When it comes to mice, SteelSeries over the past few years has basically stuck with a single design that they have used on multiple mice. We first saw it with the Xai and later the Sensei but they have also used it on various branded mice and a smaller version on the Kinzu as well. When SteelSeries announced that they were bringing out a new mouse design with the Rival I was very interested, but also a little worried about messing with a good thing. After a short wait, we finally have the Rival in hand and can put it through its paces and see how the new design performs.

Product Name: SteelSeries Rival

Review Sample Provided by: SteelSeries

Written by: Wes

Pictures by: Wes

 

Specifications

Optical Sensor

- 50 to 6500 Adjustable CPI

- 1ms Response Rate / 1000Hz Polling Rate

- 200 Inches Per Second (IPS)

- 50Gs of Acceleration

Size and Weight

- Weight: 128 grams (0.28 lbs)

- Height: 40 mm (1.57 in)

- Width: 70 mm (2.76 in)

- Length: 133 mm (5.23 in)

- Cable Length: 2m (6.5 ft.)

Properties

- 6 Programmable Buttons

- 16.8M Color Illumination w. 2 Zones

- Soft-touch coating

- Injected rubber side grips

- Cable Texture: Soft Rubber Cable


Packaging

SteelSeries didn’t changes things up when it came to the packaging for the Rival. They still went with the same black and orange design that features a picture of the Rival cross the front. The front does open up as well to give you full view of the mouse and give you a chance to get your hands on it to feel it out to make sure it will be comfortable to you. Inside the flap you have a second photo of the Rival with each of its key features highlighted with a line pointing to them and short explanations of each. The back of the packaging has a little more information on the software (SteelSeries Engine 3) and an example of the colors that the Rival can.

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Inside, along with the mouse itself you get a piece of paper that explains you can find a manual and your software on the SteelSeries website. You also get a second nameplate, this one has the SteelSeries logo while the one in the mouse says Rival. 

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Software

I had the chance to work with the new SteelSeries Engine 3 with both the 9H and the Siberia Elite. With the Rival, this was the first chance I had to see how the software handles mice. Just like before, when you boot up the software it lists all of the SteelSeries devices you have and have had hooked up and lets you select what you want to work with. When you pick the Rival it opens up another window, something that I’m not a fan of. When you open it up though you are greeted with a large picture of the Rival with each of the configurable button and lights has a line coming off the photo to a drop down menu. There is an option up top to let you flip from a top down view of the Rival to a side profile to get at each of the buttons, or you can use the actions list on the left side.

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Each of the mouse buttons can be programed to macros, keyboard and mouse buttons, or even media buttons. Speaking of macros, the macro editor looks simple but when you start recording your key strokes it really looks cool.

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Along the right side of the software you have a whole bunch of options ranging from angle snapping, polling rate, DPI options, and even slider bars for adjusting acceleration and deceleration. There are so many options that you have to scroll up and down to get through all of the options actually. The DPI settings take up a good portion of that space because they are large round gauge looking sliders for both the low and high DPI settings.

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Features/Pictures

As far as mouse shapes go, the Rival is a departure from the shape that they went with on most of their previous mice. The Rival is closer in shape to the Deathadder than the Sensei, but you can still see a little Intellimouse in the design as well, where the Sensei style mice leaned more on the Intellimouse. Even with the similarities the Rival is still a unique design and a big departure for SteelSeries especially. Let’s poke around the mouse and look at a few of the details.

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One of the most interesting additions to the Rival is the rubber grips on the sides of the mouse. Typically I’m not a big fan of these because they feel weird, but SteelSeries did a good job of making this grippy with small nubs over the rubber without making it to obvious. Some mice with rubber grips like the most recent Cooler Master that we reviewed use a directional material that doesn’t grip as well in some directions, but this design doesn’t have that problem at all. Also on this side you have two very large side buttons that you can program. Both buttons are two to three times the size of their Sensei equivalents; this should make it easier for people with different hand sizes to be able to reach them.

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The right side of the Rival has the same nub covered rubber grip that the left side of the mouse had. There are however no side buttons on this side of the mouse.

