SteelSeries Rival 710 review

SteelSeries is a brand that became famous through eSports since it is the sponsor of major events. The products of this Danish brand (gaming mice and keyboards) are characterized by their quality and excellent performance, and they are eye-catching but with a sober look.

The Rival 710 (Check on Amazon.com) mouse is their flagship model. Inside the box we find the mouse (duh), the instructions leaflet clear albeit minimal, and a box containing two cables, one 1m long suitable for laptops and the second 2m long designed for use with desktop PCs.

The mouse sports a clean shape, with precise lines and no unnecessary details, it is slightly asymmetrical and therefore favors use with the right hand. SteelSeries used three different finishes: the buttons are quite smooth, the back, where your palm rests, is more satin, creating a pleasant feel, lastly the sides, have a textured finish for a better grip.

The defining feature is the small monochrome OLED display placed on the left side, near the thumb area. Its usefulness depends on the use you will make of it, but it is an eye-catcher, especially in dimly lit environments. You can also customize it via the SteelSeries Engine 3 software with special writings and drawings that can also have a dynamic rendering.

The SteelSeries Rival 710 has 7 buttons, so it is particularly suitable for situations where you don’t have to assign more than a few keys or macros. It measures 124.8×72.6×42mm and weighs 135g, so it is fairly handy despite its generous size.

Features

The new Rival 710, compared to the Rival 700 (Check on Amazon.com), implements a totally new optical sensor called TrueMove3, which tracks the mouse’s true distance thus closing as much as possible the gap between real physical distance and on-screen movement. This technology is able to reduce to virtually zero the disparity between mouse and cursor movement up to about 3500 DPI, beyond this value there is some minimal error but it is also limited through the use of other techniques.

The CPI (also called DPI since they more or less indicate the same thing) can go up to 12000, which is useful for first-person shooters (most gamers use a value between 6000 and 7000 DPI) and if you use a monitor (or multi-monitor setup) with a high resolution (4K).

The maximum acceleration, at which the sensor can still track movement, is equal to 50G, and the maximum speed is 350 IPS (Inches Per Second). Also worthy of note is the sampling rate, equal to 1000Hz, which is excellent in order to minimize latency (input lag).

This mouse can also be disassembled and allows you to replace various components, with new ones, without having to buy a new mouse. The buttons are all very durable and certified for more than 60 million clicks.

Use

Comfortable and not very noisy, we tested this mouse in long gaming sessions and its accuracy is really a step forward of the previous SteelSeries generation.

Its shape fits well in the palms of different sizes, its length is the right compromise and the click is almost always on point.

The extra buttons are placed in a functional and intuitive way. As we stated earlier, the extra keys are not many but they are enough to be able to support you in most games, although if you play a lot of MMORPGs this might not be the right mouse for you. The resolution can be set to any value between 100 and 12000 DPI in steps of 100 DPI.

The SteelSeries Engine 3 platform lets you create individual configurations for each game as well as different profiles. You can also set mouse alerts and customize the 16.8 million colors. The only drawback of the SteelSeries Engine 3 is perhaps not to explain in detail some advanced features that most buyers might not guess on the fly.

Verdict

The Rival 710 mouse is a premium product, has a price of (Check on Amazon.com), and offers an excellent spec sheet combined with an ergonomic design and ample customization.

This mouse is indicated only for gamers since many of its specs and features are directed to gaming, it can be also used for productivity or other purposes, but that way it doesn’t justify its price.