SteelSeries Rival 710 Gaming Mouse – 16,000 CPI

My previous mouse died after a 2.5 year stint (rather disappointing for a higher end mouse) so I decided to switch companies and try out something else. While I’ve used SteelSeries mousepads before, I’ve never purchased any of their peripherals so it was a bit of a leap of faith to put down money on a high end mouse. I don’t really do much gaming anymore, but I tend to find that gaming mice have some of the best ergonomics for long sessions and this certainly holds true here. The build quality feels top notch right out of the box and the aesthetics are a bit on the understated side, which I prefer over some of the in-your-face models that look like some sort of stealth fighter with LED’s everywhere. The software to control the lighting is simple enough to use and the mouse has plenty of buttons for my own use. There is one eyebrow raising feature, which is the LED panel on the side of the mouse which shows the SteelSeries logo by default, but can be customized with pixel art to show something else. I’m not entirely sure how many people are going to be staring at the inside of my mouse, but I suppose it can be a cool place to customize it with your team or sponsor logo if you’re into eSports? Aside from that, it seems like a rather useless feature.

Anyway, the important things are that the mouse feels extremely good in the hand, which makes it comfortable to use even if you’re on the computer for hours at a time. It is extremely responsive and has a button that allows you to quickly toggle between two preset sensitivity settings, which is useful both in games and for applications such as Photoshop where you might want to reduce your mouse sensitivity for some tasks. Again, the software to set this up is incredibly intuitive and well-designed.

I haven’t owned the mouse for very long so these are initial impressions more than anything else. I cannot speak to the longevity of it, but out of the box, it’s a wonderful mouse and one of the best I’ve ever used. My only real complaint is that it did not come with a SteelSeries sticker in the box which is irrelevant to anything other than my fetish for brand stickers.

I’m on my third steelseries mouse, and this is my 2nd of this line. Both this mouse and the previous model of the same line both have had the same issue, the rear mouse skate starts to detach (because it is not firmly seated and too shallow) and leak glue from the pressure of regular use, which in turn picks up dust and creates this sticky residue that gets pressed underneath the skate and start to unseat it as well as completely ruining the glide.

The first time it happened, I had owned the mouse a few years so I was a little more forgiving, this time, it happened after only owning the mouse a few months. Whereas my $40 intellimouses 1.1 and 3.0 lasted me about 8 years a piece. This mouse costs more than twice that and doesn’t last half the time?

Another huge issue I had was the driver software would continually update itself to a newer model of their software that was evidently not supported by Windows 7, entirely breaking itself. Someone would expect a programmer to put some basic checks on the installer for compatibility before irreversibly “upgrading” my driver software into a state where it will not even launch.

Precise (and you can always change the optical sensor to a laser if you prefer for whatever reason – or upgrade it to a better one, if a new one ever comes out), looks great (customizable too) lights are on-point and accurate, the tactile feedback is actually truly awesome when playing cs:go (it’s super Unfortunate, that not any other shooters or even other valve games support this) and the screen is quite fun in the beginning and becomes less and less relevant, when also having a screen on your keyboard with the same functionalities. So i decided to put a clock on my mouse and the configuration mode it is set on, whenever required.

It’s truly an underrated mouse. Heavier than some prefer, bigger than some hands, but it’s honestly great and made future proof (you can even change the wires) the price is still pretty high and the functions just ended up being limited gimmicks, which is quite unjustified. But hopes are still there that more things are supported and also useful for the peeps who don’t need to know how to code.

Like most gamers, I’ve had no small amount of mice over the years. Some that felt like they could glide on air, and some that had more than enough buttons for my style. However, none of my previous mice really had all of what I needed.

Enter the SteelSeries Rival 710!

This mouse has it all! Hearty weight, all the function buttons I could ever want, smooth and easy gliding, and pinpoint accuracy. However, it has even more than that! With both the laser and cable being modular and replaceable, I’ll never have to worry about getting a new mouse when this one can be maintained for $35 every few years (no more acclimating to a new mouse)!

Another feature that I never thought I’d like is the haptic motor (it definitely contributes to the weight, but I like that aspect), which I honestly didn’t think I would’ve needed until I actually set it up. After that, I found it not only useful, but even entertaining (honestly, who doesn’t like to laugh when the “Sad Trombone” vibrate pattern buzzes your mouse?).

There are only two (ableit extremely minor) downsides to this mouse. First is that the haptic can’t be picked up by games nor provide control to that game unless someone develops an app-based extension for that game (which also makes it seem like the game would have to be modded to gain that feature). In the future, it would be nice if SteelSeries could add that type of support. The only other downside is the same, but for the OLED display.

That said, this is still very much an excellent mouse, and is worth the money!

Has a great solid feeling to it. Good weight and the scroll wheel is very firm which is nice. So far I’ve found the OLED display and the vibration to be not as useful as I initially had hoped. Haven’t had the opportunity to fully tinker with the settings but to get the full enjoyment out of it you really need to set up per game settings and it appears that you can only program the vibration to be on click as opposed to when certain conditions in the game are met, e.g. when you get hit or hit something in a shooter.

Besides that the OLED display is more of a fun gimmick than anything useful. You can use any photo or gif that you want and it will compress it down into a useable image but that doesn’t always translate to something that actually looks good or is even legible. Most of the time it seems to do a decent job.

Overall, the buttons feel solid and responsive and the extra features are a nice touch that set it apart from the crowd. It’s an enjoyable mouse that I’m sure will get a lot of use from me.