Zaopin isn't exactly a known brand—in fact, I had a hard time simply finding the company logo online. Still, at the end of the day, it is the product that matters, and in that regard, Zaopin has done very well with the Z1 Pro.

Anyone familiar with the Razer Orochi V2 will immediately recognize the shape of the Z1 Pro, which is closely modeled after the former. Compared to the Fantech Aria XD7, which too is a recreation of the Orochi V2, the Z1 Pro is slightly shorter and not as wide, and therefore a better fit for those with average width hands. While the Z1 Pro won't win any awards for originality, the shell design is sound. On my sample, there is only an almost inaudible rattle when shaking the mouse, no creaking or flexing of the shell when applying lateral pressure, and actuating the side buttons by pressing below them is impossible. At 52 g for the "heaviest" variant, the Z1 Pro also has the Aria XD7 beaten by almost 10 g, without being much different in size, and while featuring a larger capacity battery (500 mAh as opposed to 300 mAh). That said, during disassembly I've noticed something less than ideal on my copy: The scroll wheel lubricant was already sipping into the wheel switch, which may lead to premature switch failure down the line. Of course, making any generalizations based on a sample size of one isn't really possible, but at the same time, it is not unreasonable to expect other copies to suffer from the same issue, though maybe not to the same degree. If anything, this is something to keep in mind, especially given that support or warranty may be limited for customers outside of China.

For the main buttons, Zaopin has opted for Huano switches with a transparent blue shell and pink plunger, which are most prominently used on the LAMZU Atlantis and Atlantis Mini as well. Even though button response is firm and snappy, I did notice a decent bit of pre-travel on my copy, which has the buttons feel mushier than they need to. The button design itself is competent, as lateral movement is low even when provoked. Huano switches are also used for the side buttons. Whereas the forward button has fairly low pre and post-travel, pre-travel is more pronounced on the back button, which can also be pushed in quite a bit past the actuation point. The actuation point is mostly even nonetheless, and button response pleasing. For the scroll, TTC's near-ubiquitous "Gold" (yellow) encoder sees use, which scores with very nice tactility, as the individual steps are well-separated, allowing for controlled scrolling, but noise levels are noticeable, regardless of scroll direction. The feet are made of pure PTFE and glide very well, and a set of the same feet along with a large set of dot-shaped feet are included with the mouse, which is commendable. Even a carrying pouch has found its way into the box.

The Z1 Pro pairs PixArt's PAW3395 sensor with a Nordic nRF52840 MCU, along with a firmware and software solution from CompX. Those familiar with the LAMZU Atlantis Pro and 4K series in particular will instantly recognize the software package, which is entirely identical. Functionally, I have little to complain, though I did notice that RAM usage varied a lot during testing, albeit staying well below the 100 MB mark still. In addition, the battery life indicator is rather useless. It is not percentage-based, and even after extensive use, it did not budge at all. Since Zaopin also provides no battery life numbers, actual battery life essentially is an unknown. Simply based on the battery capacity of 500 mAh, I'd expect it to be at least decent, but how decent, who knows. Charging at least is quite speedy at almost 0.4 A, and the charging cable is pleasantly flexible, to where playing while charging is possible without feeling overly restricted.

In terms of performance, the Z1 Pro is virtually flawless. There is no CPI deviation whatsoever, general tracking is fine, and polling stable, with the exception of polling rates below 1000 Hz in wireless mode, all of which show periodic off-period polls. Being equipped with the PAW3395, the Z1 Pro also allows enabling MotionSync, which synchronizes SPI reads with USB polling events, albeit at the cost of a motion delay penalty equal to half of the set polling rate. Accordingly, without MotionSync, the motion delay differential is around 0.5 ms in wireless operation at 1000 Hz, and 1 ms with MotionSync. Click latency likewise is on an excellent level, clocking in at 2.3 ms if set to the lowest debounce time. That said, when using the lowest debounce time value of 0 ms, slam-clicking, which describes inadvertent actuation of the main buttons upon "slamming" or otherwise repositioning the mouse after lift-off, is encountered relatively frequently, thus necessitating increasing debounce, which in turn increases click latency. Hence, for those who do not want any slam-clicking, there is a minor latency trade-off involved.

Of course, the biggest draw of the Z1 Pro is pricing. For the $49.99 it retails on Mechkeys.com, the Z1 Pro is an incredibly solid offering, even when comparing it to the $68.80 Fantech Aria XD7, which is already priced competitively when taken on its own, yet can't compete with the pricing of the Z1 Pro. In terms of performance and overall quality, there isn't much difference between the two, although there are concerns about the longevity of the Kailh GM 8.0 main button switches on the Aria, and of course the already mentioned scroll wheel switch issue on the Z1 Pro. Those who found the Aria a bit too wide in particular may be better off with the Z1 Pro. In summary, the Z1 Pro is both good and highly affordable, and earns our Recommended and Budget awards.