Software

The ML903 NearLink comes with its own lightweight software. All options are distributed across several pages. The first page has button remapping for all but the left main button to mouse, keyboard, media, and macro functions. The second page houses CPI adjustment settings for up to seven color-coded levels, ranging from 100 to 26,000 CPI in increments of 100 CPI, despite the sensor supporting increments of 50 CPI. In wired mode, polling rate can be set 1000, 2000, 4000, or 8000 Hz, whereas in wireless mode, 500, 1000, 2000, or 4000 Hz may be selected. "Key Debounce Delay" denotes debounce time and can be set to 2, 4, or 8 ms, with higher values lowering the odds of inadvertent double-clicking but increasing click latency. Lift-off distance may be set to 1 or 2 mm. Lastly, a macro editor and profile management are present as well.

After applying, all setting changes are saved to the on-board memory, so the software does not need to be running (or be installed) all the time. On my system, the software had a RAM footprint of 40 MB on average, along with some CPU usage, which doesn't change when minimized to the system tray. Upon exiting the application, all processes are terminated, as they should be.

Battery Life

ThundeRobot does not indicate battery life. The software does include a percentage-based battery life indicator with seemingly single-digit accuracy, but its reliability is rather limited. For the record, for every two hours of continued usage at 4000 Hz, the indicator went down by 15%. Thus, assuming linear scaling, less than 15 hours of battery life can be expected at that polling rate.

Using the included USB Type-A to Type-C charging cable, I measured the charging speed during the constant current stage, which sits at around 0.330 A. The battery has a capacity of 600 mAh and utilizes a 3-pin JST connector.