UtechSmart Venus Gaming Mouse RGB Wired, 16400 DPI High Precision Laser Programmable MMO Computer Gaming Mice [IGNs Recommendation]

TL;DR: Very useful, comfortable, durable and well built for the price (have dropped it on edge many times and cat tried eating the cord and still not a scratch) and not as obnoxious looking as other LED gaming mice. Thumb rest is a thumb saver too, wish other name brand numpad mice had them, I would consider them then. Updated 2018: After 3 years of use the side 6 button stopped working completely, and then the scroll click broke, doesnt even depress and make a sound, and I finally had to replace the mouse. Scroll click would work intermittently for about a year, sometimes just re-plugging fixed it, sometimes a reboot would not, but it would start working again few days later. Update 2021: 3 more years and no buttons have worn out or died, but the texture has started wearing under my fingers. Now the palm rest feels more textured than the front, the left click has a spot the size of a pin head worn down to the plastic, with the right click probably a year away from doing the same. Planning on having my new job pay for one though, becasue Id rather get something I know than an ergonomic mouse that may not feel right, and those are more expensive and usually wireless (I dont want to deal with batteries or the inevitable why wont my mouse connect?) Update 2022: made it almost 4 years this time, left click has started double clicking. Trying to do a hold click like drag-and-drop, or holding a click in a game it does an initial click, releases, then holds the click. Annoying, but worth $30 for another. The newer versions of this no longer have the smoother rubber-like coating and are now noticeably textured, likely because of complaints about the coating scratching or becoming slippery with use. It never scratched for me and it didnt get slippery even after gaming all day, but maybe mine happened to be a good one. Its only noticeable when you move your fingers across he surface and only feels slightly different during normal use. Update 2021: 3 more years and no buttons have worn out or died, but the texture has started wearing under my fingers. Now the palm rest feels more textured than the front, the left click has a spot the size of a pin head worn down to the plastic, with the right click probably a year away from doing the same. Planning on having my new job pay for one though, becasue Id rather get something I know than an ergonomic mouse that may not feel right, and those are more expensive and usually wireless (I dont want to deal with batteries or the inevitable why wont my mouse connect?) Initial Review: For two years of college I unplugged this, coiled it up, and put it in my backpack to use with my laptop. Every. Day. The plug never felt loose after so much plugging and unplugging, the cord has no kinks or frays, and never had any issues with the mouse disconnecting, so the cord is VERY durable. In fact, I hit the plug while it was in my laptop once and it broke the port: the plug didnt bend at all. The mouse buttons have a short travel, dont require a firm click, are a bit quieter than than the cheap $10 mouse I used to have, and have a more pleasant click tone than a normal mouse. The side buttons are very useful and are mechanical switches that require a bit more pressure than the left/right click but are very responsive: they do not travel until you apply enough pressure and then the response is instant. They have a more muted and lower pitched click sound. . The rows of buttons are angled in opposite directions to make them identifiable, however the back two rows are more awkward to use if you rest your hand to easily reach the front row becasue of how you have to bend your thumb. The 5 and 8 buttons have bumps that are supposed to distinguish them, but theyre hard to notice unless you rub the tip of your thumb back and forth. The double-click button Ive found very useful in several games, though it requires a slight grip alteration to reach it. Its also mechanical, requires barely more pressure to press than the left/right buttons, and makes a bit lower pitched click thats also a bit less pleasant sounding but is not louder. The thumb-rest is great and I would not go back to a mouse without one now, which brings me to a minor complaint of not much of a pinkie rest, as this mouse seems ergonomically designed for your middle finger to rest on the scroll wheel instead of the right mouse button, so my pinkie rests on the side, but does not drag on my desk (though I have below-average sized hands hands) and is still more comfortable than a normal mouse. The driver software is very functional and does everything it needs to well, with no useless gimmicks or half-functional features. The LEDs color and brightness are fully adjustable (three brightness options, but can make it dimmer using the custom color selector). The new driver version released this year (V 1.2) supposedly now allows changing the scroll wheel LED color, but only for the newer mouse version, which I keep forgetting to test. All buttons can be customized and can have macros assigned (my brother set his double-click button to the profile switch. I got him one too). From experience, its best to add probably 5-10ms delay between key inputs in a macro, or weird stuff can happen. In one game as soon as i used a macro of a click and key without delay I was unable to click on anything in the game, even menus, and had to force-close it. The really nice part is the profiles are saved to memory in the mouse, so it will be fully functional - DPI settings, macros, and all - on a computer without the drivers. Just be warned that installing the drivers on a new computer will not load the profiles from the mouse and will override the profiles saved on the mouse, so if you plan on putting the driver on more than one PC export the profile to a file with the driver software to copy over.

