SteelSeries Rival 100, Optical Gaming Mouse - Alchemy Gold

its good if you have medium hands, but if you have fat hands, probably look somewhere else, i love mine so far had it for almost a year+ now

Good no basic mouse with no mouse acceleration. Middle mouse button alittle hard to click.

Wife wore out her old basic dell mouse, wanted a replacement. No desire for a gazillion buttons, just a nicely sized mouse that reacts when its supposed to. This one fit the bill! Its comfortable in the hand, and nicely affordable. If you desire simplicity, here it is! (there are side buttons, but you can happily ignore them if you dont want to use them.)

When it comes to owning a mouse, I prioritize functionality, durability, and a minimalist design. The Steel Series definitely meets all of the above, and then some. I especially like how they didnt over-style the device, yet added some small touches here and there to uniquely label their brand. My first Steel mouse was the Sensei Rubberized RAW. Compared to that, the Rival 110 feels a bit lacking, but is overall another nice addition to my collection of peripheral devices. -What I like about the Rival110: The matte texture is more pronounced than the Sensei, so the grip feels more solid and theres less junk that visibly adheres to the surface (compared to glossy finishes). The plastic sides with the bumps also help with the grip. The orange lighting on the Steel logo and the scroll wheel is a definite favorite of mine. -What I dont like so much about the Rival110: Its a lot lighter and smaller than the Sensei; I have large hands and like to feel the weight of the mouse under me, so the Rival isnt as great a fit for me size-wise. Also, despite the nice texture, it feels like a cheaper construct than the Sensei. This is notable with the plastic sides, the design of the logo (if you look at the accompanying photos, notice how the Rival logo is just a solid block while the Sensei logo is actually composed of several little pixels/dots), and the choice of material for the wire (flexible textile-like material for the Sensei vs. traditional material for the Rival). The Rival is a great mouse to own, and apparently was designed for gaming, so its an excellent addition for anyone. However, in the future, Im probably going to stick with the Sensei due to my personal preference (as described above).

Lasted about 2 years before the right click mouse button cracked open/broke/detached, which just happened a few minutes ago. Was a good mouse until then. Wont be buying another though.

Pros ~ - Cheap. - Customizable. (Through the Steel Series software) - On the fly DPI button. - Two side buttons. Cons ~ - Gets dirty easily. (Mainly between the two side buttons) - Non-braided cable - Not gold plated USB cable.

I was tired of buying cheap mouses at Wal-Mart that would only last for maybe six months, so I wanted to buy something a little more expensive that would last longer. Ive had this mouse for probably around two years now and it still works great! It was so worth paying a little more for it since it lasts so much longer. The only issue I ever had was it completely quit working, but I hadnt been doing the routine updates. Once I got caught up with all that, it worked perfectly again. I like how I can change the color or speed whenever I want. Im not much of a gamer, but it works perfectly for all the hours I spend on my computer each day. I highly recommend it!

I loved this mouse while it was alive. It worked very well and I liked being able to set my dpi buttons to specific settings depending on which game I was playing. Felt great, didnt hurt my hand at all. But alas... It died from my new kitten biting through the cord under my desk. But I did love this mouse, would recommend for the average gamer who wants a nice quick and reactive mouse! Just watch out for kitten teeth.

Its definitely NOT for people with small hands. Although the width isnt that wide, the length is longer than Id like for constant use. The top is a matte finish which makes me feel like its always dirty. I prefer a smoother finish. Guess the matte is better for gamers but Im a designer so that extra grip isnt necessary for me. It also feels a lot heavier than my old HP mouse so hopefully Ill get used to that. Makes it feel like I really have to push it around the mouse pad which I dont really like. The track wheel also is a lot stiffer than some others that Ive had. The cable is nice and long so no issues there. The price was reasonable so overall, Ill try to get used to it, only because I hate returning things online.

