Sensor

While the more expensive (and vastly larger) Gladius II Wireless got a top-of-the-line PixArt PMW3389 sensor, ASUS went a different route with the ROG Strix Carry. It has a PixArt PMW3330, which is essentially the little brother of the well-renowned PMW3360. It's limited to a lower resolution as it "only" has a maximum CPI of 7,200, and there are few other performance caps, but overall, I'd still consider it one of the best sensors that has ever existed, even more so because the PMW3330 doesn't suffer from the usual smoothing above ~2,000 CPI, like the more expensive PixArt tracking units. If I'm correct, it also consumes less power than a 3389 for example, but I am not completely sure about that.

As for its technical specifications, the nominal maximum tracking speed and acceleration values are 150 IPS and 30 G. The resolution can be set from 50–7,200 CPI in steps of 50 CPI. Available polling rates are 1000, 500, 250, and 125 Hz, which translate into respective nominal response times of 1, 2, 4 and 8 ms. The default lift-off distance is low at below a DVD in height on a black cloth mouse pad. There is surface calibration in the software, so if the stock LOD doesn't suit you, you have the option to tweak it.

Battery and Wireless Stats

As mentioned before, the Carry operates with 2 AA batteries, but using Lithium AAA batteries with adapters is highly recommended as it would reduce the weight. Unfortunately, it cannot run on a single battery. Nominal battery life on 2.4 GHz is 300 hours and 400 hours via Bluetooth. If I am correct, this continuous 300 hours of 2.4 GHz usage is true on a polling rate of 500 Hz, which is the factory default. Increasing it to 1000 Hz will most likely cut that figure in half, which roughly makes for 150 hours with the best response time and isn't the most impressive with two batteries. However, this is a high-performance gaming mouse with a commercially available sensor that isn't specifically for wireless mice. When battery power drops under 25%, the LED indicator will change to Red and blink twice every half a second. Naturally, the mouse goes into sleep mode after three minutes of being idle by default, but you can change this in the software.

As for the response time, at sub-1 ms response times, ASUS is on par with Logitech's Lightspeed technology. This means it's essentially the same as using a wired product. You can see the graphs for wireless response times in the input-lag section below, and I highly advise using 2.4 GHz for gaming or precision work since the Bluetooth technology is still "not there yet" in terms of response times.

Paint Test

There is no jitter on the reasonable CPI steps, and I couldn't detect any unwanted angle snapping or sensor lens rattle, either.

CPI Divergence

CPI divergence is fairly low, and it goes into the positive. Please note that this test is not completely accurate, but resembles reality quite well.

Perfect Control Speed

Nominal perfect control speed (or PCS for short) is 150 IPS on this sensor, which translates to roughly 3.8 m/s. The sensor tracks perfectly until above 4.2 m/s, which the vast majority of users won't hit unless they play on a ridiculously low sensitivity and tend to land huge swipes. The PCS also doesn't correlate with the set resolution, meaning 400 and 7,200 CPI will both hit their limits at the same speed.

Speed Related Accuracy Variance

This test shows the sensor's accuracy at different speeds. You can see me doing a fast swipe to the right before I slowly slide the mouse back to its original position. There is pretty much no acceleration or deceleration here, or if there is any, it's mostly due to human error.

Polling Rate & Stability

All set polling rates were mostly stable, but I could sometimes detect some outliers. This happened rarely, and only 1-2 polls spiked out when it did, which didn't seem to affect anything. I played a few hours of fast-paced FPS games with the Carry (it was hard adjusting my grip to it, to be honest) and didn't once come across any issues.

Input Lag & Smoothing

There is no smoothing or any other non-wireless related delay I could detect or measure. As for the wireless response time, it's a little below 1 ms (on 1000 Hz), which, once again, is extremely impressive and still rare nowadays.