Roughly a year ago, the LIX Plus left a lasting impression (click here for our review): At just $44.99, it delivered flawless sensor performance, low click latency, and a solid build, wrapped into a 59 g lightweight package. With the GEM Plus, SPC Gear essentially refreshes the LIX Plus, retaining the same ambidextrous shape, but getting almost entirely rid of the holes, and aside from a few blunders, SPC Gear once again managed to create a strong contender on today's ever more competitive market.

Instead of the PMW3360 in the LIX Plus, the GEM Plus utilizes PixArt's latest PAW3370 sensor. Primarily built for wireless use, some engineering competence is required to make this sensor properly work on a wired mouse, which SPC Gear succeeded in doing. Tracking is great, motion delay low across the board, and aside from some minor outliers, polling is reasonably stable. Of particular note is the fact that the GEM Plus has no visible smoothing across the entire CPI range, which typically is employed to lessen jitter at the expense of added delay at higher CPI steps. As of today, the only other 3370-equipped mice without smoothing are the Endgame Gear XM1r and Mountain Makalu 67, which puts the GEM Plus in great company. CPI deviation is less than stellar out of the box, but can be rectified easily within the software as the 3370 allows for CPI adjustment in increments of 50. Speaking of the software, the GEM Plus comes with a lightweight yet feature-complete package that also enables one to lower click latency to one's liking. By default, click latency sits at 20 ms, but provided the latest firmware has been applied, can be lowered to just +0.6 ms (Ikari scaling), which is nothing short of excellent.

Whereas the LIX Plus was covered in holes from top to bottom, the GEM Plus only has them at the bottom as all other surfaces are solid, yet the GEM Plus only weighs 8 g more, coming out at an appreciably light 68 g. The build isn't negatively affected by this, as my units have no creaking or flexing whatsoever, and actuating the side buttons by squeezing the sides is impossible no matter how much force is applied. The main buttons are outfitted with the ever more popular Kailh GM 8.0 switches, which provide a tactile and pleasant button response with appreciably little variance between the left and right mouse buttons. The button construction is less solid, however, as the main buttons can be made to creak when keeping them pressed down and moving the finger around. On the other hand, this isn't a typical use case, maybe outside of drawing something. The side buttons too deliver a satisfying click response, no doubt owing to the exceptionally low post-travel. As most other mice these days, the GEM Plus is outfitted with a braided, paracord-like cable. Though slightly less flexible than the one found on the LIX Plus, the cable is still decently flexible, ranking firmly above the Razer Viper Mini, for instance. The feet are regular black-dyed PTFE, and a set of replacement mouse feet is included in the box, which is a most welcome addition. Lastly, some words on the coating: Grip is fine, but I've noticed the top surface picking up fingerprints and oils quite easily, though removing those isn't difficult, either, and no signs of use are left behind after doing so.

The only area where the GEM Plus truly falls short is the scroll wheel. First of all, tactility is severely lacking. The individual steps are barely separated from each other, which, coupled with the very light scrolling, makes it quite difficult to scroll in a precise and controlled manner. Thankfully, the scroll wheel click isn't too stiff, so clicking without accidentally scrolling is still possible, but the overall feel is just lacking. In addition to that, both samples I've tested suffered from loose wheels to varying degrees. On the first sample, all it took to loosen the wheel was shaking the mouse for five seconds, whereas on the second one, shaking the mouse only loosened the wheel a bit, with the amount of horizontal play depending on the current wheel position. Upon disassembly, the wheel having above average side-to-side wiggle room is plainly on display on both units, so I'm inclined to consider this a design flaw. Of course, the extent will vary from unit to unit, but I think it is fair to say that at least some degree of wheel movement can be expected. At the same time, though undoubtedly annoying, the extent of scroll wheel movement isn't excessive; i.e., when not throwing the mouse around the pad during fast-paced play, the wheel sits relatively still. At the same time, it is difficult to say whether the wheel may loosen further over time or not.

But despite the warranted criticism of the scroll wheel, one needs to put things into perspective. A 3370 and GM 8.0 switches for less than $50 is a first, and when purely considering performance, the GEM Plus indeed does very well. And for those who don't mind the holes, the LIX Plus continues to be a first-rate choice. All in all, the GEM Plus thus gets our Recommended and Budget awards from me.

When looking at the competition, the GEM Plus indeed does great. The Marsback Zephyr Pro comes with very good sensor performance, equally low click latency, flexible cable, and built-in fan, though its durability is questionable, for $59.00. The Xtrfy M42 too goes for $59.00 and has flawless sensor performance, low click latency, great mouse feet, low weight, and the ability to swap the back panel, but falls short in terms of cable flexibility. The Razer Viper 8K suffers from a fairly rigid cable as well, but more than makes up for it with outstanding sensor performance owing to 8000 Hz polling, optical main button switches, great build quality and mouse feet, and a solid yet light shell, for $79.99. The Endgame Gear XM1r too does without holes, has the same GM 8.0 switches the GEM Plus comes with, excellent quality and performance, yet still struggles when it comes to software, for $59.99. For $49.99, the HyperX Pulsefire Haste scores with excellent main buttons, strong build quality, an outstandingly flexible cable, very low weight, and great performance, but suffers from ridiculous CPI deviation. Lastly, the Glorious Model O continues to be a solid option with excellent performance, low weight, flexible cable, great feet, and solid software support, for $49.99.