The lightweight mouse trend started years ago in the enthusiast communities but more recently it has started to take hold with the mainstream gaming-focused products. I’ve been digging what some of the companies have been doing to keep the weight down and I’m glad to see that they are listening to what people want. MSI jumped into the trend earlier this year with their Clutch GM41 lightweight which came in at 65 grams. Well, today they are announcing that they have a wireless version of that same mouse which comes in at 74 grams and I’m going to check it out. Keeping the weight down with wireless mice is harder to do because you have to add batteries and I’m excited to check out how the GM41 performs in general as I didn’t check out the original so let's dive in!

Product Name: MSI Clutch GM41 Lightweight Wireless

Review Sample Provided by: MSI

Written by: Wes Compton

Amazon Affiliate Link: HERE

 

Specifications

Sensor

PixArt PAW-3370 Optical Sensor

Preset DPI Switch

400 / 800 / 1600 / 3200 / 6400

Interface

USB 2.0

Button

6

Polling Rate

1000 Hz / 1 ms

Main Key Switches

OMRON 60M

Led Light

RGB

Operating System

Windows 10 / 8.1 / 8 / 7

Cable

 MSI FriXionFree Micro USB

Weight (Product / Package)

74g (without cable) / 354g

Max DPI

20000 (software)

Button Durability

60 Million Clicks

Cable (m)

2m Braided with Gold-Plated Connector

Dimension

130.1 x 67 x 38.3 mm

 


Packaging

So the Clutch GM41 Lightweight Wireless comes in a wide box that has a white background. MSI then put a few light grey stripes in the background along with black and grey stripes on the left that have the MSI gaming logo in them. Down on the bottom, they have the name with GM41 specifically being in a much larger font than the rest. Then over on the bottom right corner, they mention it is the wireless version and with that, they have a small font that mentions that the charging dock is included as well. The front of the box also has a large picture of the mouse on the front which I really like and below it a smaller picture of the wireless dongle and charging dock as well. Around on the back, they do have a specification listing which is nice and they even include details like the sensor and weight. They also have four more pictures on the back that highlight a few different features, each has a description below that explaining what is in the picture.

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When you get inside the box MSI has the GM41 encapsulated in foam with a foam tray with cutouts for each component and foam on the top of the box as well. They also include a booklet user manual to get you started that comes sitting up on top.

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Photos and Features

The Clutch GM41 is very similar in shape to the Razer Viper with its skinny section in the middle of the sides and it widening out in the front and back. The GM41 however is bigger overall. The razer, for example, is 37.8mm tall and the GM41 is a hair taller at 38.3mm then the width of the Viper is 57.6mm where the GM41 is 10mm wider at 67mm wide. The GM41 is also longer at 130.1mm vs 126.73mm which means it is a little more focused for larger hands. This wouldn’t be the first time a mouse followed in the footsteps of another mouse. The GM41 Lightweight Wireless comes in a black plastic finish. MSI avoided the added weight that rubberized coatings can add, not to mention too long term durability issues they cause as well, at least on the top of the mouse. They did put grips on the side but I will take a closer look at those in just a second. Overall though the GM41 follows the KISS method where you keep it simple stupid and it isn’t packed full of unneeded features. With just an initial look we can see just the triggers and the scroll wheel up on top and the one RGB backlit logo under the palm.

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The two triggers are split from the overall housing just like the Viper. If you look closely they also have a cupped shape as well to try to keep your finger centered. MSI went with Omron 60 million click switches under the triggers. These are a little different than the 50 million click Omrons that I have had issues with multiple times in the past, but only time will tell for sure if those issues are worked out. Then in the center, the scroll wheel has a normal down click but no side to side triggers. Then the wheel itself has a triangle/arrow like design repeated over and over on it in the rubber finish to give additional traction. The front of the GM41 has an opening that allows for the charging cable to be used when plugged into the bottom of the mouse.

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Both sides of the GM41 Lightweight Wireless do have a rubber grip which I’m not the biggest fan of. These grips typically are the first to break down from oils in your hard and even before then they can sometimes get greasy. They have that same weird triangle/arrow design that was on the scroll wheel for texture. The shape of the sides itself has a little overhang that allows for a good grip even without the grip. On the right side of the mouse, there aren’t any side buttons. The GM41 has an ambidextrous shape, but not having buttons on this side does mean if you use it left-handed you will be down the side buttons so it isn’t completely ambidextrous. The left side does have two side buttons and they sit right on the upper lip just like the Logitech G Pro Wireless.

