SteelSeries RIVAL Review
Introduction
SteelSeries is well known for its sensei or xai line up past few years ago which is perfect for both lefties and righties. By then SteelSeries had kept the same design for their mice bacause why change when its not broken right? But earlier this year steelseries released a budget ergonomic gaming mice for the righties (sorry lefties), which is called the RIVAL that we will cover in this review
Unboxing
SteelSeries still using the same old design for the box. There is a front cover which you can open up to let you get a grip of the mouse to see if it's fit for you which is a plus if that particular store doesnt have a demo unit for you to try it out. Inside the box you will be greeted with the quick start guide and a steelseries sticker which hasn't change since they released their product few years ago.
Design
Jumping into the design section, the steelseries rival is a whole new design for steelseries. Neither does it look like its a sensei or even the older ikari. However it does resembles a bit like razer's deathadder. The mouse is huge, i highly recommend palm grip users to give this a try because there isn't any other mouse that fits this nicely in your hand. The whole mouse is covered with rubber while the side has a dotted rubber grip which gives the user extra secure grip, this mouse will be able to be flung left and right without worrying it flying off your hand. However compared to the other predecessor, the cpi toggle doesnt light up when switching cpi, this could be annoying for those who loves to keep track on what cpi they are currently in. There are 4 mousefeet under the mouse which i believed it was teflon ( do correct me if i were wrong) which ensures smooth gliding across your mousepad. Both LED lights up the same colour but its changeable via the software to any colour you want. With all that good stuff aside, there is the not so great rubberized cable
Hardware
Lets go to the hardware section of this mouse. This mouse is equipped with a Pixart PAW3310 Sensor which boast a maximum DPI of 6500 and minimum of 50. This sensor is quite new to the market and could be found in the Mionix Naos 7000 or the Kone Pure Optical Military. Acceleration is minimal to none. However when it comes to mouse correction you be the judge, Here is the two paint drawed lines with the steelseries sensei raw and the steelseries rival.
SteelSeries RIVAL (above) SteelSeries Sensei RAW (Below)
Looking at the lines which i've tried to draw a perfect straight line which i fail most of the time which is good since mouse correction isnt really there. If i turn on the angle snapping, the line would look like this (below)
So for those who are afraid of angle snapping, fear not as this mouse is able to turn it on and off according to your liking
SteelSeries also employed new switches in these mouse. Click still feels tactile as ever but this time without that sharp clicking sound. It almost sounds like a blue switch mechanical keyboard(sensei raw) compared to a black switch (rival) here. (NO THIS MOUSE IS NOT EQUIPPED WITH MECHANICAL SWITCHES IM JUST LISTING OUT AN EXAMPLE ON THE DIFFERENCE ON HOW BOTH THIS TWO MOUSE CLICK SOUNDS). Scroll wheel also made to be much more silent and solid when compared with the sensei raw
Software
In the tweaking section here, you will find the basic mouse button adjustment,macro,dpi, angle snapping and mouse acceleration.
In the button mappings section you can basically assign a macro or even a button for each keys and yes the cpi toggle is programmable now. But there isnt an option to toggle between profiles here so do keep that in mind.
Macro editing is easy, you can either record your actions with the keyboard or decrease that delay time to as fast as 15ms or even no delay.
In the DPI settings you can toggle from the lowest 50DPI with step by step incremental value of 50DPI up until 6500DPI.
Polling rate can be adjust from 125Hz>250Hz>500Hz>1000Hz.
Angle snapping has several levels and can be adjusted to fit the user
You can also adjust the acceleration and deceleration of the mouse here
When it comes to the lighting settings. There are a few options on how the light would react. The other 2 setting is pretty straight forward. The one what i wanted to talk about is colorshift. There are 5 options in the colourshift inner tab. And from there it will cycle the colours shown. Neat way to show off the rivals's capabilities in the lighting section
Real World Usage
All it matters most is how it stands in the real world despite having all those features.
Lighting is a great feature in the steelseries rival and it definitely stands out in the budget mouse market. The design was just too big for me and my grip style wasnt really suitable. I was a fingertip grip user and i find it hard for me to manuever around with such big mouse but for those large hands with palm grip style, this is possibly the best you can get due to its unique curves. Despite its similarity looking with the deathadder, it feels a lot different when you palm it. The rival definitely feels longer and much more grippier as well. For my usage, for not having a cpi toggle light doesnt really bother me that much since i play dota 2 with 1800dpi and CSGO with 800dpi, so its a significant change in DPI and i wont be mistaken on which dpi im at. Sure having a rubber cable sucks but keeping it away from your pet and sharp objects will definitely do the trick. To those who are bothered that it doesnt have a laser sensor, well dont worry much since optical sensor had came a long way and it doesnt feel any significant difference when using either optical or laser. For me i would just rule that out
Conclusion
What matters the most to everyone of us is, is it worth it? Well, for a retail price of RM229(Original Rival) or RM239(for the iG Rival) you cant really go wrong with it unless you have a moderate size hands like me. I strictly recommend this mouse for those who palm grip with their mouse. With this price range you may consider the deathadder and also the roccat kone optical. This is solely depends on personal preference and i recommend you trying it out before getting one. Otherwise SteelSeries RIVAL really packs a punch and for RM229, try finding another mouse that offers this much features under this price. Special shoutout to the wonderful guys at SteelSeries Malaysia for giving me an opportunity for reviewing this mouse. If you dont know about that be sure to check them out.
As always im up for any questions, so if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask me about it.
Heres a picture of the iG mousepad to whoever is interested in
SteelSeries Thread V9, RIVAL 100 DotA 2 Edition coming!