[Review] Gamdias Zeus P1 RGB Gaming Mouse – Enlightening Performance

Taiwan-based Gamdias is a relative newcomer to the gaming peripheral market though they have begun carving out a name for themselves as providers of decent hardware that don’t cost an arm and a leg while offering some unorthodox but effective solutions in their products that remain unexplored by more established brands.

Their Zeus P1 RGB optical gaming mouse sticks to this design philosophy for the most part and brings to the table an impressive 12,000dpi and eight programmable buttons spread across its matte black expanse. Of note to gamers who love blinged up hardware is that the Zeus P1 comes with a series of psychedelic RGB strips in its chassis that pulsate in every colour of the rainbow at your whim and fancy.

Out of the box, the Zeus P1 came in a form-fitted cardboard sleeve along with a user manual. The mouse itself is made of a matte black polycarbonate with textured rubberised side grips and, as you’d surmise from its suffix, a series of the aforementioned RGB strips all along the base and the middle of the mouse that pulsate and change colour.

The top shell of the mouse sports a backlit Gamdias logo on the palm rest and has the left and right mouse button bisected by a scroll wheel in the middle along with a pair of buttons that allow you to adjust dpi on the fly. A  tiny button at the base of the arrows that lets you adjust mouse sensitivity in broad 1,200dpi increments up to 12,000dpi. The scroll wheel itself is transparent save for a rubberised black strip running along its sides for friction. In effect, the RGB lighting bleeds over and also lights up the scroll wheel and the two top-buttons as well to lend it a surreal glowing effect.

The sides of the Zeus P1 have rubberised sections to offer a better grip with the left side of the mouse coming with another pair of programmable thumb buttons. The right side of the mouse is otherwise unadorned with any buttonry.

The base of the Zeus P1 has a trio of Teflon feet that allow it to glide smoothly on surfaces along with the requisite optical sensor staring out in a cyclopean fashion. Of note on the Zeus P1 is its USB cable that comes with nylon-braided sheathing to ensure long-term durability. The fact that it’s also 1.8m long means that you have more than enough cabling to use it in all but the most outlandish gaming setups. The USB port housing has an interesting narrow-waisted design that offers a better grip and purchase for your fingers when you need to yank it out of a port.

Performance and Handling
The Zeus P1 is large as gaming mice go and is ideally sized for people with large paws who are predominantly right-handed. The large, curved design ensures adequate comfort for both palm and claw-type grips with plenty of support and space for a firm grip for both grip types.

As with many mice, the Zeus P1 is unfortunately not designed for lefties. Left-handed users will find most of the important buttons aren’t on the right side of the mouse where a southpaw’s thumb would be and that the two ‘thumb buttons’ have to be manipulated with your pinky and ring finger. One minor gripe is that the thumb buttons are a bit on the low side; the primary thumb button is within easy reach though the secondary button is placed a bit too low thus requiring you to reposition your thumb if you need to access the secondary thumb button.

The Zeus P1 is essentially plug-and-play. Once plugged in, the built-in RGB lighting by default pulses slowly through the colour spectrum. Via Gamdias’ Hera software, you can modify a host of variables to manipulate the lighting on both coloured strips that are subdivided into 13 separate zones with five possible different lighting effects and the choice to tweak the speed and colour too from 16.8 million possible colour options.

Other than tweaking the lighting, Hera lets you customise the more important stuff like which button does what, assigning macros and, if you’re in a particularly belligerent mood, record voice clips and assign them to a button to vicariously share your opinion in a vocal fashion with fellow gamers in a match. On a more practical front, you can use this as an additional form of feedback to indicate to fellow teammates that you’re doing something important like dropping down a buff or an area attack.

Via the dpi buttons or Hera, you’re able to tweak the sensitivity of the Zeus P1 as well as manipulate your scroll speed, double click speed and other minutiae as needed though the mouse works perfectly fine out of the box. All these tweaks can be saved to one of five different profiles so you can fire up the right one for the right game.

Price and Performance
When put to the test, the Zeus P1 proved to be immensely capable with sufficient responsiveness and comfort for extended gaming sessions across multiple gaming genres. The lighting effect was relatively bright and eye-catching though the centre scroll wheel’s lighting effects seem rather muted in comparison.

When cranked up to 12,000 dpi, there were no jitter issues detected with the Zeus P1 and even at its lowest 1,600dpi settings, it proved to be smooth and responsive. In Starcraft 1 and 2, it allowed for precision clicking and micro while on Diablo III it managed to survive an extended series of Rift treasure raids with hundreds of clicks aplenty without buckling under. In an Advanced Warfare match, the precision and speed offered by the Zeus P1 was more than sufficient to consistently plink away at targets from a hundred paces away with a battle rifle.

If you’re on the hunt for a wired gaming mouse that can hold up to a variety of gaming genres, has customisable buttons and comes with aesthetic bling in spades, you can’t go wrong with the Gamdias Zeus P1. Bar some minor niggles like some slightly off button placement and a design unsuited for southpaws, it’s a surprisingly good offering for the price of entry.

WHAT WE LIKED Sturdy build quality, comfortable to grip design, good RGB lighting, braided hard-wearing cable
WHAT WE DIDN’T Minor ergonomic issues with button placement, not designed for lefties
WE SAY A comfortable to use, responsive wired optical gaming mouse that comes with the works including fetching RGB lighting without costing a bomb

Specifications
Price RM209
Buttons 8 (programmable)
Polling rate 1000Hz
Resolution 12,000dpi
Cable length 1.8M
Size/Weight 127.26 x 72.45 x 40.85 mm / 125g
*Review unit courtesy of Gamdias
* Available on Nation Tech and Lazada