The Basics Med-sized, 90g, ambi-shaped mouse with 2x thumb buttons on the left side and a DPI button on top. Uses the “TruMove1” sensor that goes up to 7200DPI & 240IPS. RGB, optional software. 30m switches. Textured plastic sides, roughened matte plastic on top. Even though it carries the Rival name, it looks much more like a smaller Sensei 310. Testing time prior to review was 3 days. The Good Software is great. Lots of options for lighting. Macros, whole 9 yards. Steelseries possibly has the best software out there – it is light on the system while being reliable and presenting lots of options in a clean GUI - can’t ask for much more than that. Sensor is an updated 3325 but, I must say that whatever Steelseries did to upgrade the sensor, it worked. In my accuracy testing, the R110 scored a 92% average which puts it in the elite company of the G203 and G403 and well beyond any 3325 I’ve tested. Not only did they increase the malfunction speed, but the snappiness feels like it’s there and accuracy is good. The TruMove1 sensor is a win. Even though I’d prefer a 3360/3366 or TruMove3, this sensor will still do nicely and I easily put it above the 3310. I like the rough texture on the top of the mouse, even more so than the fiber-reinforced texture on the Rival 310. The 310’s finish felt like it would flake off, this feels harder and more durable. Cable is rubber and flexibility is outstanding. One of the best I’ve seen and on par with the Rival 310. It is also not especially grabby, I just wish they’d made it black instead of gray so it wouldn’t stand out as much. No rattles. Build feels solid overall. The shape is safe. It does not strike me as being particularly excellent for any grip style, but good for a variety of medium hand styles. The Middling Side buttons have excellent tactility and short travel. However they are also thin and angled outward creating a sharp feeling. They overthought this, should have gone with a flatter, more basic shape as with the Rival 310. RGB looks good thanks to decent color depth and brightness, but colors do not change smoothly – the G203 far surpasses it here. Scroll and logo are lit. Unlike the Rival310, their colors cannot be set independently. Liftoff distance is roughly 2 DVDs. Not as bad as some of the horror stories I’ve read, but not the 1 DVD gold standard. Did not affect gameplay. The sensor is also mounted toward the rear of the mouse. Mice tend to feel snappier when that is forward. It did not affect me in-game. The mouse weighed 90g with a little bit of cable. For some reason it is the heaviest 90g mouse I’ve ever tried. It feels at least 95g to me, if not more. No finger grooves. There is a little bit of a bulbous curve to the mouse, just like the Revel. Not the best. Flatter buttons as found on the Rival 310 would have felt much better. The scroll wheel is pretty difficult to press, but usable. The scroll steps are well defined but not audible (a plus) or tactile (a negative). The scroll wheel has a nice textured tread to it and the RGB looks nice. As safe as the shape is, it feels rather long and narrow in a pedestrian kind of way. As someone biased toward a fingertip grip, I’d have loved to see the Rival 110 end up maybe .5cm shorter. The plastic sides are a hard, textured plastic. It baffles me why Steelseries, Thermaltake and others think this approach works in anything but the most basic sense. The basic matte plastic used on the sides of the Nixeus Revel is superior and the rough plastic on the top of the very same mouse is vastly superior in both feel and grip. Grip on the Rival 110 is only adequate because of the shape ad weight of the mouse. The material choice doesn’t especially hurt grip, but it’s supposed to help, right? As with the TT Iris and Ventus R, it’s a poor design decision and deserves to be flagged. The good news is that it is durable and won’t polarize as much as the silicone grip on the Rival 310 and Sensei 310. The Bad Primary clicks are attached to the shell and quite stiff. They do seem to break in slightly with use though, similar to Zowie mice, then again it could just be me adjusting to them. There is noticeable pretravel on the primary clicks to the point of being distracting at first. After using Logitech mice it feels strange to press a click as far as you would to bottom out a Logitech…and still not get a click out of it. The effect is a mild but annoying sponginess ending in a sprongy snap. (Look mom, I made a word!) The right click was a little loose. Sometimes it would rattle when bumped downward but not enough to actuate the switch underneath. Eliminating the pretravel would solve this minor point. Conclusion The marks against the Rival 110 are few, but the positives are generically weak and there is a whole lot of middling. It is an uninspiring ok to good mouse, mostly due to a surprisingly competent sensor that seems on par with the Mercury. Overall, it is not as good a mouse as the G203 in most areas, but it does offer a safer shape and that makes it a viable alternative in the $20-30 range. I’d probably even take this mouse over the MM520 thanks to the better thumb buttons. If SS were to flatten the primary buttons, flatten the thumb buttons, use matte plastic on the sides, reduce length by 5%, reduce weight to 80-85 grams and reduce primary click and scroll resistances by 30% (and separate primary clicks from shell), all while keeping price under $40…that would make the Rival 120 an A+ in my book. All told though, the 110 aint too bad. Bang for the Buck: B Nit-Noid Rating: 8.4