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.

Honestly the first time I bought this I didnt expect it to last long because I took it with me to a deployment. The second one I bought in September 2022 and randomly died last month (April 2023). The wired one at home is still going strong but thats probably because it doesnt get shoved into my backpack and dropped of my table from time to time. Other than that I love the weight and the programmable buttons.

its a great mouse with really good software. I used the wired version for years until the middle mouse button gave out, so i was quite happy to see they had an updated wireless version. It was a breeze to set up my macros and hotkeys, I really like this new software. Old wired version got super buggy for me, but so far so good with this version. The best feature about the wireless version for me is the battery life. I got this mouse a month ago and the first and only time I charged it was the day I got it. Ill admit Im not using the lights on it, but still its absolutely amazing.

I recently purchased the Venus Pro as an alternative to the Logitech G600, which Ive used exclusively for the past 5 years. The reason for my switch was because of the G600 - one of my mouses microswitch was worn out after 5 years, so I purchased a new one. The new one ended up having problems with the side buttons where they activated automatically, so I returned it. In the mean time, I used a spare that I had, which was probably around 4 years old and barely had any use on it but somehow also had its microswitch worn out (this was not a PC issue since the problem occurred on both my desktop and laptop). This made me think that the G600 had some planned obsolescence to it and made me look for an alternative. So here I am today with a new mouse. I purchased this one because of the side buttons, which are very similar to the G600 and I will be comparing some features between the Venus Pro and the G600 because I feel that is probably what people are looking for. Note that some of the cons are simply comparisons between the Venus and the G600 - not that it is necessarily a bad thing Venus: Exteriors Pros - It just feels nice; there is somewhat of a grainy texture on the left and right mouse button that gives some friction. Personally, I like it and think it would feel good during heavy gaming sessions where your fingers are sweating a little bit. - The RGB is fully customizeable through their program (same as G600). There is the option to turn on the mouse without RGB lights to save battery power. - There is the option to go wireless! I cannot confirm how long the battery life is, but from other reviewers it seems like about 3 days of heavy use. - Length of the cord is decently long but is about a full mouse length shorter than the G600. - Comes with a nice bag for travel purposes - Weight is good, similar to G600. Exterior Cons - The side buttons dont feel as nice as the G600. The venus has smoother side buttons with less distinct ridges, especially with 10-12. I do think this is a big issue since the side buttons are very important in an MMO, especially if youre playing competitively. Pressing the Venus side buttons is also a little more stiff. - BIG CON: the Venus has a little hole to attach the wireless USB dongle. However, when putting that dongle into the mouse, it elevates the mouse and thus causes the laser to malfunction preventing smooth movement or even movement of the mouse entirely. I dont know why they made it this way. If I wanted to play with a wired mouse or play while charging the mouse, then Id still have to keep the dongle in my USB port or risk losing it somewhere. - They came with sticker padding to put on the under side of the mouse, but using those stickers produces the same problem as the one listed above. Are they supposed to be back up for if the original padding gets destroyed? I guess its not so much a con as it is a ???. Functionality Pros - There are 13 fully customizeable buttons, 16 if you include the right, left, and middle mouse button. I think for the average user, this should be more than enough, but more details are below in the cons - You can create macros in their program (same as G600 program) - You can adjust 5 levels of DPI, which can be adjusted on the fly using the arrow buttons on the mouse right underneath the scroll wheel. You can also adjust the mouse sensitivity, scrolling speed, an double-click speed in their program Functionality Cons - As I mentioned before, the average user should have no problem utilizing 13 extra buttons on a mouse - most do not need any more. I personally like having more and have used them in MMOs like World of Warcraft. The G600 offers a g-shift button, which is a click and hold feature to the right of its right mouse button that, when held down, changes the whole key settings/bindings, thus allowing buttons 1-12 (+7 of its own) buttons to be bound to other commands. As I mentioned, this probably isnt a big deal to the average MMO user. - A functionality issue that I particularly dislike though is that the DPI buttons cannot be assigned to something else. On my G600, I have those assigned and use them often as I dont need to change my DPI for anything. - The G600 offers a way to tilt the mouse scroll wheel to the left or right with the default command being back and forward, which I use frequently. The venus does not offer this ability with its scroll wheel, although it can be assigned to one of its 12 side buttons. - The UI of the venus program is not nearly as nice as compared to the Logitech Gaming Software. But to be fair, I believe LGS was supposedly shifted over in favor of some new program called Logitech Hub or something of the sort? I used it once and hated it and went back to LGS. Overall I think for the price and for the average user, it is and can be a great mouse. The comparable mouse on the market would be the G600, which at full price is a little more than 150% the cost of this mouse at full price (G600 $79.99 vs Venus $49.99), however most of the time Ive found the G600 to be on sale with my cheapest purchase at around $23 and average at $49. Due to my recent frustrations with the G600 in the microswitches and side button malfunction, Im wary to recommend that mouse now. But time will tell with the Venus in terms of its quality compared to the G600. Ive purchased another G600 for my main desktop since the lack in buttons for my MMOs on the Venus just wont cut it and Ive relegated the Venus for my laptop use.

