In the past few years, gaming mice have matured to a point where newcomers in the industry tend to have a hard time, as customer's expectations too have risen accordingly. Every once in a while, however, a new company comes around, which manages to land their first release regardless. Hitscan is one of these companies, and the Hyperlight their first product.

Between the Superlights and Ultralights, human language is put to a test when it comes to finding appropriate superlatives for ever lighter mice. At 39 g without skates, and 40 g with skates, the Hyperlight no doubt is aptly named, but what's more important, build quality is in an equally great spot. On my sample, there is no rattle when shaking the mouse, no creaking or flexing when applying lateral pressure, and actuating the side buttons by pressing below them cannot be done regardless of force used. In terms of design, an approach similar to recent G-Wolves mice has been employed, where the top shell does not feature any holes, while the bottom is open, and the main PCB has been extended to the sides such that it aids with structural integrity. Whereas the similarly sized G-Wolves HTX 4K achieved a weight of 43 g using these same design principles, the Hyperlight stays another 3 g below that weight, all while featuring a 250 mAh battery instead of a 180 mAh one. In short, the Hyperlight is among the most impressive releases in engineering terms in recent times, and doubly so given that common ABS plastic instead of fancy composites or exotic metals is used.

In terms of buttons, the Hyperlight falls closely in line with current market trends. For the main buttons, Omron D2FP-FN2 (China) optical switches see use, which are commonly considered to be the optical switch type closest in feel to an actual mechanical switch. Compared to other optical switch models from TTC, Kailh, or RAESHA, the D2FP-FN2 indeed tends to be noticeably snappier, though actuation also tends to be on the stiffer side, and that is certainly the case on the Hyperlight. This is noteworthy in that due to moderate pre and high post-travel, the main buttons already are a bit softened up on the Hyperlight. In general, the button design leaves some room for improvement still, as lateral button movement can be provoked to a moderate degree, though this remains unnoticeable during actual use. For the side buttons, 2-pin low-profile switches from TTC are used, which score with low pre and post-travel, along with even actuation, though their feedback isn't particularly pleasing. Among recent releases, ever smaller switches for the side buttons being used for weight saving purposes has become the norm, so this is in line with others at least. The scroll wheel encoder likewise comes from TTC and is from the blue/yellow core type, which already is familiar from the G-Wolves Hati-R 8K. Noise levels are slightly above average, but the distinct steps provide good tactility and allow for controlled scrolling. As mentioned previously, the Hyperlight comes without feet installed, but a smaller and a larger set of pure PTFE are found in the box, which can be installed as one may see fit—even mixing the two sets could be considered. Glide is excellent in any case, as no dye has been added.

For their performance needs, Hitscan has trusted the tried and tested combination of PixArt's PAW3395 sensor and a Nordic nRF52840 MCU, along with the firmware/software package coming from CompX. Accordingly, performance is in a very good spot, with a few exceptions. CPI deviation is low and easily corrected, and general tracking shows no anomalies, regardless of MotionSync being enabled or not. Much like on other mice using this solution, enabling MotionSync does add motion delay on the Hyperlight, though for some reason, its degree is higher compared to others. At 1000 Hz, almost an entire interval (1 ms) worth of motion delay is added, and since motion delay without MotionSync already sits slightly above 1 ms relative to the Logitech G403 (control subject), we're looking at more than 2 ms of motion delay with MotionSync enabled, which isn't fully competitive. Hence, keeping MotionSync disabled throughout is strongly recommended on the Hyperlight. For the record, there also exists a so-called "High Performance" toggle in the software, which sets the sensor run mode accordingly, but this has no effect on motion delay, only lowers battery life, and thus may be ignored. Except for 125 and 250 Hz in wireless operation, which aren't exactly important, polling is stable throughout on the Hyperlight. Click latency is also on the same level as other releases using this solution: at 1000 Hz and running the lowest debounce time of 0 ms, 1.4 ms are averaged, though this number should be taken as an approximation, as I've noticed elevated run-to-run variance at this setting. Since optical switches are used for the main buttons, and slam-click prevention has been implemented, there are no drawbacks to running 0 ms debounce time, which is great.

