Great $25 gaming mouse - HyperX PulseFire Core RGB

da na · December 21, 2021

I redeemed some Microsoft Rewards points to buy this mouse recently since my faithful G602 has started to doubleclick after 4 good years. I would also prefer one I never had to worry about changing batteries in or turning off. I figured if I'm getting it for free I shouldn't complain, but I didn't find much to complain about at all.

It arrived today, packaging was good, nothing exceptional. For $25 can't expect anything too great. On the inside were multiple reminders to download the software which is nice, since inevitably many people would forget. On the topic of software the mouse works fine without the software - but you can't set custom DPI other than the 3 presets (which were fine imo), customize polling rate, or customize the dynamic RGB (which, yes, it has.) Software has lots of options but my only complaint is that it crashed once the first time I opened it then worked fine. It is from the MS store so I do not know how well this mouse would work on Linux. As soon as I plugged the mouse in it showed up, then it did a firmware update through the software of which I could not use the mouse for about 30 seconds (it literally would not move) as it did so. However it has been working fine since.

It feels quite nice in the hand, it is light but does not feel cheaply made like some other budget mice. The braided cable feels solid and like it will hold up nicely. The clicks are nice and sharp, even the side buttons, but the scrollwheel click doesn't feel too great. It has 4 programmable buttons, 2 on the top under the scroll wheel and 2 on the left side thumb rest. The 2 on the top are default mapped as DPI up/down and the side ones I cannot figure out what they default to, but all are reprogrammable through the software.

It feels nice and responsive in the games that I have tried, and my overall conclusion is that as a nice budget mouse I would give it a 9/10. Points off for no Linux software (?) and mushy scrollwheel click.