Our Verdict
Design-focused gaming peripheral maker Akko takes lightness seriously with the Dash Ultra gaming mouse. With a blend of clean, eye-catching colour flair, matte surfaces for grip and extreme weight-saving internally, this wireless gaming mouse is one of the lightest I've ever used. For FPS purposes, it's amazing, but for more slow-paced, nuanced creative work, I'd personally prefer a weightier option, but that's just me. And for $50-60, it's a very competitive option for competitive gamers.
For
- Extremely lightweight
- Adjustable response rate up to 8K
- Affordable
Against
- Maybe //too// light?
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The Akko Dash Ultra is very much a gaming mouse. You see, there are two main categories of mouse in my mind: gaming mice and ergonomic mice. And my desk is a battleground for the two. Aside from the constant work-testing rotation, I personally prefer weightier ergonomic mice (like the Logitech MX Master), as they offer better resistance and fine control for my trembly hands, but my gamer wife loathes those and will switch mine out for a gaming mouse if I look away for even a second.
So, can the ultra-lightweight Akko Dash Ultra bring peace to my desk? Well...
Akko Dash Ultra: Key specifications
Switch: | Omron / Akko Custom Optical |
Buttons: | 6 (programmable) |
DPI: | 65,000 Real DPI |
Polling rate: | 8,000Hz |
Connectivity: | 2.4G/Bluetooth/Wired |
Weight: | 40g |
Design & build
The Akko Dash Ultra arrives proclaiming two unique selling points. The first is that it's extremely fast and responsive. With a polling rate of up to 8,000Hz and a 65,000 DPI, it's made for gamers who need extremely quick and accurate response in first-person shooters or high-velocity RPGs, for example. This can be adjusted using a button in front of the central scroll wheel.
The other selling point is its weight, or rather lack of it. If you remember the AOC GM510 from a couple years ago, you no doubt remember that it weighed only 58 grams. Pah, amateurs, Akko scoffs, as it has somehow brought this one down to 40 grams. How did they do this, you ask, seeing as AOC achieved its feat by drilling several holes into the surface? Simple? What we have here, basically, is a thin plastic shell, shaped to fit small-to-medium hands, as per the maker's promo material, with absolutely minimal structure underneath, just enough to hold onto the sensors and the bottom skates.
That results in a mouse that feels almost like a toy rather than a real, functional peripheral.
There are two main colour options, your usual ordinary boring matte black, and a much more fetching, albeit more cleaning-maintenance-demanding, white with purple side buttons and scroll wheel.
The scroll wheel is not a flywheel design like the Logitech MX Master 4, but has a satisfying click response as you scroll. Pros of that is that you can scroll to exactly the item you want in a game every time, but the con is that scrolling down or up a long folder or website takes longer.
Features and performance
Seeing as it's essentially a shell for the single central feature, the Akko Dash Ultra puts all its eggs in the responsiveness basket. With a polling rate of 8,000 Hz and a DPI of up to 65,000, it's one of the highest-specced mice in that specific category you can get for under $100 anywhere. In games, having that speed and response rate can mean the difference between a map win or loss in a CoD battle, but at this highest setting, even spotting the cursor on anything below a 6K screen as it dashes (hence the name) across the display is a genuine challenge.
Thankfully, you can set those rates to less ludicrous levels for everyday computing, and the button in front of the scroll wheel lets you rotate through from very slow to hypersonic without having to go into the settings menu.
And in gaming, it does work very well. The extreme lightness does take a little getting used to, but in Wireless or Bluetooth mode, I hardly noticed any lag in any game I played, which is impressive for any mouse.
Battery life is very good too, unlike what I feared when I started using it. The Dash Ultra utilises a 300 mAh high-density battery that claims up to 86 days of Bluetooth use, and as I haven't had to charge it during my two months with it, I can't dispute that claim yet.
In full 8K gaming mode, though, it does drain a lot faster, claiming only up to 28 hours on a single charge. So if you're heading to a weekend gaming tourney, bring a USB cable with you, please.
Price
For only $59.99 for the 8K-specced Dash Ultra, Akko has a real bargain product for serious gamers here. Discounts are frequent too, and at the time of writing this, it's available for only $49.99, which brings it into must-buy territory for any gamer looking for a Good Mouse(tm).
Buy it if
- You want a super-fast gaming mouse
- You want a super-light gaming mouse
- You like a bit of a bargain
Don't buy it if
- You need or prefer a heavier, more nuanced-control-ready mouse
out of 10
Design-focused gaming peripheral maker Akko takes lightness seriously with the Dash Ultra gaming mouse. With a blend of clean, eye-catching colour flair, matte surfaces for grip and extreme weight-saving internally, this wireless gaming mouse is one of the lightest I've ever used. For FPS purposes, it's amazing, but for more slow-paced, nuanced creative work, I'd personally prefer a weightier option, but that's just me. And for $50-60, it's a very competitive option for competitive gamers.