For those seeking to up performance further, Hitscan also offers the 8K Wireless Dongle. Unlike the included dongle, which only features a USB full-speed MCU, thus being restricted to 1000 Hz (1 ms), the 8K Wireless Dongle comes with an additional USB high-speed MCU, allowing for up to 8000 Hz (0.125 ms) polling in wireless operation. As far as tracking or polling stability goes, nothing changes compared to the standard dongle, but improvements are present in regard to motion delay and click latency. Even at 1000 Hz, the Hyperlight achieves parity with the G403, and motion delay only decreases further the higher the polling rate is, ending up at an advantage of 0.8 ms over the G403 at 8000 Hz, provided MotionSync stays disabled. Remarkably, polling is stable throughout, even at 8000 Hz, and the target interval averaged to the dot. While enabling MotionSync at 8000 Hz is possible on the 3395 sensor, and other releases even managed to achieve a flawless 0.125 ms with it enabled, doing so has no effect on the Hyperlight. Click latency is also reduced significantly. While 1000 Hz remains unaffected, 2000 Hz already cuts latency down to 0.9 ms, and 8000 Hz even gets one an average of 0.4 ms, which is on par with the likes of Razer at 8000 Hz, and neck to neck with the absolute best from CHERRY XTRFY and G-Wolves. In short, the performance benefit provided by the 8K Wireless Dongle is substantial, though at $24.99, it's not exactly a bargain, so this is mostly an option for those hunting down every microsecond. In addition, one needs to be aware that the Hyperlight cannot be paired to two dongles at the same time. Since the 8K Wireless Dongle is a straight upgrade, there isn't necessarily a need to bother with the standard dongle anymore, but using the Hyperlight on two PCs with both dongles isn't possible without re-pairing each and every time, unfortunately.

Hitscan cites up to 75 hours of battery life on the Hyperlight, presumably at 1000 Hz and using the default sensor run mode. While the software features a percentage-based battery life indicator, this one didn't budge at all during testing, so we have to assume that it isn't functional. Considering the battery size and parts used, I consider 75 hours to be within the realm of possibility, though I also wouldn't be surprised if it lands slightly below that mark. At 8000 Hz, around 15 hours can conceivably be expected. Charging isn't particularly speedy on the Hyperlight, but the actual issue is the charging cable itself. Aside from being stiff, it is also seriously short at 1.55 m. Hence, playing while charging isn't really an option. The cable stiffness is likely due to the added shielding needed to ensure signal integrity for USB high-speed, though for $24.99, I'd rather seen a fully shielded cable included with the 8K Wireless Dongle and a proper flexible included with the mouse by default, as someone not interested in the 8K Wireless Dongle gets zero benefit from the shielding needed for something one doesn't even have. Be that as it may, the software does have all the necessary settings, and at low resource usage, though occasionally, I've found that CPU usage spikes for no good reason. Hence, I'd recommend closing the software when not in use, just to be on the safe side.

Overall, the Hyperlight marks an impressive debut from Hitscan. That said, at $89.99 the Hyperlight is definitely priced at the upper end for a USB full-speed mouse, as the largely identically performing Fantech Helios II Pro, for instance, goes for $74.80, and better performing options such as the Redragon K1NG 4K Pro or Ajazz AJ199 4K are offered for even less, at $55.99 and $44.99, respectively. With the 8K Wireless Dongle, the Hyperlight receives a significant uplift in performance, and I would in fact argue that by sticking to the default dongle, one does the Hyperlight a disservice, as it only really starts to shine when combined with the 8K Wireless Dongle, as the much lower latency is only befitting of a 40 g mouse. While a combined price of $114.99 is far removed from the bargain territory, it still is far more affordable than the G-Wolves HTX 4K at $169.00, which gets soundly beaten by the Hyperlight on virtually every level. Hence, while not the most affordable mouse, the Hyperlight brings a lot to the table, and earns our Recommended award.