Mouse SteelSeries Rival 500

Ten additional programmable keys. High precision sensor. RGB backlight. Vibration motor.

Not suitable for lefties. Big weight.

A fairly advanced model, positioned by the manufacturer in the upper part of the price range. The manipulator is primarily designed for advanced gamers. SteelSeries Rival 500 has an asymmetric design, the shape of the body is right-handed. Soft-Touch coating, sidewalls are equipped with rough rubber inserts. There are as many as 15 buttons and a multifunctional scroll wheel on board.

Scrolling is applicable both for scrolling vertically and horizontally (the wheel rotates and tilts to the sides). Side additional buttons can be blocked using a switch located next to the sensor. All buttons are programmable, with the ability to create complex macros. The mouse is equipped with a vibration motor, the strength and duration of the tactile reaction can be adjusted using proprietary software.

The vibration motor will give signals in response to some user actions. The main feature of the manipulator is the presence of a high-precision sensor. Its maximum resolution is 16,000 dpi, but it is possible to adjust the resolution from 100 to 12,000 dpi in increments of 100 and from 12,000 to 16,000 dpi in increments of 200. There is an RGB backlight with 2 illumination zones (scroll wheel and logo) .

New Hope

For a long time, SteelSeries ignored the segment of multi-button gaming mice, designed primarily for massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) like World of Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls Online and Star Wars The Old Republic. Therefore, the release of the Rival 500 was a big surprise.

Asymmetrical shape

If you do not take into account the abundance of additional programmable keys (as many as ten), then the design of the novelty is well recognized by the previous models of the Rival series - 100 and 300. The same grippy soft-touch plastic as the main material, a smooth curve of the body and a bevel for the right hand. For left-handers, this mouse, like any other asymmetric, is categorically not suitable. By the way, outside of games, the additional ten keys will also be useful: they can be programmed, for example, to work in a text or photo editor.

Accurate sight

Inside the Rival 500 is one of the smoothest Pixart PMW3360 optical sensors with a hardware resolution of 12000 dpi, increased by software to 16000. However, this is more of a publicity stunt, because few gamers play at resolutions above 2500 dpi. There was also a place for the now fashionable customizable RGB backlight and, which is a curiosity, a vibration motor.

Why does a mouse need a motor?

On the one hand, the vibration of the mouse in games, like a gamepad, brings new sensations. On the other hand, because of the motor, the mouse turned out to be quite weighty - as much as 130 grams. As a result, thanks to the smooth sensor SteelSeries Rival 500 is well suited not only for MMORPGs, but also for shooters. But for strategies and MOBAs (Dota, LoL, HotS), where you have to move the mouse often and quickly around the screen, it is not suitable because of the relatively large weight.