Asus TUF Gaming M4 Air review

Our Verdict

83%

Asus’ latest gaming mice are decent value options, though the lightweight wired M4 is a bigger hit than the wireless model.

The Asus TUF Gaming M4 Air is an ultralight, wired-only gaming mouse that’s covered in weight-saving holes. Its design and build is basic but it is indeed very light with great sensor performance. It’s also the wired sibling to the wireless Asus TUF Gaming M4 Wireless, though strangely other than their shape they’re two quite different mice.

Where the two M4 mice are similar is their shape. They’re reminiscent of the likes of the Glorious Model O, with a symmetrical form but with thumb buttons only on the left sides of the mice, so they’re not ambidextrous.

With dimensions of 64 x 126 x 40mm (W x D x H), the Air is a mid-size mouse design that’s ideally suited to fingertip grip for medium-to-large hands, but also works well for palm and claw grip for medium to smaller hand sizes. There’s a reason this shape and size of mouse has become so prevalent – it’s so versatile.

Both M4s have just five main buttons – left, right, middle, back, forward and a top-mounted DPI button, and use a lightweight scroll wheel with very defined notches. These make the scroll wheel ideal for precise control in games, though they’re less useful for quickly scrolling through documents on the Windows desktop.

The slightly confusingly-named M4 Air (where ‘air’ means ‘light’, rather than ‘wireless’) is covered in holes that help bring down its weight to an impressive 47g, making it among the lightest mice you can buy. Despite this, its build doesn’t feel compromised, with a generally sturdy feel and no creaks from the panels. The holes are filled-in where the triangular hole pattern continues onto the sides of the mouse, but there’s just enough of a dip to each triangle to make for a useful grippy surface.

It’s an effective weight-saving implementation but it’s not particularly elegant. There are visible mold seams to the inside edges of the holes, and the intentional variation in the size of the holes and how much they’re filled in makes it look a bit uneven. The size and number of the holes also leaves the insides very exposed. A water-repellent coating should keep the electronics safe from spills but it’s not a particularly interesting or good-looking interior.

Tracking performance for the M4 Air is excellent. It uses the PixArt PAW3335 optical sensor that boasts 16K DPI, 40G acceleration and 400IPS (inches per second) statistics, which while not cutting edge still deliver basically flawless tracking.

Asus TUF Gaming M4 Air pros and cons

Pros:

• Great overall shape
• Incredibly light
• Excellent sensor performance

Cons:

• Basic build quality
• No extra features
• Not great value

Asus TUF Gaming M4 Air

specs

The Asus TUF Gaming M4 Air specs list is:

Asus TUF Gaming M4 Air price

The Asus TUF Gaming M4 Air is relatively cheap for an ultralight gaming mouse. However, there are similarly priced models that offer slightly better build quality and more features, though the Asus is even lighter than most.

Price: Expect to pay $50 / £35

Asus TUF Gaming M4 Air review conclusion

The Asus TUF Gaming M4 Air’s incredibly low weight and excellent performance make it a decent-choice ultralight gaming mouse for its price, as long as you don’t mind its slightly utilitarian design and budget build quality. It could really do with being a touch cheaper, though, as similarly priced competitors offer more for your money.

Tempted by the Asus TUF Gaming M4 Air’s simplicity? Let us know your thoughts on the Custom PC Facebook or Twitter pages, or join the discussion on our 350,000+ member Custom PC and Gaming Setup Facebook group. Meanwhile, for our pick of the perfect pixel pointers, check out our best gaming mouse guide.