SteelSeries are a household name in the PC gaming industry, producing some of the most popular peripherals out there. The Aerox 5 Wireless and Aerox 9 Wireless are good mice, it has to be said, but they aren’t without their flaws.
Starting with the positives, the PrismSync RGB lighting is nicely diffused, easy to play about with to get the right effect, turns itself off while your hand is on the mouse to save battery life (we like that, that’s a good feature) and it features really smooth transitions between the separate colours.
Thanks to their extensive engineering efforts the mice, in particular the Aerox 5, are very lightweight; this is all the rage at the moment with users wanting less friction, less inertia and more kills. The PTFE glide skates on the bottom (which are replaceable and sold by SteelSeries, FYI) do their job just as they should, with minimum friction, letting you make faster movements with enhanced control. The chassis is comfortable to use, you don’t really notice the diamond-work on the plastic shell at all after the first few minutes, but it is a bit too long for my particular grip-style, forcing my hand to sit further backwards than I’d like, rendering the side buttons on the Aerox 5 Wireless a bit off-centre.
The Golden Micro IP54 switches have a great range of movement with a positive click and forceful response, plenty of rebound and a satisfying sound to go with it. They’re rated for 80 million clicks, which should see you through plenty of gaming, and thanks to the IP54-rated AquaBarrier, you need not worry about all those holes on the surface of your new mouse – it’s protected.
As is the case for any mouse from a reputable manufacturer, the TrueMove Air sensor is flawless, it has been developed in partnership with PixArt, who know a thing or two about making an optical sensor, we can’t fault it at all.
The left edge of the Aerox 9 Wireless works well, the thumb buttons feel great with sturdy feedback, they’re spaced and arranged in a very well-thought-out pattern and sit under the thumb in just the right place. The Aerox 5 Wireless, on the other hand, isn’t the same happy story unfortunately; the front-most silver button is too close to the front of the mouse and the upper buttons are too close together and fiddly, I’ve just not found myself able to gel with it at all.
SteelSeries GG, their driver suite, is a cracking bit of software, it’s firmly my favourite to use at the moment; it’s full of great features, it’s nicely laid out, a doddle to use, looks good, is light on system resources and now comes with a surprisingly fun 3D Aim Trainer, a small built-in game, with hundreds of modes, that lets you hone your skills.
Moving onto the negatives, we’ll start with the biggest one for us, battery life; it just isn’t good enough if you want to use the RGB lighting. We found ourselves needing to charge it every couple of days as a minimum, up to every day. 180 hours is a massive claim from SteelSeries, while providing no information on what configuration you need to use to achieve that, we found it was closer to 10-15 hours. That being said, it does charge remarkably quickly!
The scroll wheel was something I didn’t get on well with, despite its excellent feel and quiet operation, it was just too easy to click which results in the annoying logo appearing and the whole web page moving around at a thousand miles per hour.
The lightness is impressive, build quality is solid, they look great and perform very well, but the little niggles and poor battery life are a bit of a turn off (pardon the pun).
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Starting with the positives, the PrismSync RGB lighting is nicely diffused, easy to play about with to get the right effect, turns itself off while your hand is on the mouse to save battery life (we like that, that’s a good feature) and it features really smooth transitions between the separate colours.
Thanks to their extensive engineering efforts the mice, in particular the Aerox 5, are very lightweight; this is all the rage at the moment with users wanting less friction, less inertia and more kills. The PTFE glide skates on the bottom (which are replaceable and sold by SteelSeries, FYI) do their job just as they should, with minimum friction, letting you make faster movements with enhanced control. The chassis is comfortable to use, you don’t really notice the diamond-work on the plastic shell at all after the first few minutes, but it is a bit too long for my particular grip-style, forcing my hand to sit further backwards than I’d like, rendering the side buttons on the Aerox 5 Wireless a bit off-centre.
The Golden Micro IP54 switches have a great range of movement with a positive click and forceful response, plenty of rebound and a satisfying sound to go with it. They’re rated for 80 million clicks, which should see you through plenty of gaming, and thanks to the IP54-rated AquaBarrier, you need not worry about all those holes on the surface of your new mouse – it’s protected.
As is the case for any mouse from a reputable manufacturer, the TrueMove Air sensor is flawless, it has been developed in partnership with PixArt, who know a thing or two about making an optical sensor, we can’t fault it at all.
The left edge of the Aerox 9 Wireless works well, the thumb buttons feel great with sturdy feedback, they’re spaced and arranged in a very well-thought-out pattern and sit under the thumb in just the right place. The Aerox 5 Wireless, on the other hand, isn’t the same happy story unfortunately; the front-most silver button is too close to the front of the mouse and the upper buttons are too close together and fiddly, I’ve just not found myself able to gel with it at all.
SteelSeries GG, their driver suite, is a cracking bit of software, it’s firmly my favourite to use at the moment; it’s full of great features, it’s nicely laid out, a doddle to use, looks good, is light on system resources and now comes with a surprisingly fun 3D Aim Trainer, a small built-in game, with hundreds of modes, that lets you hone your skills.
Moving onto the negatives, we’ll start with the biggest one for us, battery life; it just isn’t good enough if you want to use the RGB lighting. We found ourselves needing to charge it every couple of days as a minimum, up to every day. 180 hours is a massive claim from SteelSeries, while providing no information on what configuration you need to use to achieve that, we found it was closer to 10-15 hours. That being said, it does charge remarkably quickly!
The scroll wheel was something I didn’t get on well with, despite its excellent feel and quiet operation, it was just too easy to click which results in the annoying logo appearing and the whole web page moving around at a thousand miles per hour.
The lightness is impressive, build quality is solid, they look great and perform very well, but the little niggles and poor battery life are a bit of a turn off (pardon the pun).
Pros
+ Extremely light
+ 2.4GHz and Bluetooth connectivity
+ Charges very quickly
+ Lovely PrismSync RGB lighting
+ Solid build quality
+ Fantastic software
Cons
- Super pricey
- Scroll wheel is too easily depressed
- Battery life isn’t good, at all
+ Extremely light
+ 2.4GHz and Bluetooth connectivity
+ Charges very quickly
+ Lovely PrismSync RGB lighting
+ Solid build quality
+ Fantastic software
Cons
- Super pricey
- Scroll wheel is too easily depressed
- Battery life isn’t good, at all
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
Stay connected with the Vortez Social Media pages:
Join in with the discussions on Discord
