[section_title title=”Performance and Testing”]
Performance and Testing
Now Rome wasn’t built in a day as we know, and neither was this review, I used this mouse for a decent amount of time before even trying to review it, to make sure it was battle tested. I will say, first of all, the fact this is plug and play are perfect, I’ve had Razer and Corsair mice before and both require hunting to find a driver or whatever before you can get the bloody thing working. This being my first Steelseries mouse I hesitantly plugged it in and voila! It suddenly worked, funny how that happens eh?
My initial testing with this mouse was with the internet, going through the websites I would usually go through like YouTube, Facebook, etc. It naturally worked perfectly fine with them, but I think trying with your normal desktop applications first is important rather than barrelling ahead into games, just to get yourself accustomed with your new mouse. I then went ahead and went into my Steam, Origin, Uplay, etc to try out some games, the main games I tested are as listed below:
- Counter Strike: Global Offensive
- Ryse: Son of Rome
- Battlefield 4
- The Witcher 3
- Total War: Warhammer
- Assassin’s Creed: Rogue
I had no problems at all with any of the games using this mouse, going through from FPS, RTS, etc. I felt CS:GO was an important game to test due to the branding on it, it did feel like it worked very well with the game, but where I personally thought the game shone was with RTS games. I didn’t have any problem getting across the maps or selecting any units with the mouse, and I felt a great ease of comfort while going through the game with it.
The build of this mouse does feel rather sturdy, so along with the beauty, it does come with a very firm chassis and case. As stated before, I have kids and having a mouse that performs well and can take a bit of punishment is always a fantastic thing to have about a place where tiny hands decide to play with pretty things!
Software
This is the same software that was used for the Siberia 350 as you can see below, and it works just as well for the Rival 300 as it did for the Siberia. Not only can you change the sensitivity as far as CPI goes, you can change acceleration, angle snapping and polling rate. The interesting thing is that you can actually change buttons functions to work the way you want them to.
A real problem with the software is the fact that it is essential for changing the CPI for your mouse. Rather than having the click of a button like many mice do, this depends on you going into the software and changing it there, which I personally found rather tedious and wasted my time quite a bit when it was the other half’s turn on the PC. Thankfully though it can be edited in the software and changed to be edited by the click of a button, but pre-programming is always good too!
The real fun of course comes in when you’re changing the colours, I myself have opted for the purple (and it’s pretty!). You can decide to go with whatever colour is your favourite of course, or what works best with whatever colour scheme you wish to go for. Like before there is Illumination Effects they are Steady, ColourShift, Multi Colour Breathe and Disable Illumination.
Comfort
Being comfortable with your mouse is extremely important, finding a mouse that doesn’t give you a cramp should be the first thing you look for really. There are rubber grips on both sides of the mouse and I can only say THANK YOU to Steelseries for putting these rubber grips on the mouse. Not only are they good for keeping hold of your mouse, but they keep your hand comfortable when you use it, I didn’t have any problem with my thumbs rubbing up against it at all either. I used this mouse for literally hours and felt no real pain in my hand, and that’s coming from a guy with bad hands to begin with.
The clicking of the buttons and the wheel both being fairly silent. This makes it a pleasure to use especially when your 5-month-old is lying sleeping in her baby swing beside you and you’re desperately trying to stop the Terrorists from winning! My favourite part of this mouse is the size, it fits PERFECTLY in my hand, it’s not too big, not too small, just right, most mice I’ve used have been too small, and it makes my hands hurt a lot quicker, but the size of this was just perfect and allowed me to use my PC for a longer period of time.