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The back of the Rival has a bright white SteelSeries logo that will light up in any color you would like when using the SteelSeries Engine 3 software. Up under the glowing logo if the unique nameplate design. The Rival comes with the Rival and SteelSeries logo nameplates but SteelSeries says that replacement nameplates can be made by anyone with a 3D printer. Rumor has it there might be a company who will be partnering with SteelSeries on doing name plates for people, but as of right now there isn’t any official word of this.

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Up top you have a scroll wheel with lighting on each side that, like the back logo, is configurable in the SteelSeries Engine 3. Behind the scroll wheel is a small button that lets you flip between low and high DPI settings that you configure in the software.

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On the flip side the Rival reminds me very much of the old school Intellimouse with is fairly small Teflon gliders. For the sensor SteelSeries went with the Avago ADNS 3310 optical sensor, this helps keep costs down a little while making a lot of enthusiasts happy to see more Optical sensor mice.

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The Rival has a standard 6 and a half foot UBS cable. It has a rubber coating and lacks the braided covering that most other mice have these days. I’m sure they did this to keep costs down, but a lot of cheaper mice even have it. Having said that, I’m not really upset at it not having a braided cable, they sometimes catch on things on your desk.

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Performance

The performance of a mouse can be broken down into a couple aspects, specifically comfort and sensor performance. With a shape similar to the Deathadder, I wasn’t surprised at all that when I started using the Rival I was happy with its shape. As I mentioned before, I’m not normally a big fan of mice with rubber grips on the sides but the Rival’s did a great job of adding traction. As someone who lifts my mouse all of the time when in heavy gaming it is important to have a good grip. The reason I like the Sensei is because its shape gives a slight lip above your thumb for good grip, the Rival doesn’t have that but makes up for it with the rubber grips.

The Rival, when compared to the Sensei, is larger in every dimension and is also only for right handed gamers. Oddly enough the Rival is also 26 grams heavier than the Sensei but my initial reaction to the Rival was that it felt light. The larger size fits my large hands well but I have a feeling that people with smaller hands might not find it as form fitting. This is why the window in the packaging is important, you should get your hands on both the Rival and the Sensei to see what fits you better.  

As for the rest of the Rivals performance, I found the placement for the two side buttons to be spot on for me, but the second button could be a little far away for anyone with a smaller hand. The back button on the other hand is so large that there is no way it will be an issue for anyone. The scroll wheel is very grippy with its rubber coating and slits cut into it for traction. Additionally the scroll wheel isn’t too loud, an issue that a lot of the Sensei’s experienced.

The Avago ADNS 3310 optical sensor performed well with no acceleration or weird tracking issues during my initial testing. Later on I did run into a few small issues where the mouse acted up. I didn’t see anything in the sensor, but blowing it out did resolve those issues when they came up. Hopefully that isn’t an issue that comes up to much. Beyond that the Avago 3310 impressed with its tracking on multiple surface types including my white table top.

 


Overall and Final Verdict

When you put it all together, the Rival is a great mouse. SteelSeries did a nice job of creating a mouse design that takes in some of what has made the Siberia great while departing enough to make a unique design that will go well next to the Siberia in their product line. I compared the Rival to the Deathadder multiple times in my review and this is for good reason. They both have similar optical sensors, dpi’s, rubber grips on the sides, lighting, and shapes. Without a doubt the Rival is the SteelSeries equivalent of the Deathadder. That isn’t a bad thing considering how popular the Deathadder is. The Rival wasn’t perfect, it will only work for right handed gamers and gamers with fairly large hands. But the upside is there is finally a SteelSeries mouse that works well for those with large hands and people who are give fans of optical sensors.

With an MSRP of less than $60 the Rival is set to be a good deal when you start finding percentage off deals on the SteelSeries website or on Amazon. Even at its MSRP it’s still cheaper than the Deathadder in which it competes with. I can’t wait to set my orange lighting and have a custom nameplate made for the Rival to add that special touch for the next LAN. A custom nameplate might come in handy if the Rival becomes half as popular as I expect it too!

fv3tophonors

Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

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garfi3ld replied the topic: #33558 27 Dec 2013 21:23
Before the weekend I take a look at the latest mouse from SteelSeries. If you are a fan of the Razer Deathadder, I would highly recommend you check this one out. Have a great weekend

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