Build Quality

Overall build quality is very solid. There is no rattle when shaking the mouse. When applying lateral pressure, no creaking can be observed. It is impossible to activate the side buttons by squeezing the sides with any amount of force. Lastly, no accidental clicks occur when slamming the mouse down.

Buttons

Main buttons on the Model D- are excellent. Both pre and post-travel are very low, resulting in a firm and satisfying click response. As the buttons are separated from the shell, some degree of button movement is present, but the amount of wiggle room is as low as physically possible. Button stiffness is low. Omron D2FC-F-7N (20M) (OF) switches are used.


Side buttons are very good. The forward button in particular barely has any pre or post-travel. While the back button has a bit more, it is still little. The actuation point is even across both side buttons. Button size and placement are good as actuation is possible rather easily by rolling one's thumb over these. Huano (green plunger) switches are used for these.

At the top of the mouse is a single button for cycling through the set CPI levels. Its click feel is decent. Another Huano (green plunger) switch is used for this one.

Scroll Wheel

The scroll wheel is excellent. Neither scrolling up nor scrolling down produces any unwanted noise, and the individual steps are nicely separated, which results in great tactility. The encoder is a brown F-Switch. The middle scroll wheel click requires low force for actuation. Another Huano (green plunger) switch is used here.

Coating

The matte coating of the Model D- is very similar to the matte coatings of the Model O, O-, and D. It's very grippy and doesn't attract fingerprints, dirt or the likes too much. It's easy to clean, and there are no signs of wear left after doing so. All in all, an excellent coating.

Button Sound Test

Disassembly

Disassembling the Model D- is pretty easy. Remove the two bottom feet and the screws beneath them, and the top shell will come off with ease. Some caution ought to be applied though, as the side strip LEDs are connected to the main PCB with very thin ribbon cables. As a piece of advice, a small lock needs to be released before the ribbon cable can be removed from the sockets on the PCB. Carefully nudge it open with your fingernails to avoid breaking it. When putting it back together, make sure the ribbon cables are fully clipped into the socket or the LED strips won't get full power.


The internal design is equally simple. The side and CPI buttons sit on their own PCB screwed into the top shell, while everything else sits on the main PCB. A small auxiliary PCB next to the scroll wheel is used for illumination. All PCBs are thin in order to keep the weight down. The main PCB is affixed to the bottom with three screws in total and two clips at the bottom end. Production date of all PCBs is March 31, 2020. As with previous releases, some of the connectors are soldered directly to the PCB, which I'm not too much of a fan of. At least there's no excess glue on these. I noticed some excess glue on the sensor array, however. The MCU is a Bayi BY8948-00006, same as on the Model D.

As for the soldering and general quality of the PCB, I'm unable to find any noteworthy flaws.