Albeit simplifying, it is not wrong to call the Maya an Atlantis Mini with a centered hump. In use, the differences go beyond this, but it is fair to say the Maya is not a departure from the shape that made LAMZU a name in the industry, though the changes also serve to make the shape more agreeable. As far as weight goes, at 47 g the Maya manages to be slightly lighter than the Atlantis Mini, all while being a bit larger. The design follows the same principles as the Atlantis did: No holes are found across the shell, but the bottom is open, and structural integrity is ensured by virtue of the PCB having been extended across the width of the shell. The result is a mouse that is surprisingly rigid given its weight, as there is no creaking or flexing when applying lateral pressure, no possibility to actuate the side buttons by pressing below them, and there is no rattle when shaking, either.

For the main buttons of the Maya, LAMZU has gone back to the trusty Huano switches with a transparent blue shell and pink plunger, in its LAMZU-branded, lighter-binned variant. While the Thorn had one of the better implementations of RAESHA's optical switches, an argument can be made that well-implemented mechanical switches will always come out on top in terms of button response. On the Maya specifically, button response indeed is firm and snappy, moderate (left main button) to high (right main button) pre-travel notwithstanding. As with the Atlantis, the low amount of lateral play can be noted as a positive. Huano switches likewise see use for the side buttons, and these have fairly low pre-travel, but a good amount of post-travel. Still, the pressure point is even across their entirety, and actuation satisfying. The scroll wheel encoder is unchanged from the Thorn, being a TTC Silver, whose noise levels are elevated, but tactility is great, as the individual steps are nicely defined, giving way to controlled scrolling. No changes have been made to the feet, either, which are made of pure PTFE, and whose rounding contributes to glide properties that are among the best provided by any stock skates.

The biggest advancement, however, can be found in the performance department, although this isn't exclusive to the Maya. In its stock form, the Maya doesn't perform any differently than the Thorn or Atlantis Pro did. In conjunction with the newly minted 8K Wireless Dongle and its accompanying firmware, on the other hand, we're seeing a very different picture. Performance with the 4K Wireless Dongle had already been excellent, but the 8K Wireless Dongle takes this at least one step further. Somewhat ironically, the improvement doesn't lie so much in the added 8000 Hz polling rate, but rather in how click latency has been lowered across the board, for all polling rates. With the 4K Wireless Dongle, click latency at 1000 Hz and running the lowest debounce time was 1.9 ms, which is good but nothing ground-breaking. With the 8K Wireless Dongle, this is lowered to a most excellent 0.5 ms, which also applies to 2000 and 4000 Hz, and 8000 Hz even goes as low as 0.4 ms, a value previously only reached by a select few wireless mice such as the Finalmouse UltralightX or CHERRY XTRFY M64/M68 pro. For the record, this only applies when using the lowest debounce time value of 0 ms, but since slam-click prevention has been implemented, which adds a fixed value of defer-type debouncing upon lift off to avoid accidental clicks upon resetting the mouse, there is no real reason not to run 0 ms debounce.

Sensor performance is likewise excellent. There is no CPI deviation at all, general tracking is without flaw, and smoothing is absent across the entire CPI range. Of particular note is that polling is stable throughout, from 125 Hz all the way to 8000 Hz. What's more, the target interval of 0.125 ms indeed is met and averaged at 8000 Hz, and off-period polls are remarkably rare. The only flaw I could find were instances where polling at any set rate seemingly breaks in wireless operation, but since this happens infrequently and cannot be reproduced consistently, I'm inclined to file this under negligible. At 8000 Hz, a motion delay advantage of 0.9 ms over the Logitech G403 (control subject) can be measured, which is excellent. Though it may be enabled, MotionSync has no effect at 8000 Hz. This is largely expected, as the PAW3395 sensor struggles with maintaining sufficiently tight timing at 125 μs intervals. For the other polling rates, it does take effect and adds motion delay of varying degrees, which is why keeping it disabled is recommended.

In short, performance is elevated by the 8K Wireless Dongle to where the base version may be considered obsolete, as the improvement is meaningful regardless of what polling rate one ends up using. Even at 1000 Hz, click latency is only marginally worse compared to 8000 Hz, so even for those not interested in those higher polling rates due to the battery life penalty, the 8K Wireless Dongle is worthwhile. Speaking of battery life, LAMZU cites 80 hours at 1000 Hz, which would translate to around 10 hours at 8000 Hz, and while the battery life indicator found in the software isn't particularly reliable or accurate, it suffices to be able to tell that these figures indeed appear to be applicable. Interestingly, charging is a bit slower than on the Thorn, and matches the Atlantis Pro/4K. The charging cable is still the same, and while not the most flexible, it is flexible enough to allow playing while charging without feeling overly restricted. Lastly, the software is the same as before, and has all the important options while being resource-friendly.

In summary, the Maya is yet another excellent release from LAMZU, and the $19.90 8K Wireless Dongle provides an easy way of bringing performance on par with the absolute best from Razer or CHERRY XTRFY. In fact, I would argue that the 8K Wireless Dongle could be considered a mandatory purchase, provided one doesn't already have the 4K Wireless Dongle, which will receive the same click latency improvements for non-8000 Hz polling rates in a firmware update. Since the base version costs $93.99, one thusly gets a mouse that competes with the top releases from Razer costing $150 and more for around $110, which is great value. As such, the Maya receives our Editor's Choice.