Software

The Z1 Pro comes with its own lightweight software. All options are accessible through three different tabs. The first page allows for button remapping to mouse, keyboard, media, and macro functions, along with the ability to adjust debounce time, which effectively controls click latency, at a range of 0 to 30 ms in increments of 1 ms. Profile management is present as well. The second page houses CPI adjustment settings for up to six color-coded levels, ranging from 50 to 26,000 CPI in increments of 50 CPI. Values cannot be put in directly, as this function appears to be bugged. Also included are polling rate (125/250/500/1000 Hz), LOD (1/2 mm), and angle snapping (on/off) adjustment options. "Ripple control" is disabled by default, but can be enabled to apply smoothing, which lessens jitter at higher CPI steps at the cost of increased motion delay. "MotionSync" can be turned on or off, which turning on synchronizes SPI reads with USB polls at the cost of a motion penalty equal to half of the set polling interval. Furthermore, a setting that allows modifying the sensor mode is present. If plugged in, the sensor mode will default to "corded" with no way of changing it. In wireless mode, one can choose between "LP" (low power) and "HP" (high performance) modes, which determine the sensor run mode and therefore battery life. Lastly, "Peak Performance" defines after how much idle time sleep mode is entered. A macro editor can be found on the third page.

All settings changes are saved to the on-board memory, so the software does not need to be running (or even installed) all the time. On my system, the software had a RAM footprint of anywhere between 33 and 63 MB on average when running in the foreground, which changes depending on which page is open, and which doesn't change when minimized to the system tray, coupled with considerable CPU usage upon changing the page. Upon exiting the application, all processes are terminated, as they should be.

Lighting

The Z1 Pro has a single lighting zone, which is the scroll wheel. Adjustment is restricted to two effects (Fixed light and Flicker), and the color is tied to the currently set CPI step, with only transition speed and brightness being adjustable. Of course, the lighting can also be disabled altogether.

Color accuracy and vibrancy are decent throughout. Below is a short demonstration video showing the Fixed light and Flicker effects:

Battery Life

Zaopin does not provide any battery life numbers. A battery charge indicator can be found in the software, but it is not percentage-based, and during my testing, it didn't change at all even after six hours of continuous use. Hence, I am completely unable to gauge anything.

By default, the mouse enters a sleep state after 30 seconds of inactivity. This value can be adjusted within the software.

Using the included USB Type-A to Type-C charging cable, I measured the charging speed during the constant current stage, which sits around 0.373 A when lifted and 0.354 A when not lifted. The battery has a capacity of 500 mAh (3.7 V) and utilizes a 3-pin JST connector.