This review was written by our volunteer moderator, @BigAl01.
Mountain, a Freiburg-based company founded by Tobias Brinkmann, designs and manufactures high-quality gaming gear. Their products, like keyboards, mice, and keypads feature unique designs and excellent build quality. Many of the devices utilize USB-C interconnectivity and incorporate magnets to support physical connections, such as interchangeable mouse wings. Even the packaging of these products have magnets to hold flaps down, rather than tucking a tab into a slot on the box.
Their free software, Base Camp, helps you configure all your Mountain devices. Plug them into your computer, and they’ll show up in Base Camp, so make sure to download it.
Let's take a closer look at the Makalu Max mouse, the Everest Max keyboard, and the DisplayPad controller and see what these components are all about.
Makalu Max mouse
The Makalu Max mouse ($59.99 USD) comes with extra side grips, weight rings, a USB cable, and a wireless dongle for flexible connectivity. It features a Pixart PAW3370 sensor with up to 19,000 DPI, customizable RGB lights, and eight programmable buttons. The Kailh GM 8.0 switches are durable, and you can adjust the weight with the included rings. It also has a sniper button for quick DPI changes. Base Camp makes it easy to tweak RGB settings and button functions. It glides smoothly on a Razor RGB mouse pad and syncs well with Razor Chroma.
Upon plugging the Makalu Max mouse into my computer, Windows 11 recognized the new USB device and it immediately showed up in the Base Camp software. Since I am familiar with the ICue software from Corsair, it was easy for me to navigate to the RGB settings and key bindings for programming the eight buttons. I also added one of the weights to the bottom of the mouse and I swapped the standard side grips for the wider ones.
I'm a sucker for LED settings, and after trying a few of them, I went back to the original color wave (aka rainbow). I did slow down the scroll rate though as I don't want to get dizzy watching the mouse. I placed the Makalu Max mouse on my Razor RGB mouse pad and noticed that it glides quite nicely on the surface. An interesting thing I noticed with the Base Camp software is that it is compatible with the Razor Chroma RGB software in terms of synchronization. You can have your cake and eat it too.
Everest Max Keyboard
The Everest Max keyboard ($199.99 USD) comes in a large box with a gunmetal grey aluminum design. It has hot-swappable Cherry MX switches, five USB-C ports for accessories, and a magnetic wrist rest. The included keypad and media dock match the keyboard and can be customized via Base Camp. Swapping switches is easy with the provided tool, and extra switches and keycaps are available if you want to mix things up.
I was impressed with the versatility of the keypad and how the USB-C connection is made to the keyboard. The keypad includes four programmable buttons above the number keys, and you use the Base Camp software (which recognized the keyboard once I plugged it into my computer) to bind these buttons to a function, like opening the Chrome browser for instance.
The keypad and media dock both match the color of the aluminum gunmetal keyboard, so the components look like a modular unit when they are all combined. Swapping out a key switch is easy with the included key switch removal tool, and Mountain sells both key switches and key caps on their website (approximately $40 USD) so you can really customize the keyboard layout. This is surely a keyboard for a computer modder!
Media Dock
Now on to the media dock, which is intended to support the usual media functions. It also has a display dial that can be programmed to display a clock (digital and analog) or an image of your choice, and it provides access to other settings that you find in the Base Camp software running on your computer. I might mention here that you apparently need to have the Base Camp software running in the background to maintain full functionality of the Everest Max keyboard and Makalu Max mouse.
Configuring the Everest Max keyboard with the Base Camp software is easy. There are several lighting choices (RGB or otherwise) including syncing options. There are also options to create key bindings, record macros, etc. I tested the binding operation for the four keypad buttons by configuring one to open Chrome (which automatically loaded in the Chrome icon).
The keypad buttons had default bindings, where the other two buttons will open file manager and task manager from your Windows operating system. You could spend some time figuring out bindings or recording macros here. The ability to insert text helps quite a bit so you don't have to memorize what the functionality is two weeks later.
DisplayPad controller
The DisplayPad ($69.99 USD) includes a base and a gunmetal frame with 12 programmable buttons. It can attach to the Everest Max keyboard or be used separately. While it doesn’t have RGB lighting, it supports macros and app bindings through Base Camp. It’s handy if you need more programmable buttons beyond the keypad’s four. Each device supports multiple profiles in Base Camp, so you can use the keypad’s buttons across different profiles for quick access.
I found that with my workbench computer layout, the DisplayPad controller worked best with its supporting base, rather than having it attached to the Everest Max keyboard.
When I plugged the DisplayPad into my computer, it showed up in Base Camp. It doesn’t have RGB settings, but it supports macros and app bindings like the four buttons on the Everest Max keypad. I set one button to open Steam for quick gaming access. The DisplayPad is handy if you need more programmable buttons than the keypad offers. Each Base Camp device supports multiple profiles, so you can use the keypad’s buttons across different profiles. If you're on a budget, the DisplayPad is optional.
Gaming Performance
With all the Mountain gear hooked up to my gaming PC (Thinking Outside the Box-2), I put them to the test in World of Tanks-Blitz. Coming from a CoolerMaster SK-650 keyboard and EVGAX20 mouse, I found the new setup comparable, though the Makalu Max mouse might be slightly more accurate. Overall, the Mountain devices performed great, and there’s still a lot more programming potential I haven’t explored yet—especially with the Makalu Max’s eight programmable buttons.
Overall Rating (0-10, 10 being perfect)
|
Packaging |
10 |
| Quality | 10 |
| Performance | 9 |
| Software | 9 |
| Value | 8 |
| Ease of Setup | 8 |
| Overall | 9 |
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