Ive had THREE Razer products fail me within about a year of purchase, so I vowed to never buy another Razer product again. When it came time to buy a new mmo mouse, I knew I wanted it to be wireless as I was sick and tired of my braided mouse cables getting caught on everything. Also because I had heard that wireless tech has gotten much better over time and, for the most part, you no longer have to worry about new wireless mice being laggy or losing connectivity like back in the day. The difference between wired and wireless mice, at least to me, has become indistinguishable. Unfortunately, love or hate Razer, they were the only kids on the block with a wireless mmo mouse for a VERY long time. NO ONE else was doing it. NO ONE. But I was not about to pay close to $200 for shoddy, overpriced Razer junk. Instead, I waited patiently for some other company to come along and challenge Razer. Years went by. Decades. Millennia. Finally, UtechSmart came to my rescue. Ive been using this mouse for about 4 months now and am honestly very surprised at how much I enjoy it. Chinese brands have really been upping their game lately, at least from my experience. This mouse has a lot going for it. On the bottom theres a switch for On (Without Lighting), Off, and a second On option (With Lighting). When you stop using it for a bit, the lighting turns off and it goes to sleep to conserve battery, so you dont have to worry if you forget to turn it off. When the mouse detects movement, the lighting turns back on. If you dont use it too often, you can leave it there for days upon days (maybe even weeks) without having to charge it again. To charge it, just plug any ol USB-C cable to the front and youre set. The lighting turns white and flashes, or breathes, on and off to show that its connected and charging, which could be annoying if youre trying to sleep. The software appears basic, but it does everything I need it to, without any fluff. You dont need to create an account or any of that nonsense. You can change lighting color, effect, brightness, DPI (there are 5 speed settings), record macros and map all buttons (including the left and mouse clickers) to something else, with the exception of the two DPI adjustment buttons, which is unfortunate, but no huge loss for me, personally. In terms of size, weight and feel, Id say its definitely a wider mouse than most. Its lighter than youd expect, though. If you own a Logitech G600, its a bit wider in comparison. It also seems to be ever-so-slightly lighter, though that may just be because its larger so the weight is more spread out. Beneath the bottom row of the 12 side buttons, it flares out so you can rest your thumb; a feature I didnt think I needed, but that I actually find myself using more and more. The texture of the mouse is rough, as opposed the usual smooth, like most mice. Whether thats a good or a bad thing it up to you. It does seem to help with making all those greasy, oily, cheeto-dust stains not so obvious. Finally, one of my biggest gripes with a lot of mice is how hard it is to actuate the middle mouse button. On this one, it feels easier (and sounds softer) to press than a lot of other mice Ive tried. I do wish it were even easier, though. All in all, Im very happy that UtechSmart made this mouse and HIGHLY recommend it, especially since it looks like, at the time of writing this review, its the only wireless 12-button mouse on Amazon. I hope they consider making a newer edition with even MORE buttons. Maybe a 3rd clicker next to the right clicker, similar to the Logitech G600, and an additional button next to the left clicker. You can never have enough buttons! MORE BUTTONS!!!

Good Mouse. Sturdy quality, built well. Ive had for awhile and no problems.

The mouse is perfect for MMOs. There are plenty of buttons to bind abilities and everything is within reasonable distance of my fingers despite having small hands. I wish the battery was replaceable, though. Have to buy new if it dies.

