Hator Vortex Evo gaming mouse review / Overclockers.ua

The debut of the Hator brand took place a little over a year and a half ago. And if the keyboards under it were pretty good for their price, then with mice everything turned out not so rosy. They had decent sensors, but not the most pleasant ergonomics. And the introduction of the Vortex Evo should fix this problem with a new shape and a slightly improved PMW3389 sensor. Let’s take a closer look at this mouse.

Specifications

Contents of delivery

The mouse comes in a small and neat black and yellow box. On the front there is an outline image of the product, on the reverse side you can find detailed technical specifications in three languages.

The package includes instructions and a pair of interchangeable legs.

Appearance

It doesn’t take an expert to easily recognize the Zowie EC1’s ergonomic profile in the Hator Vortex Evo. To be more precise, the Vortex Evo is something in the middle in terms of size, slightly smaller than EC1 and slightly larger than EC2. Well, the example for imitation is chosen quite worthily. The top panel is made of smooth and easily soiled plastic in black matte color. The liquid quickly evaporates from this surface, but the prints remain for a long time. The panels of the left and right keys are solid with the body. They are soft and thin plastic. They are pressed with medium force and a click louder than average, without free play. The middle key is tight and muffled. The scroll wheel is located in a rounded glossy recess between the buttons.

There are two large protruding side keys on the left side of the mouse. On the front of them there is a small tactile cut in the back, which allows you to distinguish the buttons from each other by touch. They are pressed with a distinct and loud click, medium effort is required to activate. The sidewall material is a slightly rough matte plastic, which has a good grip coefficient.

The signal cable enters the mouse body in the center from the bottom, at a sufficient height from the surface and has a short kink protection. The mouse scroll wheel is rubberized and covered with horizontal tactile notches. In its central part there is a strip of translucent plastic through which the light from the LED penetrates to the outside. The scroll wheel has a slight backlash to the right side, however, it does not appear on its own, but if you move the roller with your finger. The wheel encoder works out the fixing positions well, rotates with a quiet crackling sound.

The nylon-braided USB cable is medium in flexibility and does not support a given shape. The length of the cord is 1.8 meters. Closer to the connector there is a ferrite ring to protect the signal from interference. And there is also a reusable Velcro to adjust the length of the wire.

The right side of the mouse has no keys. The cover is the same as on the left.

On the stern of the mouse in the lower part there is an illuminated inscription Hator.

The mouse has an ergonomic shape with a bend for the right hand. The large case is suitable for owners of large and medium palms in the finger and palm grip. The mouse weighs 90 grams excluding cable and 136 grams with it. The weight is distributed evenly, there are no distortions during separation from the surface.

At the base of the mouse there are two huge Teflon legs in front and behind. At the corners on the side of each there are hooks for dismantling. The optical sensor window is slightly shifted back. To the left of it is a resolution switch button with five dot indicators on top. The key on the right switches the polling frequency between 250, 500 and 1000 Hz, there are also three corresponding dot indicators above it.

The first RGB lighting zone on the mouse is the scroll wheel, and the second is the inscription on the stern. jointly regulated. The indicators on the base are always green.

Internal organization

To disassemble the mouse, you will need to remove the Teflon feet. Fortunately, special hooks are provided for this. There are two Phillips screws at the front and back under the legs.

Once the screws are removed, the entire top cover of the mouse comes off completely. The main components of the device are located on two printed circuit boards screwed to the base.

Both switches of the main buttons are Omron D2FC-F-7N(20M)(OF) with a resource of 20 million clicks. TTS scroll wheel encoder. Additional buttons – Kailh with red drummers.

The switch under the scroll wheel could not be clearly seen, presumably this is a Huano with a blue button. The PCB runs right under the wheel to support the backlight LED.

The PixArt PMW3389DM-T3QU sensor chip is soldered on the bottom red board.

