Cherry Mouse MC 2.1 Review – Budget Friendly Gamer

Cherry Mouse MC 2.1 Review

If you’re like me, when someone mentions Cherry, you think of switches. The German company, best known for high quality keyboard switches, is branching out into peripherals. To that end, they recently released the Cherry MC 2.1, a relatively inexpensive wired gaming mouse. Despite its reasonable price (currently around $30US on Amazon) it has a lot of attractive features for gamers and everyday use.

A Mouse in the Hand

I’ve reviewed dozens of mice, and I will state this every time: a mouse has to feel “right,” no matter how many bells and whistles it has. If it doesn’t feel like an extension of your arm and conform to your hand, price is irrelevant. Aside from right-or-left handedness, the specific size and shape of your hand and fingers and your preferred grip are important factors when selecting a mouse.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and theorize that the vast majority of time, we’re using our “gaming mice” for clicking through documents and websites. Even when we use our mice for gaming, an even smaller subset are using them in high-end, competitive situations where mouse responsiveness trumps reflexes and skill. I guess what I’m saying is that I’m much more concerned with ease-of-use, feel and reliability.

Comfort Features

The MC 2.1 is a right-hand only wired mouse that’s designed primarily for those favoring a palm grip. It’s lightweight but feels well constructed. There’s a rubberized texture on both sides to provide a slip-free surface, zippy silicone glide pads on the bottom and a knobby textured mouse wheel. The MC 2.1 probably is best suited for those with small to average size hands.

Aesthetically, the MC 2.1 is classy but understated. There are no dramatic curves or crazy design choices. The matte black — the MC 2.1 also comes in white — looks unobtrusive in any desktop situation.

The MC 2.1 has a few interesting ease of use features that I appreciated. For one, there is a lighted switch south of the scroll wheel which allows for easy and visible mouse-speed switching at four levels of response. It’s located in such a way as to not be easily switched by mistake. Accessing the Cherry set-up software is easy, too. You just hold the Cherry logo button and the software loads or opens. The software itself is very bare-bones. It allows you to program the mouse’s RGB lights, or reassign its 5 buttons. Assignments are stored on the mouse itself, so you don’t need to re-access the software.

Pretty Lights, Pretty Fast and Pretty Inexpensive

It seems like every gaming mouse has to have programmable RGB lights. The MC 2.1 has them, too. In terms of performance, it boasts a 5,000 Dpi Pixart Sensor, gradually adjustable over four levels of response, adequate for nearly all situations. It’s a wired-only mouse, with a USB 2 cable that seems kink and tangle resistant. Polling rate is pretty good at up to 1000 Hz. Some non-gaming users may find that an extremely high polling rate is too jumpy for working on graphics, for example. The MC 2.1’s adjustable sensitivity helps to mitigate this potential issue.

I used the MC 2.1 for several days as my daily driver and I found it to be comfortable and generally responsive. It balances good build quality, comfortable ergonomics and decent gaming specs with a very affordable price. It does have a few built-in limitations, like its software being Windows-only, right-hand only and wired-only. It’s a good all-around mouse, with gaming specs when the time comes to get serious.

***MC 2.1 provided for review***