Not too long ago, I reviewed the Pulsefire Surge, and I wasn't at all flattered by what it provides for its price—it's not a bad mouse, but its rivals at the same price point provide better performance and customizability. Now here's the Pulsefire Core that just absolutely destroys the competition in the lower price range. I really hope to see more products like this from the company.

Shape should be among the main priorities when choosing your mouse, whether for gaming or long-term office use. The Pulsefire Core features a symmetrical design with side buttons on the left only, which means it will mainly suit right-handed users. This mouse is mainly designed for claw and palm grippers, and I would say it will mostly be comfortable with hands between 16–20 centimeters (of course, this is just a rough guideline).

The top of the shell features a matte UV coating, while the sides are textured plastic with glossy inlays. Although still comfortably usable, the latter felt a bit slippery to me. Build quality is straight up fantastic on this product. I was staggered by how well it is put together—this isn't usually the case in this price range. Weight could be a tad lower for my taste, but at 93 grams (measured on my scale with a few centimeters of cable), it's still a relatively light and, more importantly, well-balanced gaming mouse.

Buttons on the Pulsefire Core are pretty good. I expected a lot worse to be honest. The main ones are nice and tactile with a medium tension and use TTC silver switches rated for 20 million clicks. The wheel encoder is light and doesn't have well-separated notches—I'd like scrolling to be more tactile, but everyone has different preferences, so I can't speak for the masses. Both the side and CPI buttons are objectively perfect as there is no play or unnecessary travel—they're also low profile and have a decent click-feel.

Sensor-wise, the mouse is great even though it doesn't use a high-end sensor. The PixArt PAW3327 is still a decent model and in my opinion provides more than enough performance for the vast majority of users. I could see myself using it for high-level competitions. The main gripe might be the somewhat high lift-off distance, but that can be fixedat the cost of slightly reduced PCS.

Mouse feet are not the best, but certainly not among the worst I've tried. They are smooth, but with a lot of friction. Unfortunately, there are no replacements provided by the manufacturer, so once these wear out, you have to go for aftermarket ones (which is more of an upgrade than a letdown). As for the cable, it's pretty impressive. It's light and flexible and doesn't generate a lot of resistance or drag, which is a great touch.

When it comes to the software, HyperX's NGenuity isn't the best one around. It's a bit slow to start, but with everything loaded, this gets better. However, performance customization options are ridiculously limited. You can't really change anything besides the CPI steps and their corresponding LED colors. The software is also extremely heavyweight, taking up more than 1.15 GB of disk space and consuming around 150 MB of memory while running in the background on my configuration. RGB lighting has to be included for even budget mice nowadays, and the Pulsefire Core is on par with some expensive products in terms of lighting. The rear HyperX logo lights up according to the user's settings, with vivid colors and great brightness.

The Pulsefire Core is great evidences that fantastic mice can be produced in the lower price segments. I would play with this mouse even if I were a top-tier eSports player. At $29.99, the competition that hits this level is insanely low, and the Core can easily be crowned king among them. I'm happy to recommend this mouse to anyone who finds the shape and specifications suitable for their needs.