With the Hati-R 8K, G-Wolves goes beyond the HSK Pro 4K in several ways. At 28 g, the Hati-R 8K may be 2 g heavier than the HSK Pro 4K, but given that it is the larger mouse, and comes with a 250 mAh battery instead of a 130 mAh one, the Hati-R 8K is no doubt the more impressive achievement from an engineering perspective. In principle, the same mechanical design approach familiar from previous G-Wolves releases has been adopted on the Hati-R 8K as well: the main PCB has been extended such that the structural rigidity of the shell is improved, and despite the bottom being largely open, and holes seeing use on the sides for further weight reduction, the Hati-R 8K is remarkably solid. On my sample, there is no rattle when shaking, only very minor creaking when applying lateral pressure, but not flexing of the shell, and the side buttons cannot be actuated by pressing below them regardless of force used.

Compared to the HSK Pro 4K, internals of the Hati-R 8K have seen some changes. The main button switches now come from Huano and are of the blue transparent shell, pink plunger variety. Generally, these are known to deliver firm and snappy actuation, though on the Hati-R 8K, button response is slightly marred due to pre-travel verging on high. Though I didn't notice anything during actual use, the main buttons also aren't as stable as on the HSK Pro 4K, as some lateral movement can be provoked. The side buttons are outfitted with surface-mounted Omron switches, which of course limit how satisfying feedback can be. Still, pre and post-travel are remarkably low, and having side buttons on a mouse this size is commendable to begin with. Given that the Hati-R 8K is primarily designed for fingertip grip, there is no intended spot where the fingers typically would sit on the mouse, which is why the ideal position of the side buttons likewise cannot be predicted to the same degree as on a non-fingertip grip mouse. Hence, depending on where one's fingers actually end up, the positioning of the side buttons may be found more or less optimal. In my case, I've gravitated towards placing my fingers to the front, in which case the side buttons seemed too far backwards. For the scroll wheel, G-Wolves has opted for an encoder from TTC, more specifically of the blue/yellow core variety. Tactility is great on this, as each step is clearly defined, allowing for very controlled scrolling, but scrolling up on my sample at least is very noisy. Much like on previous G-Wolves releases, the bottom lacks indents for feet, allowing one to apply feet of non-default sizes and shapes, though given the limitation in available real estate, one is inevitably bound towards smaller skates. Aside from the dot feet installed by default, two sets of larger feet are included with the mouse, along with another set of dots. They're all made of pure PTFE, and glide very well.

For years, G-Wolves mice have been among the best in terms of performance, and this continues being the case with the Hati-R 8K. While still using PixArt's PAW3395 sensor along with a Nordic nRF52840 MCU, the Hati-R 8K has received new firmware, which elevates things even further. CPI deviation is nonexistent, general tracking flawless regardless of MotionSync being enabled or not, and owing to the lack of smoothing, the entire CPI range is usable without any motion delay penalty. Of particular note is that polling is perfectly stable, no matter whether wired or wireless, or which polling rate is used. Even at 8000 Hz, there is not a single missed poll, which is remarkable. In addition, the target interval values are met throughout, even at 8000 Hz, albeit only with MotionSync disabled. In general, keeping MotionSync disabled may be preferable for latency reasons, as enabling it does increase motion delay by an amount roughly equal to half of the set interval, i.e., around 0.5 ms at 1000 Hz. Without MotionSync, the Hati-R 8K will be on par with the Logitech G403 (control subject) in wireless operation at 1000 Hz. Again without MotionSync, at 2000 and 4000 Hz, the Hati-R 8K is ahead of the G403 by 0.8 and 1.0 ms, respectively, which is excellent. 8000 Hz scores a bit worse at around 0.5 ms, which is presumably due to a larger buffer being used, to allow for more retries in case of dropped polls. As such, 4000 Hz is the highest polling rate I'd use on the Hati-R 8K. For click latency, polling rate has no effect whatsoever, and no more than 0.3 ms will be averaged in wireless operation. In other words, one could set polling rate to 125 Hz and would still be able to enjoy among the lowest click latency of any wireless mouse on the market. Thus far, this figure has only been matched by the CHERRY XTRFY M64/68 Pro, and the Hati-R 8K manages to edge even the Finalmouse UltralightX and Razer Viper V3 Pro, which stand at 0.4 ms. Similarly to those two, the Hati-R 8K applies ~16 ms worth of defer-type debounce on lift-off, preventing slam-clicking, which describes inadvertent button actuation upon resetting the mouse, completely. However, this algorithm is flawed in that the first click after lift-off, that is even when the mouse is no longer lifted, will have the full ~16 ms worth of debounce applied to it.

Whereas the HSK Pro 4K came with a standalone application not requiring installation, configuration on the Hati-R 8K is done through a web driver. Due to using WebHID, this web driver will only work in Chromium-based browsers such as Chromium or Edge. Hence, for those not already using these browsers, being directed towards a web driver requires installing an additional browser, which of course comes with its own resource footprint, much like a regular peripheral software would. In addition, if G-Wolves were to go defunct, or decide to no longer host the web driver, configuration would become impossible, as a local copy unfortunately won't work. This is doubly problematic in that the Hati-R 8K doesn't even have a CPI button, so even something basic as changing CPI requires a configuration driver. As such, I consider the web driver a step back compared to the previous standalone application, and would welcome if G-Wolves would also release a desktop version of their web driver in the future. As for the driver itself, I couldn't find any bugs, and all the relevant options are present. The only minor issue is that setting changes can still be made after the mouse has entered sleep mode, yet won't be applied, which isn't communicated through the UI. An additional oddity is that any adjustment to the debounce settings will only take effect after the mouse has been lifted and reset once.

G-Wolves doesn't cite any battery life numbers, and even though the web driver includes a percentage-based (increments of 5%) battery life indicator, it proved unhelpful during the review, as it didn't budge one bit. Still, given that the Hati-R 8K has roughly twice the battery capacity of the HSK Pro 4K, it is reasonable to expect roughly double the battery life, give or take ten hours. As such, I'd peg the Hati-R 8K somewhere in the 70–80 hours range at 1000 Hz, and accordingly less at higher polling rates. Charging isn't all that speedy on the Hati-R 8K, but decent enough, though playing while charging won't be an option with the included cables anyway. The first one isn't all that flexible to begin with, but more importantly seriously short at 1.10 m, whereas the second one is a bit longer at 1.45 m yet even stiffer. As such, it is best to keep the Hati-R 8K charged at all times to minimize forced downtime.

At $149.00, the Hati-R 8K is not a bargain, though given that the HSK Pro 4K and HTX 4K were priced at $179.99 and $169.99, respectively, the pricing going down instead of up is both unexpected and welcome. Some consolation for the price is provided by the all the accessories included with the Hati-R 8K, such as a plastic carrying case, a set of grip tape, multiple sets of replacement feet, two cables, and so on. More importantly, there isn't a huge market of 28 g fingertip grip mice competing with the Hati-R 8K, either, and in terms of performance and quality, the Hati-R 8K ranks with the very best. Hence, the focus would rather turn towards after-sales support, which is limited to one year, and may be found lacking even during that timeframe. For those willing to take this risk, the Hati-R 8K is most deserving of our Recommended award.