Ozone Neon Precision Laser Gaming Mouse Review

Ozone Gaming launched a new mouse and asked us to look at the Neon, the newest laser mouse they have to offer. Chad tells us all about it.

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: Ozone
14 minutes & 1 second read time

Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

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A couple of months back, out of the blue, we received an email from Ozone with a few links to new products they were about to release and would like us to have a look at. After that, time has passed; we now have a mechanical keyboard that we will also soon see but, more importantly at the moment, is their newest mouse. While this company was never on our radar up until now, visiting their site shows a few previous products that they have released, but nothing on the site as to when they went public and became a contender in the market.

The one thing we do like right off the bat is the mentality of the company to realize one man's ideas only go so far. They employ gamers to help design and evolve their products to give gamers what they really need and want.

Speaking of their mice more specifically, we see that they have already released the Radon SK laser sensor based mouse with macro capability and large buttons. We also see the Xenon optical sensor based mouse that is ambidextrous and uses a very simplistic design. We also see that they have made the Radon Opto that was designed to be a professional gaming mouse with an advanced optical sensor, lots of buttons, and Macro functionality. Following those mice as a template, it seems the only thing missing is the top-tier laser sensor based offering. While that is the right train of thought to go on, the rest of what is incorporated into this design could make this latest mouse from Ozone a viable option for a lot of our readers.

Today, we are going to be having a look at the Neon from Ozone, and, while laser sensor based, we are also given this in an 8 button layout and an ambidextrous design. One of the cooler features of this mouse is that it is available in four flavors. In each flavor, the base of the mouse, a trim ring that goes completely around the mouse, as well as the logo applied to the heel of the mouse, have the option to be blue, red, black, or, as we received, white. There is also much more to be found in this design, but we have to save something for the rest of this review. As for now, let's cover the specs and see just how much the Neon will set you back.

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As we look over the chart, we find that while not the best sensitivity in laser sensors, the one chosen for the Neon will range from 200 to 6400 DPI in 100 DPI increments. There is an on-the-fly DPI button with default settings of 800, 1800, 3500, and 6400 DPI, but all of them can be customized via software, which is for only Windows at this time, supporting XP right on through 8. The mouse also offers variable response timing with settings for 2, 65, 125, 190, and 255ms gaps. We can also see that this mouse is very light at 120 grams with the 1.8 meter cable included. It offers eight buttons, carries 128kb of onboard memory, offers an adjustable polling rate down to 1ms, and, besides the ambidextrous nature of the design, the Neon has a rubber coating applied to the top section.

The chart does not cover things like its 125mm length, its 65mm width, nor its 36.8mm height, and more importantly, it glosses over the use of Omron switches inside. It also does not cover the fact that this is a low slung design that while concave on the sides for better grip, with the top being lowered, it is comfortable for lazy grips or claw grips--really any way of holding it will do considering its smaller size and light weight. Also outside of the bottom, trim ring, and logo optional coloration, all four designs are black around the sides as well as on the top. The last few things that could have been mentioned were the switch brand and lifespan, the fact that the cable is cloth braided, and that it ends with a gold plated USB 2.0 connection as those are all major selling points to the educated mouse buyer.

We found the Neon in the white flavor in our first search at Amazon.com, and we quickly saw that Ozone is asking top-tier pricing for this mouse. In the information they had sent over to us previous to the arrival of this product, we were told the MSRP would be set at 49.90 euros With the current exchange rate, that would put us somewhere right around the $70 US dollar mark. The sad thing is, though, the listings we found have this mouse priced a bit higher than that, demanding much closer to $90 for the Neon from Ozone.

While this may take some potential buyers out of the game right away, we still have the objective task of playing around with it, tearing it apart to look at its internal components, as well as putting it through its paces as we have had almost two weeks driving this Neon around our desk now assessing its quality and value. Hopefully when we are done, we will find the Neon worth the slightly inflated pricing we were given online to actually obtain it.

As for now, just relax and enjoy the ride that is the Ozone Neon with white trim as we see if this ambidextrous design is the savior for left hand users, a mouse anyone will enjoy, or maybe we might even find ourselves liking how this design reminds us of some of our other favorite mice that we have had the pleasure of using previously... and even still to this day. If we are really lucky, it will fit the bill for all three.

PRICING: You can find the Ozone Neon (Blue) for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.

United States: The Ozone Neon (Blue) retails for $82.95 at Amazon.

Canada: The Ozone Neon (Blue) retails for CDN$95.95 at Amazon Canada.

Packaging, Accessories, and Documentation

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The packaging is a bit oddly shaped with six sides and a top and bottom rather than four, but the front panel gets right to the point. Here we are given the company and product naming above an image of the Neon. At the bottom, they cover the DPI level, the button count, and its ambidextrous and ergonomic design.

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There are two magnetic catches on the right side of the front panel that allow you to open it up and see the Neon under a layer of plastic. Inside of the cover to the left is a description of the Neon again covering features we have covered, but at the bottom it says "sleek, precise, versatile, it's all about evolution."

