Gigabyte Aivia M8600 Hybrid Gaming Mouse Review

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When thinking of gaming peripherals, many think of names like Razer, Steelseries and Logitech. However, not all that long ago we took a long hard look at the Gigabyte K8100 Aivia keyboard and walked away reasonably impressed. It was a good keyboard clearly focused on enhancing your gaming experience and packed enough features to be highly appealing for gamers. More importantly, we were impressed with Gigabyte’s renewed vigor in the gaming peripheral marketplace as there was no area where that keyboard hindered the gaming experience; even if this caused trouble in non-gaming environments. Today we are going to look at another Aivia gaming peripheral: the Gigabyte Aivia M8600 gaming mouse.

We personally have always been fans of Gigabyte gaming mice as they combine good ergonomics and a great feature set with a price that’s hard to beat. The Aivia M8600 mouse is so intriguing because it somewhat breaks with this longstanding tradition. Naturally, it certainly has an impressive list of features and is marketed towards the high end gaming enthusiast niche but a price of $99 means it will be playing with some of the big boys in this industry.

So exactly what does this new mouse bring to the table to justify its departure Gigabyte’s usual price niche? Well, to begin with, this is a gaming peripheral which can be used in wired or wireless modes. Considering some of the competition has this feature in higher-priced models, it will be interesting to see whether the M8600’s fairly aggressive cost has meant any trade-offs.

 

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Specifications

Specifications

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Packaging & Accessories

Packaging & Accessories

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There certainly is no denying the packaging container the M8600 comes in is unique. The long tube with bold graphics and bold styling certainly catches the eye, as it was obviously meant to. Gigabyte makes no attempt at hiding its true nature behind a bland façade as this flash light looking container screams “enthusiast gamer” with an unabashed enthusiasm which is almost infectious. Unfortunately, such a unique looking box means some challenges when it comes to shipping this to end users.

The tube itself consists of three sections with the bottom being for the accessories (including a cloth tote bag and replacement low friction feet) and the top being for the mouse itself. The central portion is simply there to tie the two halves together.

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The list of accessories which accompany this mouse is extremely complete and completely overkill. There is a replacement 50 hour battery, the dual purpose battery charger / wireless receiver, two sets of interchangeable cables and the typical installation CD; you also get a replacement set of ultra low friction feet and a cloth tote bag to carry the accessories in! To say we are impressed with this accessory list is an understatement and the extra battery is definitely a nice addition.

 

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Software

Software

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For anyone who is familiar with any of the “GHOST” branded Gigabyte gaming mice, the installation interface of the Aivia M8600 will seem very familiar to you. When you run the installation you are presented with two software installation options as well as an option to read the manual. Whichever of the two options you chose, the end result is you will quickly have the necessary software installed. With this accomplished you will have to reboot before being able to use the software. This software is of course not needed if you just want to use the M8600 as a standard mouse.

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When you have rebooted your system you will then be greeted to a software interface which will be also very familiar to any GHOST users. This is because it is basically just an upgraded version of the GHOST software which is great since Gigabyte has spent a lot of time and effort making it one of the better gaming mouse software programs available.

Unfortunately, you cannot use this particular revision of the software with previous mice as it is meant exclusively for the M8600 and its unique feature set. The other caveat to this software worth pointing out is depending on whether you are in wired or wireless mode, its options and abilities will vary greatly.

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For all intents and purposes the only way to use all the features of this great software is if you have the M8600 plugged directly in. If you try running the software while in wireless mode, the option to create any new macros or ability change any of the 5 profile options aren’t available.

On the positive side, when in wireless mode you will be able to control which of the two modes you wish to run the M8600 in when in wireless mode. The Power Saving option is designed to maximize battery life by putting the mouse into standby after a short period of inactivity while it will wait much longer before going into standby when in the appropriately mentioned Gaming Mode. This will reduce battery life but will also minimize any lag associated with the nearly instantaneous “wake up”. In wireless mode, it is also possible to see how much battery life is left.

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For all the serious heavy lifting, the M8600 will need to be plugged directly into your computer. When this is done, the main screen allows for dragging and dropping “pre-built” macros into one of the available slots and shows you which of the buttons / wheel the slot is mapped to. This makes for an intuitive and easy to use visual setup as you just drag and drop the commands into areas which are the most convenient for your playing style. We especially liked the fact that with just the click of a button in the software’s upper left hand corner we could go from right handed mode to left handed.

Meanwhile, the upper right hand corner not only tells you which profile you are in but also allows you to change the default on-device LED to any of the 27 predefined colours including “black” (aka off).

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If the copious list of pre-built macros are not to your liking and something beyond the admittedly basic included macros is needed, the first button in the upper center of the screen should be the focus of your Aivia experience. This button (aptly labeled “Macro Editing”) brings up a secondary screen where that perfect custom macro can be built from the ground up. Inputting custom key settings is a thing of beauty since a few clicks is all that’s needed to start defining scripts.

