[section_title title=”Closer Look”] Closer Look
First up we’ve got the SteelSeries packaging which has a glossed silhouette of the Rival as well as the various eSports teams printed along the top of the box – included Europe’s best League of Legends Fnatic. As you can see in the top right the Rival also works on OSX although I personally won’t be able to test functionality on Apple’s OS.
The rear of the box takes a more featured approach rather than a complete specification overload.
With the Rival’s packaging opened up we get our first look at the mouse itself.
If you come across the Rival in person there is ample room for you to fit your hand inside the box should you want to get a better estimate of how it fits.
Starting with the top of the Rival you can see that SteelSeries have certainly opted for a low-key aesthetic approach to the Rival’s design. The overall shape of the mouse narrows towards the LMB/RMB giving it more of a ‘palm’ fit. 
The actual profile of the Rival is relatively high.
The left side of the mouse, like the right, has a textured surface so you don’t slip during those heavy gaming sessions. Note the placement of the back and forwards buttons.
The front of the Rival isn’t exotic although the mouse wheel has a nice scroll and feel to it. Above the mouse wheel is the profile switch button.
The cable of the Rival isn’t of the braided variety and instead just heat shrunk. It’s unlikely that not having it braided will be massively detrimental to the durability, but when you’re paying £50 it feels a bit short.
There aren’t any accessories as such included with the Rival (no driver disc either, thankfully) but you do get a swappable ‘name plate’ which slots in the rear of the mouse and of which new custom user ones can be be made if you have a 3D printer at hand.
Ultimately, the Rival’s design matches its under-stated hardware. There LED under the logo can be customised to solid colours or transitions, and the left-of-field name plating option is a nice touch, although you’re not going to see either of these in use.
How does SteelSeries look to put their hardware to use? Rather than take a traditional approach where the software is concerned, SteelSeries are looking to move towards a unified system much like other hardware makers with their SteelSeries Engine 3 (E3).
[…] you’ll see on the internet and their line of mice from the Kinzu up to the Rival. In my past SteelSeries review I found that the Rival mouse seemed priced way too high for what it offered so it will be […]