Buttons, Scroll Wheel

All previous Gladius mice featured topnotch button quality, so my expectations were incredibly high for the Gladius II Wireless. Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed. Both main buttons are nice and crisp and have absolutely no unnecessary to them. They are tactile and spammable, which gets better if you switch them to the D2F-01F models packed with the mouse. These are a tad lighter and much more tactile than the stock D2FC-F-K ones. The latter models are rated for 50 million clicks, while the Japanese D2F-01F models only have the nominal rating of 1 million clicks—can you guess which one lasts longer in reality?


Scrolling is just fantastic, which is mainly due to the fact that the new Gladius uses the same Alps encoder as the predecessors. It's light and very tactile, which means the notches are well separated, but it isn't hard to scroll through them.


As for the scroll button, it requires a tad more force to actuate than the main buttons, but is still not tiring to use continuously. The Gladius II Origin had a lighter middle click for sure, but its scroll wheel was very rattly and wobbly—this is not the case here, thankfully. The switch is a non-branded square switch with a standard (7.3 mm) height.


Both side buttons are good, but could use some extra tactility. There's nothing objectively wrong with them as their actuation is fine. I'm still not convinced about their harsh shape, though. They use standard Kailh switches with a red plunger.


Lastly, the CPI button, which is beneath the scroll wheel, is great as well. It has relatively short travel, but is tactile and spammable. It uses the same square switch as the middle button.

I also made a video in order to demonstrate how the buttons sound:

Mouse Feet

There's a protective film on the bottom of the mouse, which you should peel off before use. Once it is removed, four relatively small, oval-shaped mouse feet are revealed. These are pretty good once they are broken in, resulting in a smooth, consistent, and relatively fast glide. Unfortunately, there are no extra mouse feet in the box (which is outrageous for this price), so once these wear out, you have to buy replacements. As far as I am concerned, the standard Microsoft IO1.1/IE3.0/WMO feet are compatible with these sockets, which means you can find a load of aftermarket replacement options.

Cable

The cable is average; it's a braided, thick, and rather stiff. I'd definitely recommend affixing it with a bungee of some sort while using the mouse as it charges, as it has a lot of resistance and drag. I truly hope the next Gladius edition will feature a thinner, lighter, and more flexible cord.

Disassembling

Disassembling the ASUS ROG Gladius II Wireless is an extremely easy task as the manufacturer doesn't want to prevent you from doing so. There are four rubber plugs at the bottom of the mouse, and after removing these, you can access four standard Philips-head screws. Once these are removed, you can simply pop the top shell off the bottom. Further disassembling will require a T6X40 (or similar) size Torx-head screwdriver as there are three Torx-head screws that affix the battery's plastic shell to the PCB.