Build Quality

Overall build quality is very solid. There is no rattle when shaking the mouse. When applying lateral pressure, no creaking or flexing of the shell can be observed. Activating the side buttons by squeezing the sides is impossible. Lastly, accidental clicks when slamming down the mouse do not occur.

Buttons

Main buttons on the A980 Pro Max are good. Pre-travel is moderate to high, whereas post-travel is low, resulting in a firm and snappy button response nonetheless. Being visually separated from the shell, button movement is significant when provoked. Button stiffness is medium. A pair of Kailh GM 8.0 switches are used.


Side buttons are good. Pre-travel is low and post-travel moderate, resulting in fairly pleasant button actuation. Button size and placement are good, as actuation is possible rather easily by rolling one's thumb across. That said, the sniper button is positioned such that when using palm grip, the thumb will inevitably rest on it the entire time, which is a non-issue when using claw grip. A set of Huano switches (white plunger) are used for these.

At the bottom of the mouse is a button for cycling through the set CPI levels, which works fine. A seemingly unbranded tactile switch is used for this one. A slider switching between 2.4 GHz wireless, Bluetooth, and off-state is also found at the bottom, which also works fine.

Scroll Wheel

The scroll wheel is good to very good. Noise levels are somewhat elevated, but tactility is above average, as the individual steps are rather well-separated. The encoder comes from F-Switch (brown, green core) and has a height of 15 mm. The middle (scroll wheel) click requires high force for actuation. An elevated Huano switch (white plunger) is used here.

Surface

The A980 Pro Max has a matte surface all over. Grip is fine, and it doesn't attract fingerprints or dirt too much. It is easy to clean, and there are no signs of wear left after doing so. That said, removing dirt from the horizontal lines adorning the sides may prove difficult. All in all, very good materials.

Button Sound Test

Disassembly

Disassembling the A980 Pro Max is moderately difficult. First, all skates as well as the screws beneath them need to be removed. In addition, four clips at the sides need to be dislodged, which can be tricky, even when wedging a credit card or something similar in. Some caution is advised to prevent ripping any cables when separating top and bottom shell.

The internal design is reasonably efficient. The side buttons sit on their own PCB screwed into the top shell and connected through a ribbon cable with the main PCB. From the side-button PCB, a second ribbon cable leads to the TFT display. The main PCB also holds the switch for the sniper button, whereas the battery is stuck to the rear. The main PCB is thin and very much packed, and affixed to the bottom with three screws. The marking found on the MCU isn't fully legible, but it appears to say VTQQ0MAVK, and is manufactured by HiSilicon, which is wholly owned by Huawei. Presumably, it is a possibly rebranded HiSilicon Hi2825V100, whose product page can be found here, and which supports both USB full-speed and high-speed. In addition, there is a TXS0108E logic level converter, along with what appears to be a rebranded Macronix MX25L6433F (as KHIC). Production date for the side-button PCB is the 20th week of 2024, whereas the main PCB has been manufactured during the 22nd week of 2024.


As for the soldering and general quality of the PCB, I'm unable to find any noteworthy flaws. That said, the red goo found around the HiSilicon MCU is rather odd.