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The right side, well, we will call it that, has the Ozone name in shiny black on matte black, and at the bottom, it shows we have the white edition. The right half covers the design, software, onboard memory, polling rates, and the response rate adjustment.

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The back panel offers the naming to start things off followed with an image of the mouse with five features pointed out with basic descriptions. The lower half of the panel is then used to list the four main features of the Neon in eight other languages, and the last line offers its Windows compatibility.

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This last side, as we are calling it, starts to the left with comments about the Neon from Ozone MVP Choi "DanDy" In-kyu, shows three pro-teams that use Ozone products, and also shows us the mouse dimensions. The right side then has the Ozone name and logo followed by five features in the boxes.

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Inside the box, we found our white edition Neon sandwiched between black plastic under it and the clear plastic top that snaps into it. The plastic is also taller than the mouse around three sides, so not only does the mouse stay in one place, crushing or dropping the packaging will not result in damages to the mouse unless they are extreme cases. As for our sample, it arrived safely and in great shape.

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In the lower section of plastic, the cord is wound, tied tightly, and stored for travel, but we also found the user manual, which takes you from plugging it in to every detail about the software found on the mini-disc to the right. We were also given a sticker to proudly display the brand somewhere.

Ozone Neon Precision Laser Mouse

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Absorbing the view of the left side of the Neon, we see a few things to cover. There is the white bottom, stripe, and logo color that makes this the white edition, the pair of side buttons are easily in reach, and the top curve is gentle and won't force your hand off the back of it.

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Looking at the heel, we see the rest of the chemical symbol for Ozone, we can see that the rubberized coating is textured, and we see that the curve from side to side is gentle and even on both sides as not to give either hand an advantage with this ambidextrous design.

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The right side offers the same pair of buttons as did the left as part of the ambidextrous design. Other than that, we can see that the colored trim has continued from one side around the back and continues here as it also continues around to the front.

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The front of the Neon offers a wide plastic section to house the opaque white scroll wheel, separating the right click button from the left one. Where the retainer is for the USB cable, the trim ring is broken up, but there is a section of white from the bottom that pops up to help offset the break in the body line.

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Looking down at the Neon from the top, we can again see the scroll wheel, but due to the brightness of the lighting, the segmented texture applied to the wheel is lost. We also see that there is a button behind that for on-the-fly DPI changes, and both the dot on the button as well as the scroll wheel will glow with a different color for each of the four settings.

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To connect this Neon to a Windows PC, you use the 1.8 meters of cloth braided cable with the gold plated USB end. We also noticed that this mouse does not offer a Velcro strap for transport but instead chose to just use a wire tie to keep it bundled.

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Under the Neon, we find two large PTFE feet to allow the Neon to glide effortlessly. We can also see the eye of the sensor is right smack in the middle of the white bottom, and the sticker is where the serial number is found for registration online.

Inside the Neon

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Upon first removing the screws, the halves almost fall apart with no tricky clips or anything to force free. For better access, we did have to disconnect a clip that carries the signal from the switches on the top PCB to the lower PCB for the MCU to translate.

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To be really honest, even after much hunting, we were unable to pin down the manufacturer of the circular H logo found on these red switches for the side buttons that are slightly softer to use and have a faint click to them. The pad style switch in the middle is for the DPI selection and is just as light in pressure to activate.

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Under the left click button, we find the Omron D2FC-F-7N white switches that will offer a couple of million clicks worth of a lifespan for accurate, medium pressure activation with an audible click to it.

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Rather than going with the top-tier in laser sensors and 8200 DPI worth of uncontrollability, they opted to use the more controllable 6400 DPI maximum of the Avago ADNS A9500 laser sensor to track all movement.

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To the left, we see the EEPROM chip marked with FM24C128A, but to the right of it, we see a blank top to the MCU. We assume it is 16-bit, and we know there is 128kb of useable space, but which maker and the exact MCU is anyone's guess.

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Along with a matching Omron switch for the right click button, just inside of it, we find another switch that is new to us. We're not exactly sure if it is a JO, a CF, or a Cr logo, but we do know it takes some decent force to activate the scroll wheel click, and there is a defined feel but no audible click to it.

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Out of the box, the mouse was set to a midrange setting DPI setting of 1800, and, to designate that, the LED under the dot and the wheel are green. 800 DPI is red, 3500 is blue, and 6400 is teal. While the DPI can be changed, the lighting for each cannot.

Software

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Once the software is either downloaded or installed from the disc, this window is what you see first. On all pages, we will see that there are sensitivity options for both X and Y axis, and you are able to set the four levels of the on-the-fly DPI button. The system settings tab also offers double click and Windows pointer speed as well as offering angle snapping. The lower section then gives us tilt wheel speed and the number of lines each segment of the scroll wheel makes the page progress.

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The advanced settings offers the ability to adjust the polling rate to one that suits your needs, and the default is 500 Hz, but 1000Hz is best for making sure every movement is caught. There is also an On-To-Go Speed option, and all we can think is that this is some form of a wake speed of sorts, but no matter where we set that, it was tough to perceive any difference, but then again, we are not professional gamers and just may not be tuned in sync with what this feature offers.