Disclaimer: - I bought this mouse myself. I did not receive it as any part of a promotion, therefore the below is entirely my own thoughts & opinion. The 1st thing I noticed was the texture on the outer layer of the mouse. For lack of a better term, its gritty and its frankly a game changer. Not that your hand ever gets so sweaty where a smooth mouse causes an issue, (or perhaps it does) but it allowed for light grip that still allowed total control. This is the first mouse Ive owned that has had this type of outer layer and like most of you here, Ive owned a LOT of different mice over the years. For me, one of the biggest selling points was the ability for it to be used either tethered to your PC (wired) which charges the onboard battery whilst in use or completely wireless. To switch to wired or wireless there is a selector switch on the bottom side of the mouse, just to the left of the sensor. You can also turn the RGBs on from this same location should you want to. The 12 programable buttons on the side will come in handy when extra rebindable keys are needed, especially for RPGs. They have a soft feel when pressed and are silent, vs. the regular clicking sound the 2 primary mouse buttons make. This may be why some people thought they felt mushy when they were just silent? Last but not least, the mouses sensor is absolutely smooth as silk. I immediately noticed a difference over my current mouse, which is from a major brand (Ill not bash them publicly and so will not use their name) and cost more than the Venus Pro but isnt even in the same league as it. The difference is that pronounced, though Ill most likely still suck in-game lol! The mouse came with a USB-C cable for charging and wired use, along with the USB dongle for wireless use. It also comes with an flat USB thumb drive that you pop-out of a credit card shaped holder and insert into a USB port on your PC or laptop. Keep in mind that It does not look like your standard USB drive, but more like a long & narrow MicroSD with the contact facing up so you might need to try out which way it inserts into the USB slot on your end. Once it does, itll automatically take you to the page where you can download and install the software where you can then change the RGB colors, custom configure the keys, change the polling rate and configure the 5 levels of DPI settings. (100 DPI to 16,000 DPI which is switched to on-the-fly by the up & down arrows just below the scroll wheel. Its nice as each press turns a light on next to the up & down arrow showing you which DPI the mouse is currently set at.) The software itself is both intuitive and so easy to navigate. Time will of course be the ultimate judge, but so far, its proving itself to be an excellent mouse!

alright, ive had this thing since august and have used it constantly since then so i can safely say this is an extremely good mouse for the price with the only caveat being the program that you use to manipulate the mouse functions is lacking in a few smaller, but still important, areas. the mouse itself is sturdy as a rock but nowhere near as heavy with the only physical issue being the area where you are meant to place the weights specifically that there are two rather large openings where you could lose one of the weights in (as i almost did). the buttons make a noticeable click when pressed but do not provide too much resistance but at the same time provide enough resistance that theyre not accidentally pressed. they also seem to have an incredibly long life as i have pressed them all in excess. the scroll wheel itself is, unlike my previous mouse, still functioning appropriately without any noticeable degradation either but has very little resistance to it so clicking middle mouse sometimes scrolls up or down one. the shape of the mouse is satisfying to hold and left/right/middle mouse clicks are responsive and clicky. i imagine i am going to have this mouse for a long time, barring someone intentionally taking a large hammer to it. now for the software. the program used to run the mouse (it doesnt have a proper name just Gaming Mouse Config or GMC i guess) is a solid barebones bit of work which could use more polish overall as well as options in the macro manager section. specifically, the only real detrimental piece is that all macros (and i assume any other mouse button presses) have a minimum delay of 1 milisecond between each character the mouse would generate. this is incredibly detrimental in games where you may need to type a command into a games chat bar to illicit an action but at the same time need to press other keys. the time it takes is short but still long enough to cause the macro to screw up because of receiving extra input during the typing phase and in the same action screw up whatever it is you may try to be doing at the same time. if this gets fixed, macros immediately become something that can be used at any time. the other thing that would be nice to see in the macro manager is more options for macros. an option to set the loop option to loops macro while button is held would be nice, as well as an option to insert delays into the macro itself (so to make the macro press a button, then another a set specific time afterwards), other potential options would be to allow macros to remove either the press or release part of a keypress instead of removing both, and giving macros access to more computer based functions including mouse positioning and movement and mouse buttons 4 and up. another thing that would be nice to be able to do would be to be able to change the scroll wheels color. it seems like it would be able to do so since it can hit multiple other colors as is but the users have no way of changing it to their own specified colors unlike the rest of the mouse and on that note it would be nice to be able to save user generated colors to the color palette or for the less interested user, to be able to turn the lights off entirely. all in all, this is a solid mouse with a usable GMC that could really use more work. definitely worth the price but might not be suitable for users who use macros heavily. would be 5/5 but macro issues bump it down a star. so, please please please UtechSmart look into improving the GMC (and potentially for your other mice as well) as macro use with this mouse is impractical due to the forced 1ms delay between all key presses from the mouse.

Got this mouse after my old one was starting to fail and I wasnt sure what to expect, the mouse i moved from was a white redragon with the same number pad, this mouse honestly is a lot higher quality then that mouse, the rough surface feels nice when gaming and doesnt get sweaty, the software comes on the strangest flashdrive Ive seen but it was a charming addition, and lastly the software that it comes with is not only easy to use but could easily be just as good as a more expensive brand like corsair. I would highly recommend this mouse to anyone trying to get good performance on a tight budget.