I have the wired version and love it. Im not a gamer though. The black speckled finish wore off with my old wired version so I hope this one is different. I had to scrub it off with a toothbrush. The wired one let you apply custom shortcuts to the DPI buttons which worked great for volume control, but the new software with this one doesnt let you change them. I couldnt get the old software to recognize the wireless version. You can connect to a 2nd machine by plugging in the USB-C charging cable. You just have to unplug the USB cable to reconnect to the machine with the wireless dongle

This mouse is absolutely amazing. I dont even know where to begin. The headline speaks for itself. I have not used it for gaming, but I have used it for work. My job requires me to do repetitive tasks. This mouse is not only saving me time, but its making me money. I am able to program a single key to work a lead. The colors are bright and vivid. This is super customizable. Honestly just buy it and see for yourself. The only two cons I have is that the battery life isnt the best Ive used and it is heavy and feels weird to pick up the mouse without pushing buttons or dropping it. Other than that is amazing and would suggest everyone to own this product.

I have been playing and using this mouse for about a week now and honestly overall I love this mouse. To begin right out of the box my hand immediately got used to the placement of each finger and it was no problem adjusting from a normal mouse to this one. Each button works perfectly and are all re-programmable with the exception of the profile switch on the bottom of the mouse. However the buttons on the top give a pleasing clicky sound that allows me to ensure I hit the button while the buttons on the side are more squishy and less loud making it a bit harder to make sure I hit the button. It is however a very minor detail and I dont mind much. Secondly the mouse aesthetically is very pleasing, it looks complex but has a very clean and appealing look to it and I am talking about without having the glowing lights on. When the lights turn on they have a very appealing and nice touch to the mouse, they arent overly bright making the mouse look gawdy or harsh to the eye at all and even if they are there is an option to change the lighting in the software but I will get to that later. My only real complain about that mouses lights is the red lights that represent the current mouse DPI you are using. They are always red, it would have been nice if they would also change color based off of the profile like the lights on the mouse wheel and the front. Once again it isnt a deal breaker but it is a small detail that I dislike. Third the customization of the mouse varies. In the way of light choices it is a lot like any other mouse, the mouse has one light option for the buttons on the side and the logo per profile you can set up. There are 5 profiles one with a set color of the mouse wheel and the front: Pink, Blue, Red, Green, and Yellow. The buttons on the side and the logo however can be setup with any color to your liking. While this is great and all I really do wish that you could choose the profile lighting of the mouse wheel and the front lighting rather than them just being stuck with the default colors. I would like to be able to make all the profiles blue or perhaps even red as the color on the wheel and the front. I can understand they did this in order to make it easy to differentiate between the profiles but I would sure like it more if I could change that. My second complaint is an option that most mouses like this come with and that is a rainbow effect, where the colors of the buttons on the side and the logo change overtime making the mouse almost like a rainbow. These two complaints are probably two of my biggest problems with the mouse however I strongly believe that with an update to the software they could both be included and fixed with ease. Moving onto the button customization the buttons are fully customizable, you can choose from using simple actions such as copying and pasting to more complex things such as making button combinations like Ctrl+H to view browsing history to writing out long text speeches or button combinations in game with the macro manager. Moving onto the final guide, the software. I personally found the software was nice and easy to use. It was easy to set up different settings for profiles such as ones for gaming and ones for normal everyday use. The mouse allows you to change the DPI per each DPI Profile (There are 4 DPI profiles) and a lot of other things such as polling rate and double clicking speed. My one complaint for the software is that the Macro Manager is in the Macro Actions when it should be a seperate tab on the main menu. Other than that I found the software was quite simple and had no problem working it without having to read the manual. In conclusion I really enjoy using this mouse, it is quite customizable and overall a good mouse for gamers and people who are under a workload where they need to perform actions quickly. I overall love it and would recommend it to anyone looking for a customizable and easy to use mouse.