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The bottom view of the GM41 reveals a lot of gliders spread around the bottom. It has two wider gliders on the front, one around the sensor lens, then three around the back. Most are thin which can wear faster than the gliders a lot of mice are starting to get these days. But in the center just below the sensor, they have a cut in design with two contact pads for the charging stand so that did limit the surface area somewhat, but I do think the back pads could be one smile like shaped glider for example. The bottom has a switch to turn the mouse off and it has red and green colors to show which setting you have it on. Then on the other side there is a button, that button switches between the default DPI settings. The back has all of the certification logos lasered onto the plastic then at the front, there is a sticker with the model name and your serial number. Then at the front, that opening is for the included charging cable if you want to hook it up directly. They have a small micro USB port hidden away. I will talk more about it, but I do wish it was Type-C. Then for the sensor in the middle, they went with the PixArt PAW-3370 Optical Sensor which came out last year. The 3370 has a lower error rate and is a little more power efficient than the older 3355 which is helpful with a wireless mouse like this. With the DPI switch button, you can switch between 400,800,1600,3200, and 6400 though the software will allow changes as well up to 22,000 DPI.

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Officially MSI has the GM41 Lightweight Wireless listed at 74 grams but it came in at 76 on our scale. This not too bad when we compare it with the Razer Viper Ultimate which is smaller and is a 74-gram mouse as well. The Logitech Superlight that I recently covered is lighter and wireless and there are a few options where the housing has been hollowed out with holes that are lighting as well but overall this is still light for a wireless mouse.

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I’m actually surprised MSI included any lighting at all but they did keep the backlit RGB MSI gaming dragon logo up under your hand.

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So for the charging cable, you get what they call the MSI FriXionFree cable which to me doesn’t feel any different than a standard stiff sleeved cable. Thankfully this mouse is wireless and won’t need to use this often if at all. It does come with a rubber cable tie which is nice and the type-A end of the cord is distinctive so you will spot it when trying to find your mouse plug especially with the MSI tag right behind the plug. The other end has a Micro-USB connection which I’m not a fan of at this point, so many other devices have moved to Type-C I don’t know why this hasn’t If for no other reason than to make it easy to charge your mouse up with basically a universal cable you already have on your desk.

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The GM41 Wireless also comes with a charging dock. The dock is small and simple with a moon-shaped design to hold on to the mouse along with magnets. Then they have two contact bumps on the dock that charge things up. The dock also has a dongle plug built into it and MSI was very specific to put a sticker here warning that the standard USB plug can only be used for the dongle. I would bet that is related to the dock sharing the charging on the same cable. You can however pull that dongle out if you need to and the dongle is small and hardly sticks out of the USB port. The bottom of the dock has all of its regulatory info hidden in the bottom along with the micro-USB plug for the charging cable. It also has a rubber ring around the outer edge to keep it from sliding around but it comes with plastic on it so you will need to remember to take that off.

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Here is a look at the Clutch GM41 Lightweight Wireless on its charging dock. I like that the dock takes up very little desk space when not in use and the mouse does look cool almost floating over top of it when charging.

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Performance

For testing the Clutch GM41 Lightweight Wireless, it couldn’t come at a better time. I typically use the Logitech G Pro Wireless and recently have been using the Superlight. Lightweight wireless mice are exactly what I prefer to use day to day on my main PC. Switching from the Superlight to the GM41 Wireless gave me a direct comparison of the difference in weight between the two competitors. The same goes for the G Pro Wireless which I also have on my desk and the GM41 ends up falling in between the two for weight. At 76 grams going off of our scale, it is a little lighter than the original G Pro Wireless but the Superlight is still noticeably lighter being 10 grams less. The GM41 is way different than what Logitech has to offer for shape as well with more of a coke bottle shape in the middle of the mouse and wider “hips” so to speak. This gives more to grab on to and the overhand that you use when you pick up the mouse is larger.

Beyond that when it comes to materials, the GM41’s plastic finish is a little more textured on the triggers which I would prefer it was as smooth as on the back. But I think this is due to the triggers being pure plastic where the back has been painted to include the dragon logo in RGB. Which while I’m on that topic, while I don’t mind it I don’t think it is needed. It cuts into battery life when it is under your hand any time you are using it. Lighting would be better utilized somewhere you might see it. The rubber side grips held up in my admittedly short testing period but from past experience, that is most likely what will fail first if not the painted finish.