The second tab, contains a secondary page where you can adjust the sensitivity for whichever of the 5 profiles you are in. As with any good mouse you can not only set the X and Y axis independently but also the polling speed / report rate above the standard 500 Hz rate to a maximum of 1000Hz or 1ms.

The third button brings up a different screen which is for tweaking the wheel scroll speeds. You can set the vertical and horizontal speeds in a semi precise fashion, increase or decrease the “speed” or modify the amount each wheel click equals. We still would have preferred a drop down box with some default options like: 3 lines, 6 lines or even “page” but this is a fairly nice way of doing things. The last button really does not do much besides open up Microsoft Window’s default mouse page.

Once all of these options are selected and macros built, they can be uploaded to the M8600’s memory in order to use in wireless mode.

 

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Overview of the M8600

Overview of the M8600

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This bold and brash nature of the M8600’s box was only a mere preview of what was to come once we feasted our eyes on the mouse itself. This is one aggressive and yet oddly shaped mouse. In many ways the it reminds us of Silverstone’s Raven RV-01 case or even a F117 Nighthawk fighter plane with its sharp angles and sleek styling. This is because the M8600 is made up of sharply contrasting angles with almost no “organic flow” to it. Whether or not this affects ergonomics is something we will tackle in the next section.

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As with previous Gigabyte mice we have looked at, there is a centrally located LED which glows in 27 different customizable colours (including “black” or off) to signify which of the five profiles currently is active. This has always been a strong point of Gigabyte GHOST mice as with simple glance, you instantly know what the buttons will do when pressed.

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Unlike previous GHOST mice, the DPI selector is not a dual purpose switch but rather is broken into two separate and distinct buttons. They are also much larger than previous designs, making hitting them with the bottom of your index or middle finger much easier and faster. Not having to reposition your finger to adjust the DPI settings should be quite beneficial in a number of gaming scenarios. This certainly is ingenious as it works and works very well in the real world.

Gigabyte has also changed to location of the DPI level indicators from the front right edge to in between the DPI selector buttons. We are less enthused by this change, but it still is very easy to tell what of the four DPI settings you are in with just a glance. These LEDs are also dual purpose as they glow green to show battery life remaining (and show when the battery is charging) and red to show DPI level.

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When compared to previous Ghost products, the number of buttons has gone up to a total of 9 (including the wheel’s “middle click” button).

Also noteworthy, is the scroll wheel. As with the M8000X GHOST mouse we reviewed, it is a four way scrollable mouse wheel, but this one is shaped to look like a tire. It certainly adds a funky flair to the M8600, yet still works extremely well at providing a good grip surface for quick horizontal and vertical scrolling.

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This brings us to the most notable feature of the Aivia M8600: its wired & wireless abilities. Unlike some mice which are either wired or wireless, this mouse can be used in either mode. For situations where absolutely zero lag is needed, simply plug it in and for those times you don’t want to be tied down, unplug it. In either case the secondary battery will still be charged thanks to the USB receiver which doubles as a charging station for either the mouse or spare battery pack.

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Unfortunately, the charger doesn’t hold the mouse all that securely so some care must be taken and it cannot charge both batteries at the same time (the second battery inserted in the receiver would block the mouse from sitting on top and vice versa).

We also liked the fact that when you are in wired mode the attached battery is also charged via the USB cable. This should allow you to almost extend your gaming sessions indefinitely.

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The 1500mAh Sanyo batteries which Gigabyte has opted for are rather large and bulky. This of course is how they are able to get 50 hours per battery per charge. While Gigabyte makes a point of stating you can swap out the batteries in two seconds, this is stretching things a tad.

The only real tradeoff here is the fact that by opting for such a large battery pack, Gigabyte had to remove the weight customization feature. All things considered, this mouse is heavy and adding more weight is not needed but making it lighter isn’t possible.

 

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Our Experiences with the M8600

Our Experiences with the M8600

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While the aggressive design of the Aivia M8600 works very well at making it look like a high end gaming peripheral, it also makes this a sub-optimal gaming mouse for all users. The other Gigabyte “GHOST” mice we looked at in the past were very comfortable multi-purpose mice which could be used as palm, finger or even claw grip gamers. Sadly, the new Aivia branded M8600 mouse just can’t be considered an optimal claw grip or palm grip mouse. It is only really comfortable when used with a finger grip and even here it does take a bit of getting used to as you need to hold it differently than most finger grip mice.

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The reason for this lack of adaptability stems from the bilateral symmetry culminating in a centrally located longitudinal peak, which is especially pronounced over the rear battery compartment. To put this another way, the M8600’s sharp, wedge-like design literally digs into one’s palm when gaming. The center of the M8600’s back will soon go from uncomfortable to painful as it digs right into the center our your palm when used in a palm grip.

