Lately, optical switches have seen use on releases of several manufacturers, such as Razer or ROCCAT, among others. The reason is very simple: In theory, optical switches not only provide very low latency, but also lack the mechanical parts that typically wear down the fastest on mechanical switches, which tends to result in so-called double clicking. With the Prime series of mice, SteelSeries joins this trend, albeit with a certain spin. Compared to the optical switches seen in recent Razer or ROCCAT mice, the Prestige OM switches in the Prime series employ the help of a steel torsion spring and magnet to break the beam of the IR light.

So much for the theory. In practice, I've found the Prestige OM switches to be quite similar to other optical switches. In my experience, optical switches are capable of providing a button response that is almost as tactile as that of a mechanical switch, but the big issue is consistency or, more specifically, uniformity between buttons. Oftentimes, the left main button will feel great, but the right one is mushy, or the other way around, which essentially turns button quality into a gamble as whether the main buttons will be up to par or not is unclear. Unfortunately, the Prestige OM switches aren't much different in that regard. Across the Prime, Prime+, and Prime Wireless, I've found the main buttons to feel vastly different on each and every one. While SteelSeries' claim of these switches retaining their actuation force throughout their lifetime may be true, the actuation force and overall click feel differs massively between each switch. As a result, some units will feel quite a bit worse than others, as is the case with my sample of the Prime; the right click in particular lacks feedback to where it reminds me of a tactile switch. In short, I'm not really convinced by the Prestige OM when it comes to click feel. After all, low degradation over time is only worthwhile if the switch is a good one to begin with.

While the switches may be somewhat lackluster, the buttons and general build of the Prime are not. The Prime utilizes a split trigger design where the main buttons are mechanically separated from the shell. On past SteelSeries mice, this design at times resulted in button wobble, but not on the Prime. The buttons sit as firmly as physically possible and cannot be moved much even when trying to. Though reasonably light at 69 g, the Prime does not flex at all either, and actuating the side buttons by squeezing the sides is impossible no matter the force applied. In terms of construction and build quality, the Prime easily competes with the ROCCAT Kain series, which is quite the achievement. The scroll wheel, on the other hand, is "just" good: Tactility is on point, with easily discernible steps, but scrolling up and down is rather noisy. The side buttons, on the other hand, can be summed up in a single word: perfect. No pre or post-travel to speak of, snappy button response, even actuation across the entire buttons. And while the regular black-dyed feet glide perfectly fine, most mice around this price range tend to have higher-quality skates these days.

As for the cable, the Prime comes with the most flexible one seen on a SteelSeries mouse thus far. While not quite on the level of such competitors as the Endgame Gear XM1r or HyperX Pulsefire Haste, the cable on the Prime beats that of the Rival 5 with ease. In addition to that, the cable is detachable, which in theory would allow one to simply use any Micro-USB to Type-A cable on the Prime. In practice, the triangular connector on both the cable and mouse prevents cross-compatibility almost entirely, which of course begs the question of which purpose the detachable cable serves in the first place.

As mentioned before, one of the advantages of optical switches is the very low click latency they are able to achieve: While mechanical switches require debouncing, often adding a delay on button presses, optical switches do not. Irritatingly enough, however, the Prestige OM switches on the Prime post rather lackluster results: At +8.5 ms relative to the Razer Viper 8K, the Prime is only marginally faster than the Rival 5 and gets beaten by both the Aerox 3 Wireless and Rival 3 Wireless, both of which come with traditional mechanical switches. Even more puzzling is that the Prime Wireless is roughly 1.5 ms faster, and that's in wireless mode, so when comparing apples-to-apples, the difference is even greater. Since we have to assume that all Prestige OM switches are created equal, I struggle to understand why the wired Prime trails the wireless Prime by this much. If I had to take a guess as to why the Prestige OM switches aren't on par with Razer or ROCCAT when it comes to latency, I would say that it is due to a flawed slam-click prevention implementation. There is no technical reason for having slam-click prevention add latency on button presses, as further evidenced by Razer's and ROCCAT's optical switch implementations. To be fair, click latency isn't terrible, but one has to wonder: Why implement optical switches in the first place when mechanical ones not only yield better click feel, but also lower latency? Aside from the better durability, I have a hard time making a case for these switches and can only hope SteelSeries eventually gets around to bringing the latency up to par with other optical switches.

Thankfully, there is one area where the Prime truly excels, and it is arguably the most important of them all: sensor performance. For the Prime, SteelSeries has used their trusty TrueMove Pro, which is nothing but the equally trusty PixArt PMW3389. Trustiness aside, the 3389 is implemented perfectly. CPI accuracy is close to perfect, all polling rates are stable, tracking remarkably clean, and motion delay as low as expected. The only questionable part is lift-off distance, which cannot be adjusted even though the 3389 is natively capable of it. Thankfully, the LOD is low enough as it is, but not making use of existing hardware features seems curious.

I didn't face any issues using SteelSeries Engine during testing. However, I still struggle to see the point in bundling Engine with GG, which adds nothing for those simply wanting to customize their mouse, aside from more background processes and a higher RAM footprint. Most unfortunately, it is no longer possible to download Engine separately even though the link on the SteelSeries site indicates otherwise. For those less fond of software in general, the Prime also allows changing the polling rate directly on the mouse.

All in all, the Prime is actually not a bad mouse. At the same time, I think a lot of potential has been squandered for apparently no good reason, which seems to become a recurring phenomenon with recent SteelSeries mouse releases. With lower click latency and better mouse buttons, I wouldn't even mind handing out an Editor's Choice, but in its current state and considering the stiff competition, I'm reluctant to give it an award, though it doesn't miss a Recommended by much. At the very least, I do think the Prime is worth a look, as $60 is fine for what is on offer, and especially those valuing build quality and a solid yet lightweight shell may want to consider this mouse.