Cooler Master MM731 Gaming Mouse Review – A Strange Contender in Lightweight Wireless Gaming Hardware

Modern wireless devices are such a delight compared to a more retro form of wireless. Older wireless products would have questionable response times, but we don’t have to worry about much lag with a 2.4ghz dongle connection now. Sure, the Cooler Master MM731 has a wire you can use, but it’s a shame not to use the wireless feature when gaming. Total freedom means swinging your hand around the mousepad without a tether to your USB hub. The Cooler Master MM731 is also extremely lightweight (59grams), creating a versatile product to take down your enemies. Let’s talk about what makes or breaks this mouse.  

Style / Feel / Build / Hardware

First off, the aesthetic of this mouse overall was boring at max. The RGB logo is always excellent, but the MM731 doesn’t have any distinguishable features, leaving it looking stale and dated. Also, the feel of the composite exterior just seemed inexpensive and flat in excitement. It didn’t make me smile when I held it for the first time, and it stuck with me. The mouse wheel also seemed a bit basic for my taste, with a firm notchy feel. It’s also made of rubber on the outside of the wheel. Additionally, it has a push wheel macro key but no left or right tilt.

Moving on, I would say that the shape is a bit oblong and has a height reaching your palm if you wanted it to. The size leaves you uncertain of the grip on the mouse. This leads to the side customizable buttons on the left feeling misplaced, and it all comes down to your grip preference if you reach the buttons with your thumb. Regarding this subject matter, it’s time to confront the practicality of the included rubber adhesive grip tape. When thinking small, it may seem cool that they give you the option to add a different feel to the mouse, but this instead leaves me questioning the quality of my experience with the mouse.

I have two variants of this mouse to test the rubber 3m grip on and the mouse out of the box side by side, and I think I prefer it without the grips. The rubber feels nice, but the fact that I have to install glorified stickers onto my mouse makes me question why they didn’t just manufacture the mouse with the rubber built-in for higher longevity and less wear and tear. I’m sure this would make the mouse seem higher quality, especially for the price of $89.99. Yet, here we are, placing grip stickers on my hardware. Moreover, it’s not like you can go back if you want the rubber since once a sticker is removed, we all know it isn’t as sticky anymore. Choose wisely, gamer.

The clickers seem very paddle-like and have a thicker click sensitive to them, and I find myself liking the thickness after some time on the MM731. Usually, I go for more sensitivity, but it’s nice to have some contrast. Next, the gliders on the bottom offer a smooth yet grippy motion on your mousepad. I did find the mouse to be a bit sticky to my pad and almost had a catch point where it started to slide on the pad. We are talking about minor movements here, but I find it essential to address this fault for picky shoppers.

Still, on the bottom of the mouse, we see our pair button accompanied by a selection between Bluetooth, wired, or wireless, along with another button controlling your DPI preset. The Bluetooth requires you to hold the button for a few seconds until it blinks, alerting you to the MM731 trying to pair, featuring up to a Bluetooth 5.1 connection. The dongle door latch, located on the bottom, was neglected as it seems fragile and easy to lose. Furthermore, I did happen to like the provided USB-C charge and play cable as it had no drag when plugged in. It feels well made and long enough for most users around 6 ft. I always love a good USB-C cable.

That’s pretty much all of my hardware notes, but I have a couple more things to mention. First, the left side grip tape sticker is much smaller than the surface area intended for use, covering only about 75% of the area. Not sure why they couldn’t have made a better fit sticker. Secondly, the default DPI button is on the bottom, making it impossible to change on the fly. You would have to reprogram the buttons on top or on the side to change  DPI in the Masterplus software, which we will discuss.

Performance / Hands on Use / Features / User Experience / Analysis / Etc.

 Judging a book by its cover, I predicted that I wouldn’t like the MM731 before spending time on it, but I’ve come to ease the distaste and see the positivity from this device. Sure, it doesn’t host much glitz and glam, but it’s highly responsive, customizable in DPI and speed, super lightweight, and wireless. Moreover, this mouse performs efficiently with long-lasting battery life if you like simple. It also features a max DPI of 19K and a lifetime of 70 million clicks.

Regarding performance, the Bluetooth is nice to have, but I found it had way more lag than the dongle or wired connection. If you are a serious gamer, refrain from buying this for performance on the Bluetooth side of things. I didn’t have any issues otherwise connecting and using it in this mode, though. Wired mode is excellent, too, because the wire has no drag and high fidelity speeds. Choose however you want to use this mouse. Either way, it certainly didn’t give me any issues.

If basic performance wasn’t satisfactory enough, you can dive into the extra features of the mouse offered through the Masterplus software. Here, you can change the DPI presets. Personally, I prefer the 1200×1200 preset, but everyone has their preferences. You can also mess with the lift-off sensitivity, polling rate, button sensitivity, and more. The lighting on the logo has your typical settings such as breathing, rainbow, and the list goes on. It has RGB, like everything else. Cooler Master even lets you record your mousepad surface by drawing a Z with your mouse, which slightly improves accuracy if you are nitpicky. Also, I found the MM731 mouse had a lot to offer in terms of button customizability, ranging all the way to factory computer software making it easy enough to program computer functions into your buttons. The endless profiles give you the leeway to have different buttons logged for your favorite games. Record macros, save settings and play with the Cooler Master MM731.       

Conclusion

Sure, there are so many options for gaming mice, and it gets overwhelming. It’s an ongoing brand war, seeing what name can scoop up the most purchases by one buyer to create an ecosystem. In this case, we are talking about the Masterplus ecosystem. If you are a Cooler Master nerd and like wireless products, this is a great option if you like simple products.

The Cooler Master MM731 isn’t perfect and can use some added glamor, but it serves its purpose with high speed, performance, customizability, and simplicity. The software offers a bundle of things to play with as well. I still wish I didn’t have to put the rubber stickers on myself, but maybe you prefer the mouse without the grip tape. The choice is yours.