Great option! The feel of this mouse in the hand was super comfortable due to how it is molded. I have smaller hands with a fingertip grip and the width of the mouse feels larger in the hand too but again very comfortable. Hubby has large meatier mitts with a palm grip, and he says he likes it and feels great. Weight, button options, glide all so far so good. Great mouse for the $ and would recommend.

Pardon my long review, Im staring to review purchased items and want to be as informative as possible. I use cap to show you sort of whats gonna follow. FIRST THINGS FIRST: 1) I come from a free Asus mouse so am no expert, but wanted something with more buttons. 2) Recently learned about the different mouse grips. I am medium hand using Claw grip so my review on Palming or Palm grip is assumptions and not from prolong or professional use. RESEARCHING A GOOD MOUSE (AMAZON, GOOGLE, AND YOUTUBE HANDS-ON REVIEWS. After countless hours reading and watching reviews Ive decided this because: 1) There was a $5 off coupon so it was $34 2) Reviewers like this more than their Logitech g600($39) although they miss the pinky trigger and dont need the fire trigger on this mouse, the grip is very pleasant. 3) Reviewes mention the Redragon M901 Perdition($35) is more awkward to hold. 4) Lots of Naga reviews saying theirs broke after a year. Im not assuming every model break, I just stumbled on too many saying so and didnt want to roll the dice. WEEK ONE PROBLEMS The lightning was acting weird but uTech was kind enough to sent another. Also I didnt mentioned this to them because they already sent a replacement but the left-click started squeaking randomly so it sounded like click click, click click, squeak squeak. Take in mind that I game almost daily so I threw every game I had at it but it shouldnt start sounding like it needs oil already, should it? PERFORMANCE Noise: The clicks are much louder(Maybe 40%) than my free mouse but at least makes a satisfying click. Productivity: I understand this is advertised as mmo gaming mouse but all the buttons are mighty useful as my daily driver and productivity was my main reason, gaming second. Mmo: I gotta be honest I dont play a lot of MMO atm but might update on that another time. Rts: I play a lot of rts and the thumb buttons helps a lot. Still testing... Fps: Most of my games are shooters and this is definitely not for them! The thumb buttons can get confusing so I only use 3 at the moment. For shooters, Im leaning towards a 2-thumb optical that is smaller and maybe lighter that has a good laser since lifting and repositioning is necessary (This mouse is quite heavy without the weights and being fat doesnt help so it probably adds delay that you dont want in a competitive setting). PROS +Very nice texture covering the mouse but wish the middle also had it. +Customer support responds quickly within a day CONS -I can barely reach the fire button and reaching for it is painful. I have to lift my hand to reach it comfortably. -Since I use Claw grip my thumb always rests with the thumb rest provided by the mouse so for quick access I use the first 2 bottom row buttons (1 & 4) for primary actions, 2 mid row for secondary (2, 5), etc...the 7-10 are probably gonna distract you in gaming unless you use it as intended, for mmo gaming. -Random left-click squeaks questions durability CONCLUSION I beleave the mouse was made for either medium hand palm grip or large hand claw grip to be able to reach all buttons comfortably without having to lift your hand. Despite all the CONS and what others might see as small PROS, I am enjoying the mouse! The noise was not part of the reason I deducted a star, just the CONS. REGRETS Wish I found out about the HAVIT MMO mouse ($28). Consider that while picking productivity or mmo mouse too!

