What if your computer mouse was designed by Ridley Scott and HR Giger? It feels like that was the elevator pitch for the entire GravaStar brand, a new peripheral maker whose designs are influenced by science fiction and extraterrestrial iconography. In practice, these are peripherals that look utterly unique, organic and ‘alien’, effortlessly standing out amongst the hordes of matte-black plastic devices that litter our desktops.
The Mercury M1 Pro is the first GravaStar offering we’ve had the chance to review, and that fictional elevator pitch feels closer than ever when you take it out of the box. Built from Magnesium Alloy, this is a metal mouse, cool to the touch, with sweeping organic lines entirely at odds with our average idea of technology. Frankly, it’s captivating, and you immediately want to interact with it.
Thanks to the metal framework, this is a mouse with plenty of weight behind it, but not enough that it feels as though you’re going to lose out in a Fortnite head-to-head. The silver frame is open, like an alien skeleton frame, displaying some of the internal mechanisms, including the bulbous glowing RGB ‘body’ within, and that’s definitely going to help to keep your hand cool during long gaming sessions – the honeycomb, not the RGB light, to be clear. Every time I touched the Mercury M1 Pro, I marvelled at how good it felt, and the effect hasn’t worn off through six weeks of testing.
It’s definitely a gaming mouse, and this isn’t for anyone that’s looking for a shy and retiring setup for their desktop. Between the unique styling, metal frame, industrial logos and RGB, you cannot miss this mouse from across the room.
You have your two main inputs on top, both outfitted with mechanical switches that are certified for some ludicrous number of presses. You certainly wouldn’t bank against it achieving those numbers and more, because it feels rock solid in your hand.
The scroll wheel is also incredibly tactile, with a uniquely uneven design that fits into the overarching alien feel. I can see this being a point of contention for some people – it’s unlike any scroll wheel I’ve ever used, and there’s definitely a period of acclimatising yourself to how it feels under your finger, but personally, I ended up loving it. It definitely helps that it feels super defined, and the operation is incredibly smooth and purposeful.
There’s a further two buttons beneath your thumb, each of which can be customised in the GravaStar software and turned to whatever function you need from them. They sit just out of the way, so if you don’t need to use them you can basically ignore them, but they’re easily reached when you’re ready to call on them. You’ll know whether two additonal inputs is enough for your gaming setup, but for everyday work and gaming, it’s perfect.
Putting the GravaStar M1 Pro through its paces with Overwatch 2, showcased the precision and definition afforded by the 26,000 DPI sensor, and the mouse’s 4000Hz polling rate (the number of times your mouse talks to your computer, which is equivalent to every 0.25 milliseconds). Everything feels effortlessly quick, and I have to say that the 88g of weight in the body made my movements feel more precise and on point. While it’s heavier than some go-to mice like the Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 (60g) or a HyperX Pulsefire Haste 2 Pro (61g), it’s still a very lightweight mouse that compares favourably to the most mice out there, though if you do want to shave off a few more grams, the Mercury M2 has a plastic shell for 79g. And a little extra weight here isn’t necessarily a bad thing, depending on your feel and style of play, as I feel like I might overshoot opponents with something lighter. The responsiveness is helped by teflon plates that sit beneath the body of the mouse, giving you a super smooth and durable material to whizz around on.
All of this is wireless, to boot. The M1 Pro is a tri-mode mouse, usable with a 2.4Ghz dongle, Bluetooth, or wired, though there’s compromises around the unwired options. For one thing, the included dongle only supports a 1000Hz polling rate, with the 4000Hz dongle sold separately. You sacrifice a lot of that peak performance when stepping down to Bluetooth, but you do get up to 200 hours here, when compared to the up to 146 hours using the 1K dongle. In either case, you won’t need to reach for the charging cable all that often.
Coming in at £109, the Mercury M1 Pro is priced competitively. Sticking with MSRP, it’s a good bit less than the aforementioned Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 at £150, but more than the HyperX Pulsefire Haste 2 Pro’s £100. Of course, you need to add the £25 4K dongle on top, which the HyperX inludes, and the Logitech has even higher 8K polling. They’re not as stylish, but if peak performance and value are what matters…
Life with the GravaStar line of mice is made easier by the option of either a full downloaded app, or the increasingly more common web app portal, which allows you to customise your mouse via your web browser, doing away with the hassle of downloads, updates and further clutter on your desktop. You can customise the RGB lighting here, with a range of effects and a full spectrum of colours to choose from, as well as customise the button layout, which lets you mess with pretty much everything. You can build macros from here too, before assigning them to a button, and it’s all extremely easy and user friendly to put together. This is exactly the customisation experience you’d hope for in 2025.
