The Rival is one of the entry level SteelSeries gaming mice which aims to be a worthy contender in the budget gaming peripheral market, as a result some parts feel as if they were made to meet the “budget”, whilst other features which do not necessarily have a purpose aside from giving it the typical gamer look, where added in.
The ergonomics of the Rival allow for it to fit in the palm of my hand with great comfort and my fingers rest just where the buttons are to allow for a quick press when gaming, however it did take some time getting used to it. Previously to using the Rival, I had a Logitech MX Performance mouse which felt great in the hand and had quite a nice length, moving up to the Rival there was a small difference in length when looking at the numbers, however in the real world this meant quite a bit since my fingers could now stretch out and rest. This meant that using the Rival for the first time was obviously a different experience but I have grown to like having that extra distance in which my fingers can stretch out, allowing for a much more natural and relaxed position.
When you take a look at the construction of the mouse, that is when the budget aspect becomes apparent. Between each plastic section is relatively large gaps which you can easily fit your nail inside of and then flex the edges of the thin plastic. Another issue I have found is that the soft plastic where your palm and fingers rest gets marked very easily, this is especially an issue when spending a long time using the mouse since your hand gets sweaty. Even though there is an anti-sweat coating, the marks on the mouse are very visible. On a brighter note the rubber grips on both sides help with the comfort and means that when your hand is positioned, it can easily rest in place.
Inside the box you obviously get the SteelSeries Rival USB mouse, a quick start guide which tells you that the mouse is plug and plug for both Mac and Windows, as well where to download the SteelSeries Engine. Finally, in the box you will also find the second rubber nameplate which says “STEELSERIES”. The one already inside of the mouse is the exact same, however it does say “RIVAL”. Rather than just sticking with the two which come in the box, you can also download a template from the SteelSeries website which will allow you to change the text and then 3D print your own nameplate, this is a nice feature for customisation but to be able to add this they had to cut back from some other places. In my opinion I would have rather had a better built mouse than 3D printable nameplates, some people also suggested a weight system, however it’s definitely not to say that I don’t like the feature, it’s just that I feel it could be put in one of their other mice which are priced a little higher.
Looking around the mouse you will first notice the two RGB LED sections, one inside the scroll wheel and one inside of the SteelSeries logo, I have both of mine set to a slow red with the breathing effect. Moving up we have a programmable button which was set to the CPI sensitivity switch at default, however I use it as a zoom in button using a macro. We then have the scroll wheel and two standard left and right click buttons. On the left side we have a forward and backward button which I kept the default settings for, this means that I can quickly go switch between my previous and next internet search without having to move my mouse. We then also have one of the rubber grips, the other one being on the right side. At the back we have the rubber nameplate, then underneath we have the 4 rubber pads, as well as SteelSeries barcode sticker with some information above, as well as the optical sensor which only works on a mouse mat.
All of the buttons and both LEDs have to be customised through the downloadable SteelSeries Engine, however if all you want to do is use this as a standard mouse, nothing has to be installed since it is a plug and play mouse. Once you have downloaded Engine, all of your SteelSeries products will all be in one place and this will be where you customise the aspects of your mouse or keyboard which you can. Some people have said that certain products from SteelSeries do not work properly with Engine 3, however I’m sure that will be sorted soon. With the rival you can change the function of each button, two sensitivity modes for the mouse, as well as the LED colours and add an effect to them, as well as the acceleration and deceleration, polling rate and angle snapping of the mouse. Most of the options I left alone as with a bit of sensitivity tweaking the mouse felt good enough for me.
Before moving to my overall opinion I will quickly list all of the specs of the SteelSeries Rival mouse:
- Optical sensor
- 6500 CPI
- Expected to last upto 30 million clicks
- 1ms Response time
- 200 Inches per second (IPS)
- 50g of Acceleration
With the time I have got to spend with the SteelSeries Rival mouse I have really begun to love the extra length which my fingers have gained over my Logitech MX Performance mouse, as well as the amount of comfort this mouse provides for my hand, however I do not like the fact that the mouse feels cheap and picks up so many marks due to the soft plastic. I also feel as if the cutbacks which were needed to be made to get this down to the desired price tag were made in the wrong areas. I would rather the mouse be built a lot better than have the LED lights and rubber nameplate. Even with these flaws I cannot go without saying how precise this mouse was and the lack of latency there was when moving it around.
Buy the SteelSeries Rival Gaming Mouse Here: UK/US
Visit the SteelSeries Website Here:
Thanks to Georgina from Ranieri for making this video possible.
TechCastUK 