While not a bad release overall, the Zaopin Z2 suffered from several issues, ranging from severe polling instability, slam-clicking, and an overly stiff scroll wheel click. With the Z2 Mini, Zaopin not only addresses these issues, but also delivers a product that goes beyond what one would expect from a "Mini" variant. Obviously, the Z2 Mini is smaller than the Z2, yet the shape has been modified in several key areas. The left side is no longer as straight, the overall profile has been lowered, resulting in the main buttons sitting accordingly lower, and the left side is barely raised relative to the right side. This latter aspect is notable in that the left side being raised higher than the right one is one of the hallmarks of right-handed ergonomic designs, which is why the Z2 Mini handles more like an ambidextrous design in practice, as there is barely any height difference between the left and right side. Hence, while still sharing several traits with the original Z2, the Z2 Mini is its own unique shape, and as a result lends itself less well to palm grip than the Z2 did.

A returning feature are the main button switches being hot-swappable. The principle is the same as on the Z2: below each switch, a socket with screws is located. After unscrewing those, the switch can be removed, and replaced with any 3-pin mechanical switch. In order to access the switches, one still has to disassemble the mouse, but the good thing is that one of the three screws one needs to unscrew is exposed, and for the other two at the front, a skate with the necessary cutouts has been included in the box. Hence, disassembly is possible without having to remove any of the feet, and the process itself is quite convenient, although the more sophisticated solution pioneered by ASUS still scores better.

By default, Huano switches of the green transparent shell, white plunger variety are installed on the Z2 Mini, which were previously seen on the RAWM ES21M. While still reasonably snappy and firm, the button response is somewhat marred by moderate to high pre and high post-travel, and though I didn't notice anything during actual use, lateral button movement can be provoked to a moderate degree. The side buttons likewise come from Huano, and these score with low pre- and post-travel, along with an even actuation point. Instead of the TTC Gold encoder used on the Z2, an encoder from F-Switch sees use on the Z2 Mini, more specifically one of the brown/green core variety. When scrolling up, this one proves noisy, though tactility at least is slightly above average, as the individual steps are decently separated from each other. Instead of the extra stiff Huano switch on the Z2, the Z2 Mini utilizes a seemingly unbranded tactile switch, which still is fairly stiff but nowhere near as much as the Huano switch. The feet are familiar from the Z2, are made of dyed PTFE, of above average thickness, and glide very well. A full set of replacement feet along with a partial one is included with the box, coupled with a set of grip tape, all of which is welcome as always.

At 57 g, the Z2 Mini is 9 g lighter than the Z2, a difference largely accounted for by the difference in size. Similarly to the Z2, Zaopin left a bit of weight on the table, as trimming down the large main PCB would've easily saved a couple of grams. Build quality at least is in a good spot: when shaking, only a minor rattle emerges from the main buttons, which wasn't the case on the Z2, where the main buttons clearly rattled. When applying lateral pressure, there is no creaking or flexing of the shell, and actuating the side buttons by pressing below them is impossible regardless of force. Much like the Z2, the Z2 Mini comes with a 500 mAh battery, which should provide respectable battery life. How much exactly, however, is anyone's guess, as Zaopin doesn't give any numbers, and while a percentage-based battery life indicator can be found in the software, it is far from reliable or accurate, and merely good enough to get an idea of when charging may be in order. For what it's worth, a couple of extra hours can be squeezed out by using Bluetooth, which is supported by the Z2 Mini as well. Charging is decently speedy at a little less than 0.3 A, and the charging cable is rather flexible, though also shortish at 1.5 m. As for the software, I have no complaints, as all the important settings are present, and resource usage is low.

While the Z2 Mini utilizes the same PixArt PAW3395 sensor and Nordic nRF52840 MCU as the Z2, the firmware from CompX is much more recent and mature, fixing a lot of the issues present on the latter in the process. While polling still breaks occasionally, it is now much more stable across the board, without the severe instability observed on the Z2. Motion delay is largely unchanged, with 4000 Hz without MotionSync mustering an advantage of 0.8 ms over the Logitech G403 (control subject). General tracking shows no issues, and CPI deviation is kept to a minimum. Another fix concerns slam-clicking, which describes inadvertent button actuation upon resetting the mouse. The Z2 Mini now comes with a flawless slam-click prevention algorithm, which means that even when using the lowest debounce time setting of 0 ms, no slam-clicking will occur. As a result, one can use the 0 ms setting without any drawbacks, as long as no double-clicking emerges, and enjoy the lowest possible click latency, which is 0.9 ms at 4000 Hz. Click latency at 1000 Hz has been improved as well, and now sits at 1.2 ms on average. In short, performance on the Z2 Mini is in a far better place compared to the Z2.

At $53.99 on Mechkeys.com for the 4K variant, the Z2 Mini is even more affordably priced than the Z2, and enjoys little competition in the right-handed ergonomic market, as direct competitors such as the LAMZU Thorn or Razer DeathAdder V3 Hyperspeed cost at least $40 more, without even offering a nicety such as hot-swappable main button switches. Accordingly, the Z2 Mini easily earns our Recommended and Budget awards.