Performance
For performance testing, I swapped both the mouse and keyboard out with my normal mouse and keyboard. I went from a Masterkeys Pro L and a Sensei 310 to the MS120 mouse and keyboard. This gave me a chance to get a feel for both in short and long term use. Most of this was writing and browsing the internet, but I did try to slip in a few games here and there. My focus first was overall comfort and usability. Then I focused on performance.
Comfort for a standard mechanical like keyboard really relies more on a wrist rest, something that the MS120 keyboard does not come with. Beyond that, though the standard layout made the transition quick and easy and was just as comfortable as my normal keyboard. In fact other than the lower bezel the exterior of this keyboard was close to the MasterKey Pro L. The performance is a completely different story, but I will get to that in a minute. The mouse comfort was surprisingly good. I really liked the spawn mouse as well as the MM520 that was recently introduced. Having the same shape and just about all of the same exterior features of the MM520 I really liked this mouse. Dropping the honeycomb rubber grips down to a smooth rubber was an improvement as well in my mind. Of course, you need to be using a claw or palm grip to like this mouse at all. The short length isn’t going to work for everyone. Honestly, with this being a combo set like this, I would have expected to see Cooler Master go with a more standard shape, but I do like this one. The buttons are easy to reach and the finish gives a little grip without any rubber coatings that may rub off later.
For actual performance I found most of the mouse to perform similar to the MM520. Stuff like the Omron switches, the two side buttons, and the scroll wheel were all the same. So the performance was good there. The 3050 optical sensor, on the other hand, wasn’t as nice. I would say that it falls in between the good gaming mice and a good office mouse. The DPI and tracking speed is there but I did notice some acceleration. More importantly with just four DPI settings, you aren’t going to be able to set it to exactly what you are comfortable with.
As for the keyboard, the “mem-chanical” switches were interesting. I should point out that I don’t care much for blue or green switches, so the over the top loud click that these have wasn;t my favorite thing. It is played up and louder than blues or greens but in exchange, you get the mushy feeling of a membrane keyboard. That said for someone who isn’t as picky as I am who wants that “mechanical” keyboard feel I think the played up over the top click they might be happy. Beyond the switches the rest of the board was solid. The built in media keys on the function layer were easy to reach with one hand and like a normal mechanical keyboard, the MS120 keyboard did have enough heft to it that you could do a little damage.
For the keyboard, though it is really the lights that bring it all together. Getting individually accessible lighting has been all the rage for a while now and Cooler Masters implementation of it with the red, green, and blue keys that let you set the color mix you want works well without any software. The lighting was bright as well. On the mouse, things are a lot more muted with just the back light, the logo, and the scroll wheel. I don’t care much for the logo light but the rest looks good and isn’t too flashy, especially when it is next to the keyboard.
