Atompalm Hydrogen: 48 gram mouse wants to convince with 8,000 Hertz

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With the Hydrogen, the American startup Atompalm wants to make high-quality Japanese Omron buttons and a factory-configurable polling rate of 8,000 Hertz practical. In other respects, the mouse announced for the fall offers a low weight, high-end sensors and compact configuration software.

A less exotic exotic

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Almost a year ago, ComputerBase tested the M1K from Zaunkoenig, an exotic ultra-light mouse that, with a carbon housing and Japanese Omron switch, pushed the limits of what was technically feasible, but without a mouse wheel and additional buttons, it also pushed the limits of what was practical. Accordingly, the reactions to the compact hand-made input device were often characterized by skepticism. Atompalm is now trying to start at this point with the Hydrogen.

Even visually, the first mouse is much more reminiscent of well-known low-weight gaming mice such as Glorious' Model O (test) or Cooler Masters MM710 (test): A perforated back helps to reduce the weight to 45 grams, there is a mouse wheel made of anodized aluminum between the primary buttons and there are two additional buttons on the left. For said primary buttons, the Hydrogen uses the same Omron D2F-01F as the M1K mentioned at the beginning – accordingly, Atompalm advertises with an absolutely minimal latency and longevity. The special thing about the microswitches made in Japan is that, compared to the common Chinese versions, they have gold-plated contacts and there are three of them, so that a double-click problem is mechanically ruled out.

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Atompalm Hydrogen (Image: Atompalm)

More than 1,000 hertz are often problematic

The high-end reference PixArts PMW-3360 is used as the sensor. It gets interesting with the USB query rate: ex works, the Hydrogen should work natively with a frequency of 8,000 Hertz, which theoretically corresponds to a latency of 125 μs. Zaunkoenig's M1K also offered this option, but it required manual overclocking of the memory controller. The question remains how exactly Atompalm implements the high query rate. The manufacturer points out that at least one USB 2.0 port is required, but that doesn't completely rule out a half-baked Frankenstein solution, such as Corsair recently presented in the Dark Core RGB Pro (test).

According to Atompalm, the Hydrogen should be available in autumn 2020. There is currently no information about price and shipping.

Atompalm Hydrogen Ergonomics: Symmetrical (Right-handed) Sensor: PixArt PMW-3360
Optical Resolution: 100-12,000 CPI Speed: 6.3 m/s Acceleration: 490 m/s² USB polling rate: 8,000 Hz Primary button: Omron D2F-01F Number of buttons: 5
Top: 3
Left side: 2 special keys: Mouse wheel Software: 7 profiles Lighting: profile indicator Housing: 124 × 65 × 40 mm
Hard plastic, metal
Sliding feet: PTFE (pure) Weight: 48 grams (without cable) Connection: USB -A cable, 2.00 m Price: $99 Update 08/16/2022 15:21

Not only did nothing come of the planned market launch in autumn 2020, but Hydrogen was also a long time coming in 2021. The same was true for the first half of 2022, but now Atompalm announces: The mouse has been fully developed and is in production. The lightweight, weighing around 47.5 grams, should be available from September 9th at a recommended retail price of 99 US dollars, but at least for the time being only in North America. As early as November 2021, the start-up made it clear that sales in Europe would initially be too expensive due to the regulations that apply in this country.

Atompalm Hydrogen (image : Atompalm)

The original unique selling point of offering a USB query rate of 8,000 Hertz is no longer such anyway. Razer came before Atompalm at the beginning of 2021 with the first native 8,000 Hertz mouse, the Viper 8KHz (test) – and this is now listed in the price comparison from around 60 euros. EVGA, Corsair and Zaunkoenig, among others, subsequently released 8,000 Hertz mice. Native 4,000 Hertz are now possible wirelessly with Razer's HyperPolling Wireless Dongle.