Proprietary software

As software Hator Vortex Evo uses its own driver (no version specified), which can be downloaded from the official website and installed. There is no option to customize the driver itself. You can select one of three interface languages ​​during the installation process. The software remains permanently active at system startup. From the base application window, you can load or save profiles, reset to defaults. From here you also have access to the tabs for setting the keys, sensor, backlight and the macro editor.

Five buttons are available for remapping. You cannot change the scroll direction commands. All settings can be saved in five separate profiles. For assignment, you can select standard and advanced mouse commands, macros, standard Windows functions, media keys and change button layouts, and keys can also be disabled. A little lower there is a button for direct access to the macro editor.

In the sensor settings, you can set seven levels of resolution ranging from 100 to 16,000 cpi in 100 cpi increments. It is possible to separately control the resolution along the X and Y axes. There is a switch for the linearity of the trajectory. The lift-off height (LOD) is set only between low and high values, which corresponds to values ​​​​of 2 and 3 mm, although this sensor model is capable of supporting lower values. There are four polling rates to choose from at 125, 250, 500 and 1000 Hz. When 125 Hz is selected, the rightmost light will be lit on the mouse indicators.

In the lighting settings, the logo area and the inscription on the stern are synchronously controlled. You can turn the glow on or off, assign one permanent color, or turn on interchangeable wave, pulse, rainbow, or seven-color changing effects. Adjust the brightness, color and frequency of the effects. The detailed palette is located on the left side of the tab.

In the macro editor, you can record keyboard commands and pressing LMB, MMB and RMB, nothing else is registered. There are delay settings, in general, up to 60 actions can be recorded in one command, and the delay is processed as one separate action. Each macro can be given an individual name, saved, loaded, deleted and edited.

Ergonomics and testing

The Hator Vortex Evo mouse was tested on a plain black Mionix Alioth M cloth mousepad. As mentioned earlier, the shape of the mouse, borrowed from Zowie, is very comfortable. In combination with an average weight of 90 grams, a normal cable and large legs, this manipulator is comfortable enough to make sharp movements typical of FPS games. The build quality of the device cannot be called ideal, but no critical crunches that cause irritation were noticed. The only frustrating thing is the soiled top coat, which has to be cleaned more often than we would like. You can still find fault with the soft panels of the main keys and the scroll wheel, which can be moved to the side. On the other hand, if you do not do it on purpose, then there will be no problems. There are no complaints about the tactile feedback of the main and additional keys, they work clearly and without backlash. The nature of the scroll wheel is also quite pleasant.

The buttons on the base that switch the resolution and polling rate are more of a tribute to tradition than a practical necessity. Initially, they were supposed to allow you to use a mouse without a driver. But, on the other hand, what prevented you from assigning a change in the polling frequency to a combination of buttons, and linking profile switching to one physical key, which happens much more often in practice? And so using the built-in memory “on the fly” is not very convenient. There is also a backlight here, and that’s all you need to know about it. The driver looks clear, but at the moment there is a problem with the inability to configure how it starts and updates.

The updated sensor installed here is called the PixArt PMW3389. It is a further development of the reference PMW3360. In comparison with the latter, the resolution has increased from 12,000 to 16,000 cpi and, more importantly, the maximum surface tracking speed has noticeably increased – from 250 to 400 IPS (up to 10.16 m / s). Otherwise, there are no special differences, and, as before, this series of sensors is the most optimal for gaming applications, since it has high accuracy, is not subject to cursor disruptions and has a low separation height from the surface with the possibility of its adjustment.

Results

The Hator Vortex Evo is the most successful mouse in the company’s current range. It combines a good shape with a great sensor, decent switches, scroll wheel, cable and spare feet included. And all this at an affordable price.

There are also points that need improvement. In particular, the coating of the top panel can be made less easily soiled, the plastic of the main button panels can be strengthened, the ability to reassign keys based on the mouse can be added to the driver, and the software itself can be expanded with customization options.

In its price segment, the Hator Vortex Evo is a worthy proposition for those who need a decent gaming mouse without paying extra for a well-known brand.