Our reviews of both the SteelSeries Prime and Aerox 3 Wireless came to a similar conclusion: Good mice, but lots of squandered potential. Essentially, the Prime Wireless is a combination of those two, and once again continues the recent SteelSeries tradition of "good, but could be great."

One of the greatest assets of the Aerox 3 Wireless was its sensor performance, and the Prime Wireless is no different in this regard. SteelSeries' own TrueMove Air is used again, which effectively is a slightly modified PixArt PAW3335. While a highly capable sensor, many manufacturers are struggling when it comes to implementation. Just recently, the Razer Orochi V2 has demonstrated how good the 3335 can be if done right, and SteelSeries has almost done just as well with the Prime Wireless. Primarily intended for use in wireless mice, the 3335 has several power-saving features, one of which is to lower the sensor framerate when idle. As a result, when moving from a standstill, the sensor usually needs some time to "switch gears," so to speak, which introduces added delay during that period. On the Prime Wireless, SteelSeries has managed to keep this delay under control, which has the latency be as low as possible right upon moving the mouse. Furthermore, general tracking is great, all polling rates are stable, and there is no smoothing across the entire CPI range, which ensures latency is as low as possible no matter which CPI step is chosen. The only area where the implementation falls short is CPI deviation, which has been a recurring issue across every single release featuring the TrueMove Air thus far. I definitely wouldn't mind if SteelSeries would try to address it at some point at least.

The sensor performance is matched by the wireless performance. I can measure an isolated wireless delay of about 1 ms, which is on par with the likes of Logitech, Razer, and lately ROCCAT, and thus highly commendable. This is no doubt at least in part due to the included wireless extender, which ensures the best possible connection at all times by keeping the distance between dongle and mouse as low as possible. In addition to that, the charging cable is flexible enough to use the Prime Wireless while charging without feeling particularly restricted. Speaking of which, charging is extremely quick, clocking in just short of the USB current limit. Compared to the Aerox 3 Wireless, the wireless implementation has matured further: While waking the Aerox 3 Wireless from sleep mode required clicking a button before any other inputs are accepted, simply moving the mouse is enough on the Prime Wireless, similar to how most other wireless mice work. I am also happy to report that SteelSeries has learned from the mistakes of the Aerox 3 Wireless. Due to only having a battery capacity of 250 mAh, the Aerox 3 Wireless lasted no more than ten hours with RGB lighting fully enabled. The Prime Wireless, on the other hand, not only has more than double the capacity at 550 mAh, but also dialed back on the RGB, resulting in much improved battery life. While the battery status indicator isn't all that descriptive, I'm confident the Prime Wireless clears 50 hours even with RGB lighting fully enabled. This is even more impressive when considering the fact that the optical switches of the Prime Wireless draw more power. The improved battery life is especially welcome since Bluetooth support has been omitted, which is somewhat curious as the Prime Wireless is using the same MCU as the Aerox 3 Wireless and would thus be perfectly capable of it.

The Prime Wireless not only does away with most of the RGB, but also with the holes. At 80 g, the Prime Wireless is on par with the similarly sized, solid-shell Logitech G Pro Wireless. Build quality is excellent on my copy: The side buttons cannot be actuated no matter how hard the sides are squeezed, the shell doesn't flex or creak, and the whole mouse just feels solid. Speaking of the side buttons, these are clearly the star of the Prime Wireless: No pre or post-travel to speak of, snappy response, even actuation. Curiously, even though the encoder and switch are no different, the scroll wheel is also a bit better on the Prime Wireless than on the Prime and Prime+, having slightly more tactility and lower noise levels, while the wheel click ends up stiffer. The feet too have been upgraded over the regular Prime, resulting in improved glide.