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Under the button settings tab, we then find the ability to change any button on the mouse to whatever we want with just a couple of limitations. First off, one limitation is that you will see buttons 4 and 5 carry over to both sides, so rather than four side buttons, if you program one side button, the matching button on the other side will also take on that function. The other limitation is really your imagination as they offer everything from Macros to opening drivers or multimedia options.

Boson Portable Gaming Mouse pad

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We were also shipped this small cloth and rubber based Boson mouse pad for portable gaming. This way if you want to take the Neon to a buddy's house, you can also take a smaller slick surfaced mouse pad with you and not take up a bunch of room.

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The cloth that covers the top is silky and definitely reminds us of those special electronics wipes, and it even shows you can use the Boson for cleaning a monitor and glasses as well as using it to mouse over. There are also features listed by the window covering its small size, its microfiber top, and non-slip bottom.

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This side shows us an image of the mouse pad and, at the bottom, shows off the 195mm by 280mm size. In many languages, it also covers the features in a short paragraph and also brings up that this can be used to lie over the keys and protect a laptop screen as well.

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The last side offers reasons why the Boson is the perfect solution for those on the go and even shows it being used with a laptop as the last page suggested we could do.

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Fresh out of the box, the mouse pad is so thin that rolling and packing it has no effect on its ability to lie flat and be ready for use. The top, as we can all see, is made of black microfiber and offers the Ozone logo at the bottom left corner and the Ozone Boson name in the bottom right corner.

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Here we can see the tightness of the weave of the cloth top that gives us a silky smooth glide against the PTFE feet as well as great tracking from the Avago sensor on it. While just a smidgen thicker than 1mm, the foam that the cloth is applied to has chevron patterns imprinted into it to make sure this Boson won't slide around on you.

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While not the most roomy mouse pad on the market, the Boson is a great match for the Neon, and they do work very well together. On the flip side, however, it tracked just as well on five other mats. We can concur that not only is it a great mouse pad, but the Boson does also work great to glean glasses and monitors, and even while being thin, it will keep scratches at bay from your laptop screen when toting it around closed.

Final Thoughts

There is a lot to like about the Neon, even if the white edition is not your first choice. Remember, this can also be had in all black, black with blue trim, and even a black with red trimmed version to match any theme you may already have going on at the desk. It is ambidextrous, and, to be honest, we don't see all that many designs that even think about left hand users. They mostly expect they will conform to right hand use if they want something comfortable and ergonomic. What we really liked is that while reminding us an awful lot of a SteelSeries design, not enough of the parts match to say this is a clone, but this is as close as I can compare it without the use of the SSE software, its issues, or the shoddy customer service associated with SteelSeries.

This time, it is Ozone that is offering a smaller, lighter, well designed mouse with all the options users want, without a lot of the weighting and odd shapes that plague quite a few designs. The Neon is just comfortable and ready to go for any condition, and while pretty feature rich, once the software is added in, the Neon has all sort of options you can put at a click away from either hand.

There were a couple of things we did not care for too much, though. Functionally, the mouse was fine, and we didn't run into sticky buttons or random double clicks, or even jitter when set to the maximum DPI, but we did find the button assignment to be slightly disappointing with the side buttons functionality having to match. I know they only bill the Neon as an eight button mouse, but with two extra buttons, why not use them separately? We find it funny that on everything else it is referred to DPI, but, when assigning buttons, it is CPI, and we never got the gist of the On-To-Go option. The last thing that is a real bummer is that while feature full and designed well with upper end components, we find even now that the Neon might be priced to high, even going off the MSRP and not the pricing we actually found online.

We won't be detracting that much from the Neon or the Boson as they really are a great combination when put together. Coming from a guy who has used everything from form fitting designs, the best of the best components, lighting, textures, weight systems, and software, odd shapes, and even various finger support systems, it is sort of humorous to see that when we move back to the simpler designs we find that you can get the same things accomplished without all the glitz and glamour that the word "gaming" brings to a lot of designs.

We really did enjoy our time with the Neon, and the Boson is perfect for what it is billed as: portability with added options for the gamer on the go. In the end, we still get stuck on the pricing, though, and with other companies offering similar designs at lower pricing, it will have to be a case of love at first sight that would lead someone to choosing the Ozone Neon in any color over ROCCAT, SteelSeries, and other manufacturers' ambidextrous solutions.

PRICING: You can find the Ozone Neon (Blue) for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.

United States: The Ozone Neon (Blue) retails for $82.95 at Amazon.

Canada: The Ozone Neon (Blue) retails for CDN$95.95 at Amazon Canada.

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Chad joined the TweakTown team in 2009 and has since reviewed 100s of new techy items. After a year of gaming, Chad caught the OC bug. With overclocking comes the need for better cooling, and Chad has had many air and water setups. With a few years of abusing computer parts, he decided to take his chances and try to get a review job. As an avid overclocker, Chad is always looking for the next leg up in RAM and coolers.

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