Redmagic Gaming Mouse Review: High Performance Comes at a Cost

A premium gaming peripheral with quick response and low latency to give you an edge over opponents, but it needs to be cheaper to compete.

The Redmagic Gaming Mouse delivers high performance for gamers. You can customize its DPI sensitivity from 50 to 26,000, and it has a 1,000Hz polling rate, ensuring that all your movements and clicks count. It's relatively light, coming in at 75g, making moving it around in the heat of battle easy.

This gaming mouse has tri-mode connectivity, allowing you to connect via wire, Bluetooth, or a 2.4GHz dongle. It also has a 450mAh lithium battery, allowing you to game for more than 100 hours continuously before needing a charge.

The Redmagic GS001J gaming mouse has a premium price tag, but it fully justifies this with the capabilities that it will give you. With Redmagic's gaming technology, you can win more games.

Whether you're into competitive FPS gaming, join MOBA tournaments, or are simply a casual gamer, a gaming mouse will do wonders for your gaming experience. And if you've invested in your gaming rig to get a high-end PC, it'd make sense that you want a premium gaming mouse with it.

So, to help us get our premium gaming rig up to spec, Redmagic sent us their first-ever mouse—the Redmagic GS001J Gaming Mouse. Let's check out what Redmagic's first premium mouse looks like, how it performs, and if it's worth the price.

The Redmagic Gaming Mouse is positioned as a premium gaming peripheral, and this starts right from its box. The mouse's packaging is reminiscent of Redmagic's recent gaming design language.

You'd know that this mouse is a part of the company's latest releases, as its package's silver finish and gamer aesthetics mimic that of the Redmagic 8 Pro, Redmagic Gaming Keyboard, and Redmagic 4K Gaming Monitor.

When you open the box, you're greeted by the mouse sitting on a plastic tray. Underneath that sits the Mouse Accessory Box containing the manual, a braided USB-C cable, grip tape, extra PTFE feet, and a USB-C to USB-A adapter if you want to use the mouse wirelessly but still keep the 2.4GHz receiver near it.

Underneath the mouse, you'll find a compartment that holds the 2.4GHz dongle, the 2.4GHz / Wired / Bluetooth connection switch, and the DPI button. So, before we go through anything else, let's check out the listed specifications of this gaming mouse.

The Redmagic Gaming Mouse has the PixArt PAW3395 optical sensor with a 26,000 maximum DPI and a 1,000Hz response rate. The left and right mouse buttons also use Kailh Black Mamba switches, which have an 80-million-click lifespan.

As indicated earlier, the mouse has three connectivity modes—2.4GHz, wired, and via Bluetooth—and you can switch between these modes via the slide switch at the bottom. The mouse also has five buttons: the left and right clicks, the scroll wheel, and the forward and back buttons on its left side.

Redmagic designed the mouse for ambidextrous users, meaning you can comfortably use it whether you're a lefty or righty. However, the placement of the forward and back buttons means you're down to just three buttons if you mouse with your left hand.

Since the Redmagic GS001J Gaming Mouse is a wireless device, it also has a 450mAh lithium battery. You can continuously use the mouse for up to 100 hours, provided you don't turn on the LED lights. Even so, the mouse will last quite a long time with the LED lights on. You can also use it in wired mode while charging, so you're never out of the game, even if you get a battery warning during a match.

The mouse itself isn't the lightest of gaming mice, although it comes in at a reasonable 75g. If you want the lightest possible experience, remember to remove the 2.4GHz dongle from the mouse, even if you're using wired or via Bluetooth, as it adds another 1 to 2g to the total mouse weight.

Even so, it's still a great mouse for daily and gaming use. Its relative lightness means you can quickly move your cursor around your screen—whether switching to another target or dragging a window to your other monitor.

Furthermore, its PTFE feet let you slide it around your desk, whether you're using a mouse pad or not. And if you've worn down its feet after years of use, you can easily change it with the included replacements.

The mouse's body is made of dark translucent plastic, allowing you to see some of its design elements underneath. However, don't expect to see these designs as clearly as in some photos—reflections from your surroundings will make it difficult. Nevertheless, this is just a minor issue and will not affect the mouse's performance.

One downside to the translucent body is its glossy finish. If you're a sweaty gamer, this could lead to your hand slipping off it at the most crucial moment. Thankfully, Redmagic included grip tape in the accessories box, ensuring your hand will never slip off the mouse when you're in battle.

Another issue I have with the Redmagic Gaming Mouse is the placement of its DPI button. While you can change the mouse's DPI on the fly, the button is placed underneath. This makes changing your DPI during a match inconvenient, if not impossible.

