Fast reaction speeds, perfect timing, and teamwork are all important things. Every single shot counts, so you’ll need a great gaming mouse for that. Of course, everyone is different so comfort can be subjective. You need a mouse that sits in your hand, and one that you can quickly adapt to.
Finding the perfect mouse just for yourself is not an easy feat to accomplish. However, it would help if the mouse was extremely versatile. This is where the Rival 600 comes in. SteelSeries knows a thing or two about accurate mice, and you’ll see them on grand Esport stages as well. So let’s say what they have to offer with the Rival 600 gaming mouse.
Packaging and Box Contents
The unboxing experience is quite familiar if you have ever owned a SteelSeries product in the past. This is especially true on the exterior of the box, which has the iconic white and orange them going on. The front has a picture of the mouse itself, along with a couple of features printed on the left bottom corner. We will of course talk about those later in this review.
On the left, we have another picture of the box, and the back shows us how the customizable weights function works. Meanwhile, the right of the box has all of the specs listed neatly. After cracking it open, we’ll be greeted with another hardcover box. They have some nice motivational text listed on the front of this, which says “Rise UP”.
Open this black box, and we have the Rival 600 sitting in all of its glory. Inside a black cardboard sleeve, we can see the detachable cable and the customizable weights. Apart from that, we have the usual user manual and paperwork.
Design and Build Quality
We’ll be talking about comfort and grip style later on. For now, let’s take a quick look at the design language and the construction. Design-wise, SteelSeries has gone for a modern look here. It does have a conventional shape, which is simple yet effective. We are fans of the subtle two-tone look going on here.
A SteelSeries logo is present at the lower half of the mouse. Instead of edge lighting, SteelSeries added two straight lines on each side of the mouse that serve as lighting zones. It looks futuristic and alluring. The coating on the buttons and side grips is a smooth silicone texture. Plastic is present here, but only in the middle area of the mouse.
The side sections of the mouse are magnetic, and they pop out when you apply force from the bottom of the mouse. This is a clever design scheme since you’ll have to pick up to mouse to remove these sides. This way, the sides won’t break apart during gaming. Removing the sides will reveal four pockets on each side that are for weight adjustments.
The weights can sit snugly inside a small rubber pouch. This pouch can be looped around your mouse cable, so you’ll never lose it. Again, this is the attention to detail that we love from SteelSeries. The rubber pouch includes 4g weights, and you can pop in all 8 of them if need be.
Without the weights, the mouse weighs in at 96g. It is a bit heavier than SteelSeries own Rival 310. In 2020, that isn’t exactly the lightest construction these days. However, the weight will be comfortable for more than 95% of users out there. With all of the weights added, you can bring the total weight of the mouse up to 128g.
You can play around with the weights a lot to improve balance and even your playstyle. We’ll be going in-depth about this later on. Overall, the Rival 600 feels solid and it is built well. It also looks quite good thanks to the RGB lighting. It is quite bright, and highly customizable inside of SteelSeries software.
Comfort and Grip
Let’s talk about the shape of this mouse. It is intended for right-handed users, as it is an ergonomic gaming mouse. This mouse has excellent comfort grooves that feel amazing. They have a great curve to them, so the fingers feel like they sit there naturally. Apart from that, the shape is quite straight, nothing too ambitious. Speaking of which, that’s one of the many reasons that this is an excellent mouse.
The straight shape means that it’s quite safe as anyone can get used to it. You can easily find a way to grip it comfortably, no matter your style or hand size. The sides have soft rubber grips, which create a great texture against the thumb. However, because of the removable sides, the thumb does feel like it sits a bit hollow in this area. Nothing major, but worth pointing out.
The rear of the mouse has a nice curve to it, with slight angles. We think it’s more comfortable than the Rival 310. While this is a large mouse, the width at the top makes it feel a bit smaller than it is. The back of the mouse tapers in more than other mice, which might have an effect on palm grip. However, we used this mouse extensively in palm grip while working, and switched to claw grip for gaming. Palm grip feels a bit relaxed for gaming, so it’s great to see this mouse supports claw grip perfectly.
