Another Mouse From Biostar, The GM5, Is Not So Cheap

Biostar has another cheap mouse hitting the market. The Racing GM5 is an ambidextrous peripheral that features RGB lighting and plenty of buttons, but it doesn’t enjoy quite the same “budget-friendly” distinction as its siblings.

Biostar has been on a bit of a roll as of late, announcing a spate of low-cost peripherals aimed at gamers. And by “low cost,” we don’t mean a few dollars under the competition; these are dirt cheap devices, comparably. Its first gaming mouse, the AM2, costs a mere ten bucks, and the bigger brother, the AM3, is just $16. The company also has the GK3 keyboard with Outemu switches for $45.

The GM5, at $40, shows Biostar with a significantly more expensive mouse that still may undercut its competitors on price.

In its release materials, Biotar hammered on the idea that the GM5 is built for claw grippers, for some reason. (We don’t see any reason why it could not appeal to others.) In any case, it's designed to be ambidextrous, and to that end, there are forward/back buttons on both sides.

There are also the L/R click buttons (which have Omron switches), two DPI buttons, and a scroll wheel. You can switch the DPI on the fly through four presets--800, 1,600, 2,400, and 7,200DPI. You can adjust the DPI stages in increments of 50DPI via the included software.

The GM5 has LED strips along both sides, and there’s also lighting around the scroll wheel on a glowing logo on the palm rest. It appears as though they function as one total zone, though, meaning that they aren’t individually programmable.  

The mouse does offer eight programmable buttons via the software, as well as five “modes.”

In a departure from the standard all-black look of many mice, the GM5 has a more unique finish--a shimmering metallic pattern that we could only describe as “snazzy.” The sides have nobby, rubberized grips.

The GM5 is rather hefty at 130g. It has a PixArt PMW 3330 optical sensor inside.