mouse has made me reconsider that thought process. During my weeks of use, I have found this mouse to be a great alternative to my various other mice throughout my home. For anyone looking for a decent mouse at a great price, this is my pick of the bunch for now. Combined with the Base Camp software, the mouse has only a few flaws, and I look forward to seeing more from the Mountain brand in the future.