SteelSeries Rival 700 Gaming mouse, has everything to make any gamers happy, does it pull it off though, let’s find out as we take a look at a mouse that could set the standard for all other mouses.
The Rival 700 is SteelSeries top of line technologically-advanced gaming mouse ever made, and that is the truth. Truth to one side, let’s look at the actual packaging and marketing and how they sell this mouse for us gamers.
From the front SteelSeries has opted to showcase the mouse in all its glory, showing off the logo, wheel all lite up and the LED displaying ‘Steelseries’. The main selling points here are the following, OLED Display Notifications, Tactile Alerts, Prism GB illumination.
RIVAL 700 ELITE PERFORMACE GAMING MOUSE in bold under that to the two operating systems, Windows and Mac. Turning the mouse to its side, one stats ‘30m click switches and reinforced left and right mouse buttons’, the other side stats ‘Tactile alerts generate small pulses notifying you of in-game events’.
Finally moving to the back are four more selling points
- Out-aim, out-flag, and our-perform with the best optical gaming sensor,
- Vivid LED display for in-game stats, sensitivity, and alerts,
- Swap out your cables, cover plate, and sensor module,
- Personalize the OLD display, tactile alerts, settings and more with Steelseries Engine 3.
There is nothing written on the sales of the mouse where it clearly states, that many of these benefits, from the game stats, in-game alerts, tactile alerts are exclusive to Gamesense or just 3 games, Minecraft, DOTA 2 and CSGO.
I understand that selling a product, does not require everything to put on the box, however, as this mouse has so much influence pushed on the packaging, the information for Gamesense should be included so the user knows exactly what they are purchasing.
Now, what do you get? You get the Rival 700 Mouse, 1 long Braided cable, 1 Soft PVC short cable, quick start guide and some SteelSeries stickers.
The other items that can be tweaked is the Sensor, you can unscrew and update/change to best suit your playing style, and the faceplate can be taken off and replaced with a new plate using different materials and designs.
The mouse is heavier than any other mouse I own, which includes the Razer Orochi 68g, Razer Naga Chroma 150g, CMStorm Xornet 2 132g, Mionix Avior SK Gaming 100g.
This mouse weighs in at 159g, might not seem much compared to the Razer Naga Orochi, until you see them both together, The Razer Naga Chroma is a bigger mouse, housing more buttons and more lighting effects.
Now to say this is a bad mouse just because of its weight is just stupid, as this is not a bad mouse in any way, this mouse as a bloody awesome mouse. This mouse blows the competition away with the amount of customization available.
Just by using the Steelseries engine you can create custom configurations set for particular games and link the .EXE to that configuration, so each configuration launchs, as soon as you launch the game.
Keeping on point, Steelseries engine offers so much, you can configure each button includes scroll up and scroll down and the CPI toggle. You can upload custom OLED GIF images to display on the LED. Using Acceleration and deceleration modifies your mouse cursers speed based on the speed you move your mouse. Angle snapping allows for real time analyzing to help you straighten up, compensating for human error. Polling rate determines how often your mouse will communicate with your computer, the higher the poll the better the mouse.
When customizing each button, you are able to create playback options and add tactile settings, tactile setting = vibration, you can customize how strong a vibration you fancy, buts its only available on click, so it’s not the same as being shot and feeling what’s happening on screen to your character.
Down to the nitty gritty, using the mouse when gaming, is the best experience I have ever had, its smooth, precise and feel wonderful under the hand, I have tactile turned on for the Division just to give me some sort of feedback when shooting weapons, I also had the colours all set to orange.
I cannot fault this mouse to a degree, but yet again I can, as it has so much to offer, but yet so little via the senses, yes, it works fantastic, yes, it feels great under hand, yes the colours are vivid and attractive, yes the GIF is a little added bonus.
But…
With Gamesense still in beta, and limited games available 3 in total, Minecraft, DOTA 2 and CS: GO, I agree these are big games and played by millions around the world. That’s not the point, though, this is a gaming mouse and should be open to all gamers for as many games as possible. I personally do not play any of Gamesense games, I do not like any of them, so everything Gamsense offers to improve the gaming experience and make this mouse the best mouse in the world, is nothing, its just another mouse with tactile feedback, which does nothing to improve the games I enjoy playing.
With the Rival 700 offers so much to a gamer, but so little from Gamesense, how will SteelSeries entice gamers to purchase this mouse, over its rivals, that offer the same or similar.
If you are a huge eSports player, or a fan of CS: GO, DOTA 2 or Minecraft, then you will love what this mouse offers Otherwise it delivers little to nothing with Gamesense, which makes this mouse just another good looking mouse with gimmicks to boot, which is a shame, as I would of loved to program the mouse for the likes of The Division, Witcher 3, DOOM and much more.
I have reached out to SteelSeries for an update regarding Gamesense and lack of games.
Specifications
DESIGN
- Material: Matte Top Cover,
- Ergonomic, Right-Handed,
- Grip Style: Palm, Claw, and Fingertip,
- Number of Buttons: 7,
- SteelSeries Switches: Rated for 30 Million Clicks,
- Reinforced Left and Right Clicks,
- Weight: 159g, 0.35lbs,
- Height: 124.85mm, 4.92in,
- Width: 68.46mm, 2.70 in,
- Depth: 41.97mm, 1.65in,
- Short cable length (non-braided): 1m, 3.28 ft,
- Long cable length (braided): 2m, 6.5 ft.
SENSOR
- Sensor Name: PixArt PMW3360,
- Sensor Type: Optical,
- CPI: 100 to 16,000,
- IPS: 300,
- Acceleration: 50g,
- Polling Rate: 1 ms (1000 Hz),
- Zero Hardware Acceleration,
- Tracking Accuracy: 1:1.
CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS
- Gamesense Support,
- OLED Display Customization,
- Tactile Alert Customization,
- SteelSeries Engine Support: SSE3,
- Multiple CPI Options,
- Programmable Buttons,
- Onboard Profile Storage,
- Acceleration Customization,
- Deceleration Customization,
- Color Options: 16.8 Million,
- Printable 3-D Nameplate.
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