Build Quality

Overall build quality is solid. When shaking the mouse, a minor rattle comes from an indeterminable location. 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 AX5 Pro Max are very good. Pre-travel is moderate, and post-travel is low to moderate, resulting in a firm and snappy button response nonetheless. Despite being visually separated from the shell, button movement is minimal even when provoked. Button stiffness is medium. A pair of TTC optical switches (100 M) are used.


Side buttons are very good to excellent. Both pre and post-travel are minimal, and button response is quite satisfying. Button size and placement are good, as actuation is possible rather easily by rolling one's thumb across. A set of surface-mounted switches from TTC (blue plunger) are used for these.

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

Scroll Wheel

The scroll wheel is good. Noise levels when scrolling up are high, and tactility is above average, with decently separated steps allowing for controlled scrolling. The encoder comes from TTC (blue, orange core) and has a height of 12 mm. The middle (scroll wheel) click requires high force for actuation. A seemingly unbranded tactile switch (red plunger) is used for this one.

Surface

The AX5 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. All in all, excellent materials.

Button Sound Test

Disassembly

Disassembling the AX5 Pro Max is easy. The screws are found beneath the rear dongle cover, and even though I'm not sure if they're actually Torx, a Torx T5 screwdriver did the job. Additionally, the sides are clipped in as well, and these are dislodged easily, though given how much more rigid the magnesium top shell is compared to the plastic hooks of the bottom shell, damaging them is quite likely. When separating the top and bottom, make sure not to rip the cable connecting the two.

The internal design is simple yet quite efficient. The side buttons sit on their own PCB screwed to the top shell and connected to the main PCB through a ribbon cable. The battery is placed towards the rear, partially encased in a plastic shell, with the front portion having a sticky pad attaching it to the main PCB. However, one of the MCUs is located there, which isn't entirely ideal. Four screws are used to affix the very thin main PCB to the bottom shell. Two MCUs are used: A rear-mounted WCH CH32V305 GBU6, which provides a USB high-speed PHY and whose datasheet can be found here, along with a Nordic nRF52840 for wireless communication, whose datasheet is found here.


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