MadCatz Cyborg M.M.O. 7 Review (Hardware)

The Cyborg R.A.T. mice have gotten a reputation for being extremely customizable.  Every revision of the R.A.T. brings something new to the table culminating with the R.A.T. 9 which added wireless capability to the list of features.  But this year at CES, MadCatz showed off something a little more radical.  Instead of giving us a R.A.T. 11 with one or two extra features, Madcatz did a total overhaul and produced their first mouse geared towards MMO players; introducing the Cyborg M.M.O. 7.  MadCatz provided Gamers Daily News with one of the first test units for review and we are pleased to say that it has exceeded our every expectation.  Join me as I take you through a guided tour of this amazing mouse.

Design

Aesthetically, MadCats has taken a huge leap forward.  With the R.A.T. mice, the peculiar shape is what made the mouse an eye catcher.  On the M.M.O. 7, it is all about color.  The black color of the body is accented beautifully with orange.  There are painted accent lines on the pinkie and wrist rest while the accent lines on the left and right click buttons light up with a soft orange glow.  Flipping the mouse over you will see that the metal frame has been coated in orange.  The last color change is the orange fibers that are woven into the braided cable.

Those of you who love the R.A.T. mice should not worry.  The same basic shape and layout is still there so it feels like the R.A.T. that you know and love.  You still have the 3 interchangeable wrist rest (standard, raised, and rubberized).  The 3 pinkie rest are still there (standard, rubberized, and extended).  The thumb panel still tilts out for wider hands and moves forward for longer thumbs.  Even the washer style weights have made a reappearance in the M.M.O. 7.  Where changes come in to play is the additional buttons and features.

The first major design change I want to show you is the additional thumb buttons.  At the top of the thumb plate you have two thumb buttons similar to newer R.A.T. mice.  Below this you have a 3 thumb buttons in a row.  The center thumb button is actually a multi-directional button with 5 programmable functions.  This small round button moves forward, backward, up, down, and clicks. On all of these movements you can program commands and macros.  Finally, there is a thumb buttons on the base of the thumb plate.  When you total these up with the thumb scroll wheel on the body of the mouse, you have 12 programmable actions just on your thumb.

Wedged in-between the mouse clicks and the DPI button, you will notice two orange buttons.  What these buttons do is that they will function as action locks.  When depressed, the lights on the left and right buttons change color to give you a visual indicator that they have been activated.  Upon activation, a left or right mouse click will repeat itself until you turn it off.  This allows you to spam click on those large bosses without getting your fingers tired.

Finally, on the right side you have a pinkie button.  However, this pinkie button is not a programmable button at all, but rather a mouse shift key.  Similar to the Easy Shift technology that we have seen on Roccat mice, the pinkie shift button adds a secondary function for all 12 thumb buttons and the scroll click.  This lets you have 26 different functions in just one mode.  There are 3 modes bringing your total up to an astounding 78 programmable functions on a single mouse!