In the past few years, the concept of the "feature mouse" has gone a bit out of fashion. With the Chakram X, ASUS has something in store for those not interested in barebones, lightweight models, and instead looking for a mouse that can do practically everything while being built like a tank. Between 8000 Hz polling in wired operation, triple connectivity, Qi charging, hot-swappable main button switches, and a built-in joystick, the Chakram X has a lot going for it, and, most importantly, excels in most areas.

Contrary to most wireless mice, wired operation is more than an afterthought on the Chakram X. In wired operation only, the Chakram X offers true 8000 Hz polling, achieving equity with Razer and Corsair in this regard. Using the latest firmware, polling is perfectly stable all the way up to 8000 Hz, and click latency is just 0.1 ms, which is among the lowest of any mouse I've tested thus far, be it wired or wireless. As for the cable, ASUS is using the same type of cable previously found on the ROG Gladius III Wireless and Keris Wireless, which is among the most flexible wireless charging cables and simultaneously one of the most flexible cables of any 8000 Hz wired mouse so far. Sensor performance is great in general, with CPI deviation being nonexistent, general tracking excellent due to MotionSync, and motion delay low across the board. The only compromise one has to make as a wired user is the weight. At 128 g, the Chakram X is slightly heavier than the already weighty ROG Chakram at 126 g, and substantially heavier than the Chakram Core at 94 g. In order to accommodate the large number of features and extensive RGB lighting, ASUS has opted for a large 1250 mAh battery on the Chakram X. While a sound decision for wireless use, the added weight for wired users is an equally large handicap, and 8000 Hz polling cannot make up for that. Hence, as much as I appreciate the intention to appeal to wired and wireless users equally with the same mouse, a wired-only 8000 Hz mouse without any battery no doubt would have been the better product for wired users.

In wireless mode, 1000 Hz is the maximum polling rate in 2.4 GHz operation. Given that Razer has since made the step towards 4000 Hz wireless polling, this is a bit disappointing, but considering that the Chakram X already has plenty of features draining its battery, it may not be that much of a loss after all. Even at 1000 Hz, performance is again excellent, with wireless motion delay sitting at just 1 ms owing to the included wireless extender, and click latency being 2.2 ms, which is highly competitive. As mentioned, the charging cable is very flexible, which is relevant in that charging isn't particularly fast, which is why charging the 1250 mAh battery will take a while. Thankfully, charging the Chakram X isn't necessary too often, as even with RGB lighting fully enabled, at least 50 hours of battery life can be expected in 2.4 GHz operation. Using Bluetooth, more than twice as much is possible. Contrary to ASUS's claims, the Chakram X behaves like a normal Bluetooth mouse, as the promised 250 Hz polling rate is only achieved by duplicating packets, and only 133 Hz worth of data is sent at most.

When it comes to the buttons, the Chakram X does things slightly differently compared to its predecessor, the Chakram. While the latter had no more than two big side buttons, the Chakram X comes with four of them. The way they are positioned may seem odd at first, but I've found myself getting used to the layout quite quickly. Tactile switches from ALPS are used for these, resulting in both pre and post-travel being minimal. For the main buttons, ASUS once again allows users to hot-swap these conveniently, considerably lengthening the life span of the mouse. Much like on the Gladius III Wireless, second-generation sockets allowing for 5-pin optical Omron switches (Omron D2FP-FN) are used, although those switches themselves aren't included this time around, and a set of Japanese Omron switches is found in the box instead. This may actually be a good thing, as the ROG switches installed by default are fairly stiff, whereas the Japanese Omron switches provide much lighter actuation. Stiffness aside, the main buttons are excellent, with minimal pre-travel, moderate post-travel, and very firm and snappy actuation. The scroll wheel encoder comes from Kailh, providing good tactility and controlled scrolling at elevated noise levels. Of course, the adjustable joystick already familiar from the Chakram is on board yet again, and since the original implementation already was excellent, it only received minor changes: the joystick has moved slightly closer to the palm and thus is easier to reach, and the top surface area has been enlarged. If desired, it is also still possible to remove the joystick entirely and replace it with a flat cover. The mouse feet too haven't received any changes, and continue to be high-quality and glide very well.

In short, as long as one is willing to deal with the weight, the hardware of the Chakram X is plain excellent. Unfortunately, the same still cannot the said about the software, Armoury Crate. Aside from the already known insanely long installation process, ludicrous number of processes running at any time, and a heavy resource cost, I've found the UI itself quite unresponsive this time around during testing. Basically, upon initially launching Armoury Crate, the actual UI would never open, and I had to quit and launch it yet again for the options to show up at last. Frankly, I'm quite baffled that even after several years of being around, Armoury Crate still suffers from issues like this. Thankfully, keeping Armoury Crate installed isn't strictly necessary with the Chakram X, as all settings can be saved to the on-board memory, but updating the firmware at least once is recommended, as the Chakram X suffers from several issues on earlier versions.

Overall, the Chakram X improves on the Chakram, while keeping the price the same. That said, $159.99 is a lot of money, though considering the unique feature set and technical excellency, the pricing isn't completely unreasonable. I don't think it's worth upgrading from the Chakram for most users, but for those interested in the features exclusive to the Chakram X, it is well worth a look, and deserves our Recommended award.

As for alternatives, there are a couple. The original ASUS ROG Chakram still holds up, although the Chakram X improves on it in terms of performance in particular, and comes with true 8000 Hz polling in wired operation. Buttons, weight, and features too are similar, but the Chakram X has better battery life. The $89.99 ROCCAT Kone XP is wired-only, weighs significantly less, has a comparable number of buttons, optical main button switches, and rich RGB lighting, but the side buttons aren't exactly great, and the software is a resource hog, too. Priced at $59.99, the Glorious Model I too has very good performance, a flexible cable, and much lower weight, but both the main and side buttons are far from stellar, and feature wise the Model I doesn't compare. Lastly, the SteelSeries Rival 5 too is priced at $59.99, likewise considerably lighter, and has plenty of good buttons, but performance isn't up to par, and the software yet again is resource-heavy.