With the ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition, ASUS joins the premium, lightweight, ambidextrous wireless mouse market, which is currently dominated by the Logitech G Pro X Superlight and Razer Viper V2 Pro. Compared to these two, ASUS has several eggs in the basket: At 54 g, the Harpe Ace is the lightest of the bunch, despite retaining basic RGB lighting, having no holes, and being slightly larger in size and volume. Even the Pulsar X2, which is smaller, has no RGB, and lacks much of a bottom plate, weighs more at 56 g. To achieve this, ASUS has opted for utilizing Nylon (polyamide 11) bioplastic for the outer shell, which weighs slightly less than than traditional ABS plastic while being sufficiently rigid. As a result, the surface of the Harpe Ace is grainy yet soft to the touch. For those not too fond of this texture or otherwise struggling with grip, ASUS has included a set of grip tape in the box. In terms of structural integrity, the Harpe Ace leaves little to be desired: When applying lateral pressure, the shell neither creaks nor flexes, actuating the side buttons by pressing below them is impossible, and there is no rattle when shaking, either. From an engineering standpoint, the Harpe Ace is plain impressive.

In terms of internals, the Harpe Ace does equally well. The Harpe Ace is equipped with ASUS's AimPoint sensor, which I believe to be a PAW3395 variant, and which performs flawlessly: CPI deviation is nonexistent, tracking virtually perfect owing to hardware MotionSync, and polling stable throughout. Motion delay in 2.4 GHz wireless operation sits at 1 ms at most, which is excellent. When it comes to click latency, the Harpe Ace musters an even better showing: At 0.8 ms in 2.4 GHz wireless mode, the Harpe Ace edges out the Logitech G Pro X Superlight, and even several of Razer's wireless releases at 1000 Hz. In fact, click latency is barely any higher than many 4000 Hz wireless offerings. The wireless experience in general is pleasing on the Harpe Ace: Charging is fairly speedy at around 0.336 A, the charging cable flexible enough to allow playing while charging, and Bluetooth is also on board. Unlike many other wireless mice, the Harpe Ace is outfitted with a fuel gauge IC, which has the battery charge indicator in the software be accurate and reliable. This also allows me to gauge expected battery life, which I estimate to be around 60 hours with RGB lighting enabled, falling a bit short of the 70 hours cited by ASUS. Without RGB, the Harpe Ace is said to last 90 hours, which isn't too far off the 100 hours claimed for the Razer Viper V2 Pro.

A casualty of the quest for lowest weight possible is the ability to hot-swap the main button switches, which is a staple on many other ASUS releases but not present on the Harpe Ace. Instead, ROG-branded switches rated for 70 million clicks are installed, which provide a firm and snappy button response, although more on the heavier side in terms of actuation force, and with some post-travel. Of particular note are the buttons themselves, which, despite a split-button design being used, do not exhibit any lateral movement, even when provoked. The side buttons aren't quite as good, as the back button in particular has some pre-travel leading to somewhat mushy actuation, but the forward button is fine in this regard, and post-travel is kept to a minimum on either. For the scroll wheel, ASUS has opted for a currently popular encoder from TTC (yellow or "gold"), which delivers somewhat elevated noise levels but very good tactility, with clearly separated steps allowing for controlled scrolling. Those utilizing the wheel click frequently will likely be pleased to know that the switch strikes a happy medium in regard to stiffness. Lastly, the feet are up to the usual high standard of recent ASUS releases, are made of pure PTFE and glide well, and a replacement set is also included.

While the hardware side of things often has been excellent on recent ASUS releases, the software, which is Armoury Crate, didn't give much reason for praise. While I didn't run into any major issues this time around, I still cannot help but notice the incredibly lengthy installation, sheer number of processes running at any time, and the resulting considerable resource usage. The good thing, however, is that there isn't much reason to bother with Armoury Crate on the Harpe Ace in the first place. Updating the firmware isn't necessary since the launch firmware has no issues in need of fixing, and basic functions such as CPI, polling rate, and lift-off distance can be conveniently adjusted directly on the mouse through button combinations. The only thing missing is RGB lighting, turning off which can only be done in Armoury Crate. Still, the Harpe Ace is the first ASUS mouse that effectively allows one to avoid Armoury Crate entirely, which is a huge plus in my book.

Lastly, some words on the "Aim Lab" part of the Harpe Ace: This mainly consists of several scenarios within Aim Lab that are supposed to help one find the optimal settings for sensitivity, CPI, angle adjustment, or lift-off distance. After having given them a try, I consider these mostly useless, even for beginners. Still, for those interested, the first scenario at least (sensitivity) is available on any mouse, and may be worth a try.

Accordingly, the only thing left for me to criticize is the pricing, which, while in line with the competition from Razer or Logitech and arguably justified by the level of quality on display, may still be a little bit too steep for most people. One could also criticize that the Harpe Ace is stuck at 1000 Hz, whereas Razer allows for up to 4000 Hz with the HyperPolling Wireless Dongle, but given that click latency on the Harpe Ace at 1000 Hz already is within 0.3 ms of Razer's offerings at 4000 Hz, I don't think this criticism holds too much water. As such, the ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition earns our Editor's Choice.

When it comes to the competition, there are many options. The $149.99 Razer Viper V2 Pro comes with similar weight, performance, and build quality, but has optical main button switches, along with the option for 4000 Hz wireless polling by virtue of the HyperPolling Wireless Dongle, although the software can be a nuisance. The $94.95 Pulsar X2 has worse performance, similar weight and button quality, a much more lightweight software, but issues with quality control and lacks much of a bottom plate. The $89.99 LAMZU Atlantis likewise doesn't have much of a bottom plate, has worse performance, similar button quality and a similar weight, and too has a pleasantly lightweight software. At 68 g, the Fnatic BOLT weighs significantly more, struggles with its buggy software and dull side buttons, but scores with good buttons and performance, for $89.99. Lastly, ASUS's own TUF M4 Wireless effectively served as the blueprint for the shape of the Harpe Ace, but runs on AA or AAA-batteries, thus weighs significantly more, and has worse performance, but similarly good buttons, for $59.99.