What hasn't been upgraded, however, are the main buttons. As already laid out in our review of the Prime, I'm not a fan of the Prestige OM switches. Across the Prime, Prime+, and Prime Wireless, every copy I've tested had vastly different main buttons. On the Prime, the right click lacked feedback to where it reminded me of a tactile switch, whereas on the Prime+, the left click felt nice and crisp, but the right one did not. Basically, whether one gets good or lackluster clicks comes down to luck of the draw, which surely isn't optimal. It's quite a pity as the split trigger design itself is excellent, exhibiting minimal horizontal movement even when provoked. Another weak point of these switches is the latency. While the Prime Wireless improves over the Prime and Prime+ (most curiously so, if I may add), click latency isn't on par with the optical switch competition coming from Razer and ROCCAT. Since optical switches require no traditional debouncing, there is really no excuse for click latency being this high as slam-click prevention is possible without adding any delay. Effectively, click latency isn't much worse than on the Aerox 3 Wireless, but if anything, it should be the other way around.

I didn't face any issues using SteelSeries Engine during testing, which has all the important options, albeit at a hefty resource cost. However, even at the risk of sounding like a broken record, the decision to bundle Engine with GG, which serves no purpose whatsoever when it comes to mouse settings, continues to be most puzzling to me. And even though the link on the SteelSeries site indicates otherwise, Engine is no longer available as a separate download, further coercing one to use GG. Of course, all settings are also saved to the on-board memory.

Alright, what's the verdict then? Between the Prime, Prime+, and Prime Wireless, I consider the latter the definite Prime—it is the most refined and premium of the three, with only minor flaws. However, this premium experience comes at a premium price: At $129.99, the Prime Wireless goes for $30 more than the Aerox 3 Wireless, which in many ways is the same mouse feature-wise, and even comes with Bluetooth. At the same time, the Prime Wireless does improve on the Aerox 3 Wireless, especially when it comes to battery life. Accordingly, I don't think the Prime Wireless is overpriced, albeit not a bargain either. It is most certainly worthy of our Recommend award, though.

When looking at the right-handed ergonomic wireless competition, there is absolutely no shortage. Priced at $129.99, the ROCCAT Kone Pro Air too has no holes, is a decent bit lighter at 73 g, has similarly great build quality and performance, but lacks a wireless extender and suffers from botched polling with RGB turned on. The Razer DeathAdder V2 Pro is also priced at $129.99, weighs a bit more at 87 g, and its main buttons also can be hit or miss, but the optical switches afford outstandingly low latency, sensor performance is stellar, polling stable, wireless delay just a tad worse, and a wireless extender is included. The $119.99 ASUS ROG Gladius III Wireless weighs 89 g, allows for using either mechanical or optical main button switches, both of which shine with incredibly low latency, has excellent sensor and wireless performance provided the latest firmware is applied, and a wireless extender can be found in the box, though it is brought down by Armoury Crate, which may only please masochists. The much smaller ASUS ROG Keris Wireless lacks a wireless extender, but too has hot-swappable main button switches, great performance, an appreciably low weight at 79 g, very low click latency, and very nice buttons and feet, but again comes with the non-negotiable Armoury Crate burden, for $99.99. The $109.99 Corsair Sabre RGB Pro Wireless also lacks a wireless extender, but scores with incredibly low click latency, great sensor performance, fairly low weight for its size, but too is brought down by the behemoth that is Corsair iCUE. The ROCCAT Kain 200 has a shape quite similar to the Prime Wireless, but suffers from significant motion delay and CPI deviation, is somewhat heavy at 105 g, and scores in the button and scroll-wheel department, along with great build quality, for $99.99. For $74.95, the Pulsar Xlite Wireless has excellent performance, low click latency, a wireless extender included, and weighs 59 g, but the lack of a bottom plate may not be to everyone's liking. The $79.99 Glorious Model D Wireless does have a bottom plate and weighs a bit more than the Xlite Wireless, but is very similar otherwise. Lastly, the Dream Machines DM6 Holey Duo is the budget option, even featuring a wireless extender at a price point of $49.99, weighs 79 g, but suffers from very high click latency, some motion delay, massive CPI deviation, and a coating that attracts finger marks almost magnetically.