While the original ASUS ROG Chakram is an excellent mouse, it's certainly not for everyone. Both the price ($159.99) and weight (126 g) likely prompt most people to think twice about whether they actually want that mouse. Thankfully, the Chakram Core improves on the original Chakram in exactly those two regards: Even though $99.99 is still rather expensive, it's a lot easier to handle, and the same goes for the weight of the Chakram Core: Although hardly ultra-light, 94 g is a reasonable figure for a mouse of this size, and those who do like their mouse a bit heavier can install the included 13.6 g weight. The only feature the Core had to shed is the wireless connectivity of the original Chakram. When looking at the shape, materials, buttons, scroll wheel, feet, and sensor, the Chakram Core is no different from the Chakram. In fact, the PixArt PAW3335 tends to perform better in the Chakram Core merely by virtue of lacking wireless functionality. The cable of the Chakram Core easily beats the charging cable of the regular Chakram as well, even though it's still not the most flexible cable out there—for future releases, I'd definitely like to see ASUS move on from such tightly woven braided sleeving on cables. The RGB lighting is very similar to that of the regular Chakram, but lacks the lighting zone at the front. Of course, the joystick is on board yet again as well—even though I still struggle to find much use in it, I'm sure there are people who do.

Another surprise surfaces when it comes to click latency: The Chakram Core clocks in at a record-low -0.9 ms. This figure is negative since it is measured in relation to a baseline. 99% of the mice I test end up above that baseline, so the Chakram Core is definitely an outlier in that regard. I've previously criticized several ASUS mice for their excessively high click latencies on release (typically 12 ms as a minimum), so it's nice to see ASUS addressing these concerns very convincingly. The reason for going with higher debounce values has always been the presence of hot-swappable main button switches, but those are present on the Chakram Core all the same. Curiously, the software still shows 12 ms as the lowest possible button response time, but that setting is neither accurate nor functional. The Chakram Core is one of the first mice to natively support NVIDIA's Reflex Latency Analyzer. Used in conjunction with a compatible monitor, the Reflex Latency Analyzer allows one to display the individual latency of each mouse click in real time. I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason ASUS went with such a low button response time on the Chakram Core is the ability to show off nice and low figures within Reflex Latency Analyzer.

Speaking of the software, ASUS has begun to phase out support for Armoury II on newer releases. Armoury Crate is used instead and performs largely the same as Armoury II. Functionality is basically the same, but resource consumption has gone up a bit. Still, I didn't have any issues with Armoury Crate during testing, and on-board memory allows one to simply set the mouse up once and then uninstall and forget about the software. Those not fond of the software can also use the on-device configuration options to customize the Chakram Core to their liking.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed using the ROG Chakram Core. In fact, when it comes purely to gaming, I'd take the Core over the Chakram any day. Accordingly, the Chakram Core gets our Editor's Choice and Innovation awards from me.

Update January 11th:
Since the time of writing, ASUS has released an uninstall tool for Armoury Crate and a firmware update which addresses the CPI deviation originally present. The wording has been adjusted to reflect these updates.