While it can be used in a claw grip the slick surface of the main buttons coupled with their 2-axis slope (front to back and side to side) makes it difficult to be 100% accurate in depressing the main buttons with a claw grip. Your fingers really do have a tendency to slid off rather than depress them.

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On the flip side of the comfort coin, Gigabyte’s $100 mouse is very comfortable when used in a finger grip; albeit as long as you know how to hold it. The secret to successfully using this mouse in a finger grip is to hold it so only one of half of the battery compartment’s wedge comes in contact with your palm. When held in this manner your fingers will hit the buttons at the proper angle so that the slopes of the buttons are in fact close to 90° perpendicular to your fingers.

To be blunt, this mouse had a lot of time and effort put into its design but ergonomics seem to have taken a back seat. Its unique angulations and aggressive styling really are more a case of form following function; rather than the other way around.

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Another area which on first glance seems to be less than optimal but is far from it is the grip surface of the M8600. While the top is smooth plastic, the sides have what is best described as a stippling texture applied to them. When the mouse is held properly this seemingly smooth texture grips almost as good as high friction tape would. However, if you do not properly hold this mouse these texture will feel almost slippery. This subtle negative reinforcement of proper grip angle and placement does work almost at a subliminal level as you will instinctively change your grip until the sides “hold” your fingers when using the mouse.

The other issue from a gaming point of view is the fact that while those large batteries work very well at giving extended gaming time, it also makes the mouse a tad heavy. This is perfectly fine for games who require precision, but it was a touch “slow” for fast twitch gaming. To overcome this limitation the DPI levels will likely need to be raised more than they usually would. Thankfully, with five onboard profiles - and a sensor good for well in excess of what most will ever be able to use - you can easily customize everything to fit each games needs.

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Also on the positive side it appears that the Philips Twin Eye sensor tracking “issue” has been resolved. In over 40 hours of testing not once did it show any tendencies to get confused. Even when lifted significantly higher than we normally do and repeatedly slammed back down it knew when to cut off tracking and when to begin anew. While this does not guarantee the well documented problems have been completely, resolved it is a fairly good indication that they have.

 

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Conclusion

Conclusion

The all new Aivia M8600 denotes a radical departure from previous design philosophies for Gigabyte and rightly deserves to be part of the Aivia brand. Much like the Aivia K8100 keyboard, this mouse is designed for gaming and gaming only. Compare and contrast this single mindedness with previous models which were better rounded and “jack of all trades” in their approach and things look both good and bad for this mouse.

Previous mice with the “GHOST” label attached to them worked well regardless of which grip used to hold them. The Aivia on the other hand is not particularly well rounded and is only comfortable when used in a finger grip hold. This is perfectly acceptable in a gaming mouse as gaming enthusiasts know exactly what they want out of their peripheral and know which of the three main grips work best for them. Unfortunately, this means the M8600 is a poor match for non-gaming environments.

The tale of contrasts can be told about the Aivia’s weight as well. The large batteries Gigabyte has opted for, coupled with its dual wired and wireless abilities make for a mouse which some will find on the heavy end of the spectrum. This too is perfectly acceptable in a gaming peripheral as the intended niche knows exactly what they like weight wise and how to overcome a heavier than optimal mouse. However, we know that gamers want a choice and sometimes like to custom tailor every aspect of their mouse depending on the game being played. On the flip side of the coin, having an extremely long wireless life is likely a trade-off many would be willing to make. We certainly do not want to buy another Logitech G7, as small “quick change” batteries with no wired abilities is a recipe for disaster; a disaster which Gigabyte has cleverly avoided by learned from their competitors’ past mistakes.

When you add up killer software, enough buttons and onboard profiles to satisfy even the most demanding gamer with average ergonomics hidden behind aggressive styling, the end result can be considered a very good mouse. Unfortunately, there is one major caveat worth pointing out. To be precise this mouse – much like some other single minded mice we have reviewed recently - is going to be a love it or hate it affair. There will be no middle ground. If you know exactly what you want from your gaming peripherals and understand the design goals of the Gigabyte Aivia M8600 before purchasing, it will provide you with endless hours of enjoyment. If you do not know what you need, want or desire from your tools then the experience may not be as fulfilling.


Pros:

- Wired and wireless abilities
- 5 onboard profiles
- Good looks
- Amazing list of accessories included
- Great battery life
- Quick Change battery system is well designed
- Great Software


Cons:

- Ergonomics of the mouse take some getting used to
- Long battery life comes at the expense of weight
- Software not compatible with other Gigabyte mice
- Quick Change battery latch is small and difficult to manipulate quickly
- Have to use wired connection to change macro settings
- Unable to charge both batteries at the same time using the charger

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