The Thorn is LAMZU's first right-handed ergonomic design, and it isn't difficult to see where the inspiration for the shape has come from. Essentially, the Thorn is a slightly longer and lower-profile VAXEE Outset AX, with only minimal changes otherwise. Beyond the shape, the biggest difference of course is the weight, which is only 54 g. Much like the Atlantis, the Thorn does without a full bottom plate for the sake of weight savings, but has no holes otherwise. Build quality is an interesting topic on my sample. Out of the box, my unit had no rattle when shaking, and actuating the side buttons by pressing below them was impossible, but when applying lateral pressure, a decent amount of creaking albeit no flexing of the shell was present, and by pressing in a specific spot, I could even provoke a pop sound. After disassembly, however, none of these issues persisted, which suggests that these may have been due to a flaw in the assembly process rather than by design.

Among the few criticisms leveled against the Atlantis has been how debouncing of the main buttons has been handled. The main dilemma was that in order to get low click latency, one had to lower debounce time to the lowest value, though by doing so, eventual double-clicking could show up after some time, requiring one to increase debounce time again. In addition, when running low debounce time values, slam-clicking could be encountered, which describes inadvertent actuation of buttons after resetting the mouse upon lift-off. With the Thorn, LAMZU has tackled these problems from two different angles. First, when using the latest firmware, slam-click prevention has been implemented. This works a bit differently compared to other vendors, as no defer-type debounce is added upon lift-off, but works well in practice all the same. Second, the Thorn is utilizing optical switches, which do not bounce to begin with and won't ever start double-clicking due to wear and tear. Thus, one can easily run the Thorn at the lowest debounce time value available (0 ms) for good, which is a big asset. When doing so, click latency will be at 2.5 ms in wireless operation, which falls short of the values mustered at 4000 Hz (with the 4K dongle), but compares rather well to other 1000 Hz mice. For the record, LAMZU got an average of roughly 1.8 ms in their own testing. I've also been informed that they're planning to release a new firmware that will reduce latency even further.

Speaking of the buttons themselves, LAMZU has opted for optical switches from RAESHA, which, much like LK, is a brand of Ruixun Electronics. Compared to the optical switch models from TTC or Kailh in particular, actuation on these is not as stiff and muted, though of course not quite on the level of snappiness achieved by a top-tier mechanical switch. In terms of overall feel, they are rather close to Razer's third-generation optical switches. That said, on my sample at least, I've noticed a lack of uniformity between the left and right main buttons, though I believe this to at least partially be due to the shell design. The button design itself is great, as lateral movement is kept to a minimum even when provoked, and even though the right main button has above average post-travel, the left one doesn't. For the side buttons, regular mechanical switches from Huano are used, and the low pre and moderate post-travel result in a pleasingly snappy button response, with even actuation across the entire buttons. The scroll wheel encoder is familiar from the Atlantis Pro/4K, as a TTC "Silver" (white) sees use, albeit the 13 mm variant. Noise levels are expectedly rather high, but tactility is great, with clearly separated steps allowing for controlled scrolling. The feet likewise are unchanged over the Atlantis, made of pure PTFE, and glide very well. In addition, a set of replacement feet is once again included, along with a set of grip tape, both of which are very welcome.

In terms of performance, the Thorn does exactly as expected. PixArt's PAW3395 is paired with a Nordic nRF52840 MCU, with excellent results: There is no CPI deviation, general tracking is fine regardless of whether MotionSync is enabled or not, and polling stable throughout. Without MotionSync, wireless motion delay is at around 0.5 ms at 1000 Hz, and around 1 ms with MotionSync. For those who'd like even better numbers, the Thorn is compatible with LAMZU's 4K dongle, and in fact can be paired with the one included with the Atlantis 4K, as they are all the same. Interestingly, I've found that the 4K dongle can only ever be soft-paired to a single mouse, whereas the USB full-speed (1000 Hz) dongle included with the Thorn was hard-paired to the Thorn, but could easily be soft-paired to the Atlantis 4K (or Pro) on top of that.

While the charging cable included with the Thorn looks very similar to the one bundled with the Atlantis 4K, I've found it a decent bit more flexible, to where playing while charging was perfectly possible without feeling overly restricted. In addition, the Thorn charges a good amount faster than the Atlantis 4K did, which has the wireless experience feel more seamless on the Thorn. Unfortunately, the battery life indicator found in the software is still rather inaccurate and unreliable, which is why gauging expected battery life is difficult to impossible. LAMZU cites up to 80 hours at 1000 Hz, though this likely only applies when using the "LP" (low power) sensor run mode, which has the sensor run at lower frame rates and thus with accordingly lower (though still more than sufficient) maximum tracking speed than "HP" (high performance). In any case, based on my experiences with other mice using this solution, I consider this figure mostly realistic. When using 4000 Hz with the 4K dongle, less than 20 hours should be expected, however. Speaking of the software, save for the battery life indicator, I didn't find any issues with it, as resource usage is low and bugs virtually nonexistent.

Overall, the only criticism I can come up with is the coating, at least on the black Thorn. While grip is fine, it does attract fingerprints almost magnetically, and getting them all off isn't too easy. Compared to the chalky matte black coating of the Atlantis 4K, this one is slightly smoother, but even more susceptible to picking up fingerprints. Thus, the white colorway might be the better choice here, if only for the fact that fingerprints won't be as visible. Other than that, the Thorn is once again an excellent release from LAMZU, and at $91.99, fairly priced against the competition. As such, it receives our Editor's Choice.