Cooler Master MM712 gaming mouse review: Near barebones perfection

The Cooler Master MM712 is a mighty and impressive mouse, simply due to the fact it’s absolutely barebones.

This mouse is sublime. The Cooler Master MM712 has finally dethroned the Mountain mouse as the go-to on the desk.

How has this tiny, inconspicuous mouse managed this? Well, partially, the same reasons that the Mountain Makalu dethroned the Razer BlackAdder from said desk as well.

Cooler Master MM712 Key specs:

• Weight: 59g
• Connectivity: Bluetooth, Wireless, Wired
• Buttons: Six
• Sensor: PixArt Optical Sensor
• Maximum DPI: 19,000
• Polling rate: 1000Hz via wired and wireless/125Hz on Bluetooth
• Battery life: Up to 80 hours
• Features: DPI cycling, Cooler Master MasterPlus+ software
• Price: $70, £70
• Where to buy: Amazon

Included in the box: Cooler Master MM712, USB receiver, USB-C to USB-A cable.

Design and features

Dexerto

Cooler Master, not known for its subtle design, has crafted something that we assume to be in response to this mild criticism. The MM712 is an entirely sleek black, with only a tiny hum of an LED covered by your palm. It’s ideal for lowkey setups or those sensible few who detest the RGB menace that plagues gaming hardware.

Small, lightweight, and understated, it is possibly so barebones that you’d be mistaken for its purpose. The whole package is just 59 grams, opting to rid itself of the ‘cheese grater’ motif that a lot of lightweight mice opt for.

MM712: Lightweight and premium

This doesn’t mean that it suffers from being overtly lightweight, where a small flick could send you aiming in the wrong direction. Instead, the weight feels distributed to all the right places. Cooler Master has fitted it with a nice center of gravity, swinging it side to side has this pleasantness to it, so it never feels cheap.

At $70, you’d expect it to have some premium feel, and despite everything, it isn’t housing, it still does feel worth its weight in cash.

This premium quality mostly stems from its sensor. While not as high as say, Logitech’s lightweight offerings with its 25,000 DPI sensor, the 19,000 strikes a balance between pro and consumer friendly. It could either be a great mouse for anyone or, a very serious competitor in esports.

Connection tests

In our testing, we found it more than enough for everything we threw at it. It is honestly so smooth, even after we misplaced the small hatch for housing the USB transmitter.

Across both USB, Bluetooth, and 2.4GHz wireless, we found minimal difference in how it plays, and even better, think that regardless of how you intend to play with it, you’ll be just fine.

While wired will always be our go-to (a mouse running out of battery is never fun), we did find that the 2.4GHz connection was effortless. Plug and play have never been so apt of a description.

The mouse wheel isn’t too loud, it isn’t too clicky and the two side buttons sit comfortably under our fingers for those frantic weapon changes.

Sensor and DPI

Our only real fault with the mouse is that the DPI button, to change the sensitivity, is located at the bottom. Most mice now come with is situated on the top, but here, you’re going to need to lift the mouse and press it.

This means that in the flow of battle while trying to figure out where the sensitivity should be, you have to disrupt your game.

Is the Cooler Master MM712 good for gaming?

Dexerto

For gaming, the MM712 is ideal for almost anyone. In our testing, we used it in Modern Warfare 2, older titles like Old School Runescape, and so on. Not once did it let us down, and not once did we find any remote issues with it.

While maybe not suitable for all MMOs, or those who rely on quick macro access, it certainly does feel great to play with.

Sure, if you’re down the mouse rabbit hole, you’ll probably find something wrong with it, but for the most part, its barebones nature helps edge this forward.

Verdict

Cooler Master’s decision to keep this as barebones, simple, and to the point as possible has helped move the MM712 into one of our favorite gaming mice so far. Yes, there are higher DPI options or mice with better integration into different software, but at the end of the day, a lot of these get in the way of themselves.

Sometimes you just need a mouse that’s going to play your video games and not ask you to invest time into a piece of software. While the software does exist, we’d recommend just hopping into games with it.

9/10

If you click on a product link on this page we may earn a small affiliate commission.