Software

The Dream Machines DM7 Switch Duo comes with its own lightweight software. Options for button remapping (mouse, keyboard, media, or macro functions), polling rate adjustment (125/250/500/1000 Hz), profile management, and a basic battery level indicator are always displayed. CPI adjustment is possible for up to six color-coded steps, ranging from 50 to 19,000 and in increments of 50 until 10,000 CPI and increments of 100 above 10,000 CPI. Basic Windows pointer settings and a macro editor are included as well.

All settings changes are saved to the on-board memory, so the software does not need to be running (or be installed) all the time. On my system, the software had a RAM footprint of 20 MB on average when running in the foreground, which doesn't change when minimized to the system tray. Upon exiting the application, all processes are terminated, as they should be.

Lighting

The DM7 Switch Duo has but a single physical lighting zone, which is the logo at the back. Nine pre-defined lighting effects are available: Colorful Streaming, Steady, Breathing, Colorful Tail, Neon, Colorful Steady, Flicker, Stars Twinkle, and Wave. Colors, transition speed, and brightness can be further customized. Of course, the lighting can also be disabled altogether. In addition to the mouse, the wireless extender also lights up, though this cannot be disabled, and it will continue to light up even when the PC is shut down.

Color accuracy and vibrancy are very good throughout. Here's a short demonstration video in which I go through the Colorful Streaming, Breathing, and Colorful Tail lighting effects:

Battery Life

Dream Machines states a maximum battery life of up to 72 hours. No details are given under which conditions (polling rate, illumination) this has been achieved. Furthermore, the battery status indicator is very basic and not percentage-based, which makes it impossible to gauge anything. That said, considering the battery size, the figure cited above applying to usage without illumination seems very likely.

After exactly one minute of inactivity, the mouse enters a sleep state, which shuts the lighting off as well.

Using the included USB Type-A to Type-C charging cable, I measured the charging speed during the constant current stage, which sits at around 0.275 A. The battery has a capacity of 400 mAh.