This isn't an issue if you don't change your DPI. But if you change your mouse's sensitivity on the fly, like switching to a lower DPI when you're scoped in and to a higher one when you're in a melee, then this mouse isn't for you.

One great thing about the Redmagic Gaming Mouse is its multiple connectivity options. It lets you choose between a 2.4GHz dongle, a wired connection, and Bluetooth. The 2.4GHz connection is perfect for gamers who don't want to deal with wires during a match.

And if you fear that distance will cause increased latency, you can use the included cable and adapter to bring the dongle physically closer to your mouse. That way, you can still enjoy the benefits of wireless technology without negatively affecting your gaming.

But you'll appreciate the included USB-C cable if you're old-school like me and prefer a wired mouse on your gaming setup. This cable is 193cm or just over six feet long, allowing you to use your mouse freely even if you're distant from your CPU. It also has a soft braided finish, ensuring it will last even if you game a lot.

And for those who prefer minimalism, you can pick Bluetooth as your wireless connection while still maintaining a great experience. The mouse itself works with either Windows or macOS, so if you're a Windows gamer and a macOS professional, you can use the mouse on both devices.

However, its driver is Windows-compatible only, so you'll have to set it up first on your Windows PC with a wired connection.

You can download the drivers on the Global Redmagic site, at the bottom of the home page. It's labeled REDMAGIC Cloud Driver Download under the REDMAGIC Program heading. Once installed, you can start customizing how your mouse feels and its controls.

You can change several settings on the Redmagic Cloud Driver app. These settings include key settings on all five buttons, macro settings, five DPI settings, the polling rate, sleep time, and lift-off distance. You can also change the lighting effects on the mouse using the app. You also need this to upgrade your mouse's firmware.

One major issue I have with the driver app is its poor translation. While the main screen looks normal, you'll get issues when you go into the submenus. For example, a new window will appear when you click on the Lighting option. However, all the text in the window is in Chinese. So, unless you know how to read it, you'll be groping your way around the app.

A potential solution is to use the Google Translate app on your phone. However, it's a hassle since you must get your phone and point it at your screen to understand what's happening.

To save you the trouble, these are the lighting effect options listed on the app:

The top slider changes the speed of the effect, while the lower slider changes its brightness. You don't have to press OK or Cancel, as your changes happen in real-time. Once you're done setting your mouse's color, click anywhere outside the Light Color window, and you're okay.

As for the key settings, you have six options: you can create a macro (with the Macro Set option), select any of the preset System Commands, Multimedia keys, Mouse Functions, custom keyboard keys, or the default setting.

The Redmagic Gaming Mouse is definitely great—it performs well in different gaming scenarios, includes various connectivity options, has a long battery life, and has several accessories crucial for most gamers. But do all those justify its price of $99 on the website and $149 on Amazon, plus the associated shipping fees?

If you're a serious gamer, then perhaps yes. But before you splurge on this high-performance gaming mouse, consider other options. Razer, one of the biggest names in gaming peripherals, offers the Razer Viper V2 Pro at $149.99—but you'll often find it on sale at just $99.99.

One of the lightest gaming mice on the market, the Logitech G Pro X Superlight, goes for $159.99, but it's nearly 12 grams lighter and is also often on sale. The Logitech G303, which weighs the same as the Redmagic Gaming Mouse, has a $129.99 list price but can be had for 25% off at $97.99.

Although the Redmagic Gaming Mouse is an excellent performer, it's in a league of other great mice. Redmagic has its work cut out to make its gaming mouse stand out, and the translation issues on its driver app might make some gamers balk at spending that much for the GS001J.

Nevertheless, the included extra PTFE feet and grip tape adds value to the mouse—something the other mice in this price range don't have in the box.

If you're in the market for a premium gaming mouse, Redmagic's offering is a serious contender. And although this is the company's first try at creating a gaming mouse, it's a great start. The mouse also pairs well with Redmagic's excellent mechanical keyboard, so if you already have that (or are planning to get it), they're a great match.

However, at its current price, we cannot say it's a great value over its competitors. This is especially true as the GS001J is facing off with models that are well-established in the market, like Razer, Logitech, and SteelSeries. Still, if you want something different and perform well enough to enhance your gaming, the Redmagic Gaming Mouse is a valid option.

John William Morales, better known as Jowi, is a writer, a career coach, a professional photographer, and a leisure pilot.He's been using, discovering, and exploring PCs since Windows 3.1 and has been on board the Android bandwagon since Froyo. In 2023, he also invested in an iPhone and a Mac, allowing him to cover a wide spectrum of consumer technology.Jowi started writing part-time in 2015 and transitioned to it full-time in 2020. He also finished a university degree with related units in journalism in 2012. But even before he received higher education, he's been known by his friends and family as the go-to person when anything computer-related requires explanation.