Update the seller contacted me and I was sent out a new mouse that the sensor is lined up with the lens and there is no more issue with my work surface! Good support! (OLD REVIEW)So this mouse is decent but if you have any variation in the area you use it the sensor fails badly. The mouse will not pick up movement and it causes a few problems with gaming. The wired version on the other hand works perfectly on the same surface the wireless one fails on so I dont understand why this ones sensor is so bad but it works for basic stuff I just have to plug the wired version in to play games. This happens even when the mouse is plugged in so I know it isnt a power issue. I may have a defective one but I dont want to pay for another one of these just to find out so unless your work surface is perfectly flat I would avoid this mouse.

I own two of the previous wired model of this mouse (work & home). I love it. My wife bough the wireless version recently and loved it as well. I then bought the wireless version for work so I wouldnt have to have my go to meetings mouse in addition to my main wired mouse. The pricing (on both versions) is also very reasonable. There are good & bad between the models. There are aspects to the new software that I like and some that I dislike. The wired version was hampered by having to use older software to get all the functionality. This one can use the new software. Lighting: There are additional lighting effects that were not available on the wired version. These features are still lacking in variety and options, but that is a minor complaint. Specifically, while plugged in it pulses a color (based on battery charge) rather than the light setting chosen. Id love to just use it wired when at my desk and wireless when off to meetings and such. I love the light color cycling and miss that when it is plugged in. Weight Compartment: The wired version had the bottom compartment with additional weights. This version is lacking that and thus a bit lighter than I am used to. While I liked the heavier weight it isnt a deal breaker for me. Software: The software, while newer, has fewer options for programming the keys compared to the older version. The older version had a ton of pre-made keys that were easy and available. You can get to the same functionality, but you have to add them as key combinations. An example was the old software had a pre-done entry for copy, paste, and other basic functions. On this one I had to manually create a ctrl + c hotkey. Again, not a huge issue for me, but I could see it being less useful for others who may not have an idea of what to put on all the keys. It certainly felt like a step backwards on that aspect. I suspect this has to do with them storing the profile on the mouse directly rather than in a file. Profiles: The software not having the profiles or way to toggle between them was odd. There is no indicator for which profile you are on. The button on the bottom to toggle profiles just felt odd as well. This might be worth the trade-off for having the two profiles on the mouse though. I absolutely hated that I couldnt convert my current profile onto the new mouse (.pdf profile in older version vs .jmk in this one). This forced me to re-create all my macros and re-assign them. Again, not a deal breaker as it is a one time setup and only impacts people with prior versions. Note, the software is PC only. You can set the mouse up on a Windows machine, it stores the profiles on the mouse, then you can use the mouse without issue on a Mac. Misc: The slot for the dongle on the bottom of the mouse is a bit odd. It sticks out just far enough that you cant use the mouse with the wired charger while the dongle is put in the mouse for storage. I dont understand why they didnt do the recessed tabs on top/bottom of it so you could grip it to pull the dongle out (like most other dongle storage layouts are). I suspect it is mostly a non-issue since you dont remove the dongle while you have it plugged in, it just seemed like an odd design choice (maybe something they can fix in the next hardware revision/version). The Good: Good size that fits hand very comfortably with the nice textured finish Good quantity of buttons to program High precision with adjustable DPI to get mouse movements just right Multiple profiles for different tasks Better lighting options compared to prior versions profiles stored on mouse (limit 2) The Less Good: no additional weight compartment in wireless version (wired version has it) lighting options, while better, are still underwhelming lighting option when plugged in is not existent less pre-created macro/key options in software compared to earlier versions (can manually create for functionality, just lose the ease of it) The Bad nothing that would sway my purchase decision Summary: This is a great mouse for the price. It is very comfortable to use and ticks off all the quality items needed for a functional mouse for gaming or customization of buttons. The software is its greatest weakness, but not detrimental to the point where it has a functional impact (just the area they should focus more effort on). I back this up with this wireless mouse version being my third of this style/brand of mouse for my own use (2 wired, 1 wireless) plus my wifes use of both the wired and wireless version too. Mac users need to be aware of the software limitation so they can get it setup on a Windows machine first, then theyll be ready to go.

I originally bought this as a replacement for a near-identical Redragon mouse. The software is near identical as well, basically the same but with switched logos. I dont know if these are shell companies with a common owner, or what. However, in both cases, these were great mice that lasted me multiple years. Im here writing this review nearly 3 years after the fact, because I was checking if this product still existed. My mouse wheels button clicks, but isnt registering M3 inputs. Not the end of the world, since I have M3 on one of the side buttons, but annoying nonetheless. I think I may buy a replacement soon and send this one off to the secondary PC. Ive used this mouse for MMOs, Shooters, RTS games, web browsing, and everything else. When you really learn how to make good keybinding setups, its hard to go back to a normal mouse.