Mionix Naos 3200 Mouse

The Mionix Naos 3200 mouse has a very nice five-finger right-handed ergonomic design to it, but it is not a very different ergonomic design from similarly designed products by Logitech and others. The dimensions of this gaming mouse are 130 x 84 x 38 mm. The net weight of the mouse, excluding the cable, is just less than 100 grams while including the cable weight adds on another 52 grams. The Naos 3200 surface has a rubber coating for ensuring a comfortable, ergonomic grip. The Naos mouse is named after the star Naos, which is one of the brightest blue stars in the galaxy.

This mouse has two buttons on the left side of the mouse, the normal left and right click buttons plus a click-able scroll wheel, and the sixth and seventh buttons are located in front of the scroll wheel. All seven buttons are programmable, at least with the Mionix Naos software under Microsoft Windows 2000 / XP / Vista / 7. The scroll wheel on this mouse illuminates along with the Mionix logo on the palm rest. The illuminated color changes between blue, green, and red, which can be toggled via a button click. On the bottom of the mouse are the LED-optical sensor and four large Teflon pads for ensuring smooth movement of the mouse.

So how well does the Mionix Naos 3200 work under Linux? Well, it is just like most of the gaming mice on the market: there is no official support or drivers from the manufacturer. However, fortunately, the device works fine as a mouse and five of the buttons do work just by the generic X.Org input driver. The two mouse buttons in front of the scroll wheel do not generate any input event using the generic X.Org driver. Under Linux without any drivers, these two buttons just end up switching the color of the logo/scroll wheel LEDs, which also correspond to the sensitivity of the Naos sensor. All other buttons, however, work and the two buttons on the left-side of the mouse do map to back and forward buttons within Firefox and other applications. This mouse does also have built-in memory, like many Razer and Logitech mice, for being able to store settings and button macros, but unfortunately, Linux owners will go without such capabilities unless there is software created by Mionix or the open-source community for filling this void. Linux properly recognized the mouse as a "Mionix Co. Naos 3200 Mouse."

It's a pity that if you purchase the Mionix Naos for use under Linux (or even Mac OS X) that you can't take full advantage of the mouse's capabilities, but that's the way most mice are at this point. There is the community-spawned open-source RazerTool for programming the buttons and firmware and memory on some Razer mice and there is also Lomoco for doing the same to some Logitech mice, but sadly both of these open-source projects are now defunct for two of the most popular brands of mice. There are though a few other obscure programs out there for different mice and last month we reported on Roccat beginning to provide Linux support for their mice.

While we cannot take full advantage of the Naos features, the Mionix Naos 3200 was comfortable to use, the buttons clicked softly, the ergonomic fit was great, and there were no issues with the sensor. The Mionix Naos 3200 mouse is rather nice from a hardware perspective, but if you plan to use it under Linux (or Mac OS X or Solaris or BSD, etc), the capabilities will be limited due to the lack of Mionix software for non-Windows operating systems. The Mionix Naos 3200DPI model can be purchased for around $45 USD at NewEgg or $60 USD from Amazon.