It is proven that when something is caught on trend, you don’t have to wait too long to see a cheaper alternative. When the term “Gaming” caught on trend, you slowly see the term being adopted by other vendors. In the end, even low-end product carries the terms “gaming” with slight change of colour scheme and no improvement on hardware. In this review, we look at Alcatroz X-Craft Air Trek 1000 mouse which has quite a light show, but is it at RGB standard? Priced very affordable, we will find out if this is still worth the money.
Air Trek 1000
The SonicGear Alcatraz Air Trek 1000 comes in a nice window box.
The Air Trek 1000 is one among the Armageddon’s X-Craft Series. There are 3 versions of mouse in the X-Craft Series, the one that we looking at now is the ace track pattern inspired Air Trek 1000. There’s the astrology big dipper pattern inspired Twilight 2000 and finally the circuit pattern inspired Tron 5000. All mouse are similar in terms of spec, thus as far as it goes only the design pattern is different.
This mouse comes with a micro USB cable for charging purpose and for added value, a mouse pad with similar design pattern! What a pleasant surprise!
The USB cable is only for charging purpose, when you plug it in, it actually disables the mouse and charges it.
A mouse pad with similar design pattern is bundle along as value added item!
Design
The Air Trek 1000 is a good looking mouse with the race track inspired patterns. The surface of the mouse is covered with rubberized materials, with gaps in between it to reflect race track pattern. We like the fact that the gaps provide extra gripping and that’s where the light show happens (more on this later).
The rubberized materials with race track pattern are where the light show happen.
Below is where the sensor, the on-off switch and the USB dongle compartment is. The “Gaming Sensor”, which we have no idea what it is, is positioned at the sweet middle of the mouse.
The “Gaming Sensor” is placed in the middle of the mouse.
Controls
So what does the X-Craft Trek 1000 offers? First and foremost, it is an Optical Mouse. Other than your typical mouse buttons, the scroll wheel also serves as a middle click button, a CPI button which allows you to change CPI on the go and an extra Forward and Back button which is nothing out of the ordinary here.
The Air Trek 1000 have 6 buttons on board, all is customizable with its software.
All in all, you can say that this mouse has a fair amount of buttons control – 6 in total. With the forward and back button resting at the left-hand side of the mouse, your thumb can easily access it. With help of button customization software, these buttons can easily help with your gaming experience. Such button placement is not uncommon in the market nowadays, but we think it is a merit that Alcatroz includes it.
The forwarded and back button is placed on the left-hand side of the mouse, easy access for your thump.
Comfort
The Air Trek 1000 is a palm mouse with 127mm in length, 74mm wide and 41mm height. It is a good dimension that allows my hand to rest comfortably on this mouse. While that all being nice and daisy, I have one major issue with the Air Trek 1000 that I deem dreadful. Weighing roughly at 400g, this is definitely one of the lightest mouse out there, it is so light and there is no weight to help anchor down the mouse movement.
The Air Trek 1000 is generally quite a comfortable mouse to use.
Performance
The Air Trek 1000 offers a rather common CPI range of 800/1200/2000/3200. Tracking speed up to 1 foot per second, 3000 FPS and acceleration of 8G. Also, it is running on 2.4G wireless protocol. It comes with a built-in battery of mention capacity but state to be able to run for 40 hours per charge.
What do all these mean? To me, nothing much as the specs offered here are rather common on paper. Nothing that really stands out. Your typical CPI button, tracking speed of 1 foot per second? FPS and Acceleration? All these are more of a marketing gimmick. Conclusion, this mouse will perform well, just don’t set your expectation too high, this is a RM49.90 mouse anyway.
The Light Show Jocky
Finally, now here’s where the Air Trek 1000 really shines. It has built-in LED light emitter. The glowing effect is what Alcatroz calls “Pulsating Effect”. This light serves no indication function as it is there only for viewing purpose. Personally, I don’t find the light irritating, but have no love for it either. This is far from RGB standard. Rather than your flexible RGB light show, this is more of a jingling light flowing around. This is a personal preference anyway, so don’t take my word for it. Here’s some light show brought to you by the Alcatroz X-Craft Air Trek 1000.
Verdict
So after all these, how do we find the mouse? It is a comfortable mouse to use but due to it almost being weightless, don’t expect yourself to get used to it on the first try. It is a good light show, but definitely not a RGB light show mind you.
You can get the Alcatroz Air Trek 1000 for just RM49.90 here. Our advice is that if light mouse is not your thing, look somewhere else for other options to consider.
Credit
TechSlack would like to thank www.ckchun.com for conducting the photography and videography within this review. Ck Chun is a known photographer with an extensive profile in product and corporate production industry. TechSlack highly recommends him if you have any needs for photography, contact www.ckchun.com.