8Bitdo N30 Wireless Mouse Review: Some Things We Don’t Need Retro
Retail Price: $24.99
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When you think of the company 8Bitdo, the most probable thing that comes to mind are their popular Bluetooth controllers. 8Bitdo has developed a solid reputation with gamers over the years for their retro inspired products. Not only are they well built (most of the time), but they usually look amazing as display pieces for your game room. While browsing Amazon one late night, I came across an 8Bitdo product that I had no idea existed. This is the 8Bitdo N30 wireless mouse designed to imitate a Nintendo Entertainment System controller. Bizarrely cool? Yes. Functional? Not really.
Gonna Lose For Sure
I’ve been using the N30 mouse with my office Windows PC for about a month now and I can’t stand it. I’ll be upfront and just make the statement that I feel as if this is the worst mouse I’ve used in quite a long time. I guess we’ll start with the negatives before looking at the positives as there are way more things to hammer against the N30 then there are things to defend about it. If I were to use a gaming mindset, using this N30 mouse would be like jumping into a battle royale game knowing I’m going to lose right away. There’s no chance I’d come out of this alive. That’s what this mouse is like to use for any purpose.
The N30 is a 2.4 Ghz wireless mouse that actually looks pretty nice on a table. It reminds me of an IBM mouse from the 1980’s. The body is sloped ascending upwards into the curvature of your palm. Unlike the newer generation of gaming mice, the arc of the curvature isn’t centered to your grip. It’s a delayed curvature that waits until the thenar part of your hand to arc upwards. This makes the N30 feel extremely unnatural to grip as an everyday mouse. I’ve used office mice, gaming mice and ergonomic mice before and none of them feel like this one in the hand. That’s not a good thing as it’s really straining on the wrist.
Somethings just aren’t meant to be
Another attribution to the uncomfortable functionality are the left and right buttons. They’re a throwback to the sharp red buttons on the NES controller and I’d even wager that they’re roughly the same size. The curvature of the switches are quite nice on the fingertips, but not very comfortable for computer work. There’s a reason why we like these buttons for controller gaming and not for other applications. Unlike a regular mouse, it takes some effort to hit the button with regular accuracy. You’ll get used to it eventually, but it never quite feels comfortable to use. Somethings just aren’t meant to be used in this manner.
Segmenting the separated right and left switches is what 8Bitdo calls a 3D touch panel. It’s the N30’s version of a scroll wheel without a physical wheel. Instead of using that physical wheel to scroll, you use this section of the mouse to swipe up and down as you would on a trackpad. While it works decently well most of the time, I personally found it quite difficult to operate as I normally would when using a regular mouse containing a scroll wheel. The precision just isn’t here to be able to have an enjoyable browsing experience using the N30. Keep in mind you cannot adjust the set 1,000 DPI on this mouse. That means you’re stuck at whatever default rates the N30 comes with. While it’s not unusable, it certainly isn’t user friendly to me.
There is however a D-pad (once again styled from the NES) on the left side of the mouse. You can utilize this as another method to scroll through webpages. Pressing down will drag the page a certain predesignated amount of space, while pressing up will go the opposite way. Left and right serve as back and forward buttons to take you to different pages in your browser history. I’m not too accustomed to having a D-pad where my thumb usually rests, but this is the one strange layout here that did grow on me over time.
However, the biggest detractor to the overall experience for me was just how light the mouse is. This just feels cheap at 7.05 ounces. That’s disappointing to me because I’ve owned multiple products from 8Bitdo and one thing they’ve always impressed me with was their build quality. Their controllers felt legit. When it comes to their Nintendo Switch pro controllers, in many cases I actually would run with theirs as they were just as good as the OEM version. This mouse feels hollow like a cheap toy being sold for $25 and that was a bit of a letdown. I don’t need it to have the same solid body as an MX Master, but something with a little more loft behind it would help the experience greatly. Using this mouse makes my hand feel like Goku without his weighted clothes trying to lift a mountain gently.
You’re either going to buy the 8Bitdo for one of two reasons. The first is that you’re a huge fan of 8Bitdo and like using computer accessories that have an aesthetic flare to it. The second is that you’re a huge retro gamer and have a room filled with NES merchandise. There really isn’t any other reason to use the 8Bitdo N30. It’s nice that there’s a slot for the USB connector in the single AA battery slot. It’s nice that this is a Bluetooth mouse that keeps your desk from cluttering with cables. Other than that, if this isn’t a holiday gift to an NES fanatic, I just don’t see a spot for it on anyone’s desk.
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Alex
Caught in between the conundrum of his fascination with retro and the future, Alex has a very unique taste in technology. Never one to follow trends like his millennial peers yet constantly desiring to get ahead of the curve, he sees technology like he does his other love: comic books. Always looking for the best value or a hidden gem, his collector mindset reflects on some of his favorite gadgets: the Moto X (2015), HTC U11 and the Google Pixelbook. If there’s a good tech deal out there, Alex is on the hunt!