Buttons, Scroll Wheel, And Cable
SteelSeries is known for making excellent buttons for their gaming mice. However, there are a few key differences and changes here that are important to talk about. First, let’s get the cable and scroll wheel out of the way. The cable is detachable, but it is not a braided one. It is a rubberized USB 2.0 cable that uses a micro-USB connection to work with the mouse.
The scroll wheel is quite stylized, and we’ve seen this design in previous mice from the company. Scrolling feels great on this mouse, which is a relief since this is something a lot of gaming mice can’t get right. It has a fantastic texture and tactile middle grip. The DPI button is right below it, which makes it easier to access.
Finally, let’s talk about these buttons. The primary buttons have an audible actuation, but they are thankfully a bit muted. With that said they are very satisfying thanks to the travel distance and crisp pressure. The side buttons are quite thin on the left side. Fortunately, they are easy to press and feel just as sharp as the primary buttons. There is a third button present on the left side as well. Some people might call this a “Sniper button”. Unfortunately, it is a bit hard to reach and can mess up your grip if you go for this button.
Weight Adjustment
Usually, not many people care for weight adjustment. For most gaming mice, it’s more of a hassle than anything. However, the Rival 600 gets it just right enough for us to care about this feature. For starters, if you feel like the mouse is too light, you can add weights to your liking.
But that’s the most basic level of customization. Let’s say you are playing a shooter and you need to land flick shots. If you lean the mouse to the right or left too much, you can add weights to the opposite side. This way, the weights will act against your natural style of play. Eventually, this will force you to make your aim better than it was before. Of course, there are different levels of configuration you can go with. You can only fill the last two rows with weights to make it rear heavy, and vice versa. There are a lot of possibilities here. You can easily fine-tune the mouse to your liking.
Sensor And Gaming Performance
Arguably the best part about this excellent gaming mouse is the sensor itself. It uses the same TrueMove 3 optical sensor found in the rival 310. This sensor is a joy to use and delivers true one-to-one tracking for the whole sensitivity range. Speaking of which, the CPI is adjustment is from 100 to 12000. It feels very similar to the Pixart 3310 sensor.
The sensor feels natural, and that’s what matters at the end of the day. SteelSeries added an entirely different sensor for accurate liftoff distance control. This means that unwanted cursor movement while lifting the mouse is less of an issue. Surprisingly, this sensor is extremely accurate and is much more than just a marketing gimmick. So yes, there is an actual benefit to it and it shows that with its great performance. Gaming feels incredible with this mouse. Flicks and motion feel tight and controlled. On the other hand, quick aim adjustment makes it very comfortable. The overall tracking is also phenomenal. All in all, this is an excellent gaming mouse when it comes to performance.
Software
As you might have noticed, the entire theme around this mouse is customization and versatility. That same ideology can be found in the software. SteelSeries Engine 3 is one of the better software tools out there. Before we even get into the features, we have to applaud it for its hassle-free performance. A lot of gaming mice have horrible buggy software, so this one is like a breath of fresh air.
The menus are well designed and not confusing at all. The main settings are all in one panel. On the left menu, you can reassign any of the mouse buttons. You can even invert scrolling through this menu.
On the right, we can adjust the 8 lighting zones available on this mouse. However, we would personally leave it to one static color, as the gradient on the strip isn’t that smooth. You can adjust acceleration and deceleration, angle snapping, and the polling rate. You can also configure the liftoff distance tracking. Overall, the seamless software integration is just the icing on the cake for this excellent gaming mouse.
Conclusion
SteelSeries has something quite special on their hands here. While gaming mice are following a new trend of going ultra-lightweight, the Rival 600 manages to stand out. Very few of these mice have the accuracy, versatility, and customization of the Rival 600. It’s not all perfect, as we’re not the biggest fans of the thin side buttons. Other than that you can only set two CPI levels which may bother some folks. Installing the weighs is a bit finicky, but that’s not a dealbreaker. Considering those are all extremely minor issues, we feel like the Rival 600 still retains its value, even in 2020. You can tell that this is the result of SteelSeries listening to their customers and giving them what they want. If you like the shape of the Rival 600, we wholeheartedly recommend it.
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