Functionally the GM41 performed well. MSI did their research on the sensor with the 3370 Pixart optical sensor. The same goes for the switches for the triggers which have that always satisfying solid click that Omrons are known for. I still prefer Logitech’s scroll wheel as the diamond grip on the GM41 doesn’t grip as well as I would like it to while at the same time the wheels scrolling resistance is higher. The Teflon gliders on the GM41 were solid but I would like them to be larger. They don’t feel as smooth as you would expect from a new mouse and I know that long-term having less surface area will have them wear out sooner.

Covering the GM41 Lightweight Wireless at launch had a downside that I wasn’t able to get my hands on the software for testing. I wasn’t a big fan of the wide range of default DPI settings using the bottom-mounted button. But I did like that the button was hidden under the mouse so it wasn’t easy to bump, but some people will see that as a downside. I have to assume that with the software that you will be able to set your own custom DPIs. As for battery life, MSI didn’t have the battery life listed in the specifications but they do have it on the back of the box. They say that you will experience 200 hours of normal use or 80+ hours of fast-paced aiming on the battery which is a crazy amount of time between charges for either option. That is over 8 full days of 24 hours a day use or over 3 days of constant gaming. What I ended up with was enough time in my everyday use that I didn’t kill the battery in the almost a week of testing I did prior to the launch. Which is good because I am REALLY bad about plugging my wireless devices in, which is why I normally use the powerplay to always change my wireless mice. With the GM41 Wireless, I can hopefully remember to take advantage of the easy charging with the dock at least once a week to keep things running. But if I do kill it you can still plug it in with that stiff cord they include.

 


Overall and Final Verdict

I mentioned it earlier, but I think the best part about seeing MSI bring out the Clutch GM41 Lightweight Wireless is knowing that MSI is listening to what people are looking for. Lightweight mice in general were hard to come by for a long time and are now a lot more available. But turning a good lightweight mouse into a good wireless mouse often means adding a lot of weight and MSI did a good job of avoiding that. The GM41 Lightweight Wireless is lighter than the G Pro Wireless and the Viper Ultimate which are both the golden standard for lightweight wireless mice without resorting to holes all over the place. Not only that but MSI did it with the GM41 being a bigger mouse! They stuck with solid performing components like the 3370 sensor and the Omron switches as well. Fans of the Razer Viper may also be happy to know that the GM41 has a similar but larger shape if they are looking for a larger option. I wasn’t able to include it in my pro’s listing, but the overall battery life of the GM41 as well as the included dock are huge. You can get over a week out of the mouse easily unless you are always gaming and charging in the downtime is easy with the small dock.

I did have a few areas that I wouldn’t mind seeing improvements on. For example, using the Micro-USB connection in 2021 is a little crazy, most people have moved to Type-C devices like their phones years ago at this point, having that as an option for quick charging the GM41 Lightweight Wireless. Not to mention it is easier to plug in. I also think it is interesting that the overall shape of the mouse is ambidextrous, but by not having the side buttons on both sides it ends up not being ambidextrous. For this one, I do understand why they went that direction, the extra side buttons add a lot of weight. MSI isn’t the only company that has ditched the right side buttons but it is worth mentioning for the lefties out there. For the gliders, I like that MSI went with Teflon/PTFE gliders, a lot of enthusiasts go out of their way to upgrade to them later. But I am a little concerned that these aren’t wide enough and that they will wear out faster. My last suggestion would be the side grips. I think dropping them could lead to better durability long term, these tend to break down and the shape of the mouse itself does a lot even without any extra grips for keeping the GM41 in your hand.

As for pricing, MSI says that we can expect to see the Clutch GM41 Lightweight Wireless for around $89.99 to $94.99. That isn’t really cheap if we were comparing it with wired lightweight mice, but when it comes to wireless it is a big improvement over some of the direct competition like the Razer Viper Ultimate which is $125 if you get a dock or $109 if you don’t. The G Pro Wireless is $113 and doesn’t include a dock and the Superlight will run you $149 if you can even find one. With the dock included, that makes the Clutch GM41 Lightweight Wireless cheap, thankfully we aren’t being charged by the letter!

fv5recommended

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Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

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