It’s not always easy to find a Mac mouse that balances quality and features with a price tag that won’t send shivers down your spine. Can the latest effort from Keyboard maker Keychron hit the mark? Let’s find out in our review of the Keychron M7 mouse.
Keychron M7: Price and availability
The Keychron M7 is priced at $49/£49 and can be bought from Keychron’s website or from third-party retailers.
Keychron M7: What I love
The Keychron M7 adopts an ergonomic shape that includes a thumb rest on the left-hand side. It’s a fairly standard size and feels comfortable in the hand, and it should be suitable for all mouse grip styles. What sets the M7 apart from previous Keychron mice is the addition of a dedicated macro button, which is a handy way to save time.
In the box is a flexible braided cable, and Keychron has also generously included 2.4GHz receivers in both USB-A and USB-C form, as well as USB-A to USB-C and USB-C to USB-A adapters. There are also wired and Bluetooth options, and it means you shouldn’t have to buy any extra dongles, no matter what ports your Mac has.
On the underside is a switch that lets you change between 2.4GHz, Bluetooth and wired modes, as well as buttons to change the DPI and polling rates – something that’s fairly unusual on Mac mice. It’s nice to be able to alter these settings without having to dive into Keychron’s software.
Speaking of which, the Keychron Engine app has a basic design but offers plenty of customisation options. You can assign system macros to buttons or create your own, change the lift-off distance and scroll direction, adjust lighting effects, and more (this last one was a little baffling since the M7 does not have any RGB lights). You can change the DPI up to a frankly absurd 26,000 if you so desire, while the polling rate ranges from 125Hz to 1000Hz.
We weighed M7 at 64g, making it very lightweight to hold, and it glides around nicely on a variety of surfaces. And at under $50, it’s affordable and offers plenty for its price.
Keychron rates the M7 for 70 hours of battery life, and we had no issues with this over the days we used it. Its lack of RGB lighting will undoubtedly help it last a reassuringly long time.
Keychron M7: What I don’t love
The M7 doesn’t always bely its affordable price tag, and its plastic frame can feel cheap at times (and is a little rattly when you place it down on a desk). It doesn’t scream premium build quality, although at this price you probably wouldn’t expect it to.
That questionable construction can be seen again in the scroll wheel. Officially speaking, the M7’s scroll wheel shouldn’t give extra button functionality by moving it from side to side … except it kind of does. Nudge the scroll wheel to the right and it reacts as if you’ve pushed the wheel inwards (so you can use it to middle click, for instance). But push it leftwards and you get nothing. It feels like a quality control oversight.
The scroll wheel itself is a touch on the stiff side, and while we’d appreciate a free-scrolling option like you find on the Logitech MX Master series, we understand why it’s absent at this price.
I also found that the macro button was just slightly out of reach when holding the mouse with a claw grip, and even with a palm grip you must move your hand far forward to comfortably reach it.
Keychron M7: Competition
Like the Keychron M7, the Razer Basilisk V3 X HyperSpeed has wireless connectivity, a thumb rest and a macro button. It’s more expensive at $69.99/£69.99 but has longer battery life and better build quality (it is nearly twice as heavy, though). Elsewhere, there’s the Logitech Signature AI Edition M750 that, as the name suggests, has an AI button that works with ChatGPT. It also comes in a compact shape and has a smart scroll wheel that can slowly ratchet or quickly spin depending on how fast it’s spun. It costs $49.99/£54.99.
Keychron M7: Should you buy it?
You should buy this if…
- You want a solid mouse at an affordable price
- You like ergonomic mice designs
- You want quick access to DPI and polling rate buttons
You shouldn’t buy this if…
- You need more programmable buttons
- You want better build quality
- You want RGB lighting on your mouse
Keychron M7: Verdict
The Keychron M7 is a no-nonsense mouse with some useful features and a comfortable design. Its build quality is lacking a little, but at $50 it’s hard to complain too much.
The bottom line:
An affordable Mac mouse with decent software and an attractive price.