Edit: 8 months later, I still love this mouse! The UtechSmart VENUS Pro wins my award for the Best Ergonomic Wireless Productivity Mouse of 2020. I am a mouse enthusiast, and this is my 9th and favorite mouse. PROs: 1. With 16 buttons, I have been able to program keyboard shortcuts to operate from my mouse, and I love it. My coworkers are jealous of my ability to mute and unmute our conference calls with a dedicated mouse button. 2. The ability to switch between wireless and corded is really cool. 3. The lights are cool. 4. Ergonomics are great. The ergonomics of this mouse are so good I almost forgot to mention it, because it feels so good I quit thinking about it. I have rejected other ergonomic mice because they werent big enough, but this mouse fills up my hand allowing me to hold a nice round shape and reach the buttons comfortably. Most ergonomic mice are too small or flat such that I have to distort or shrink my hand to grip them. Of the 12 side buttons, there are two buttons that I cant reach easily. I suppose I can reach them, but I have to adjust my grip enough that I usually dont bother. If you dont use those 2 buttons, you will still have a 14 button wireless ergonomic mouse, which is better than Ive been able to find anywhere else on the Internet. CONs: 1. The software to program this mouse is only available for Windows. No Mac Software. If you are rich enough to own a Mac, then you probably have an old windows laptop under your bed or in your closet. You can program your mouse on the windows computer and then use your newly programmed mouse, including shortcuts, on your mac. NOTE: The free mac software called Karabiner can act as a substitute for the missing mac software. After youve set it up with Karabiner, you can also use the mouse with the productivity software Better Touch Tool and Alfred. Karabiner and Better Touch Tool can make any mouse programmable. 2. This mouse does not work well on my dark, grey desk. Often it will not track motion smoothly on dark surfaces, as though the laser or light underneath is not strong enough to reflect off of a dark surface. The problem doesnt happen every day, but it happens often enough that I cant use it normally on my black desk. Since its not all the time, Ive tried to figure out what the trigger is for this problem kicking in. Ive decided its either when the battery is low, or else there is some kind of calibration where the mouse thinks its in a dark room and loses focus on my desk. If I use a colored mouse pad, or even a piece of paper under the mouse, it tracks motion great. I contacted the seller, and they were very quick to reply. They offered to send me a free mouse pad. I dont think that mousepad ever arrived, but it wasnt a big deal because I made my own mousepad. 3. The rechargeable battery life feels a little short to me. My other wireless mouse uses AA batteries, and they last at least a month. This mouse lasts about a week if I leave the lights off, or two days if I leave the lights on. Recharging this mouse is easy using the included USB cable, and I can keep using the mouse while its plugged in. Since this mouse can be used as a wired USB mouse, having the fancy lights on makes more sense when its plugged in. Less Important: I dont actually use this mouse for gaming, I use it to program productivity shortcuts (forward and backward in the browser, move between browser tabs, close windows, copy, paste, Ctrl, Command, Shift, Fn, zoom in and out). The scroll wheel on this mouse is the same as most gaming mice I have used: it scrolls with a bump or jump between lines. I actually would prefer a smooth scroll so that my page doesnt jump as I read. The only gaming mouse Ive used that does this is the wired Logitech G502, which could switch between bumpy and smooth scrolling. CONCLUSION: The battery life and lack of windows software have not been a major problem, but I am disappointed that it doesnt track well on a dark grey surface. I have fixed this by using a mousepad, but its the only thing keeping this from being my perfect productivity mouse. Ive spent years testing programmable mice for increased productivity. This is the only one Ive found that meets my 3 most important criteria: 1. Truly ergonomic 2. Wireless 3. More than 11 buttons. If you are ok with fewer buttons, or you arent as picky about ergonomics, then there a lot of other wireless mouse out there that will track on a black desk. You might enjoy the Logitech G602. But for me, the UtechSmart VENUS Pro wins my award for the Best Ergonomic Wireless Productivity Mouse of 2020.