Build Quality

Overall build quality is very solid. When shaking the mouse, a slight rattle comes from the scroll wheel. When applying lateral pressure, no creaking or flexing of the shell can be observed. It's impossible to activate the side buttons by squeezing the sides. Lastly, no accidental clicks occur when slamming the mouse down.

Buttons

Main buttons on the Rival 3 Wireless are very good. Both pre and post-travel are low, resulting in a firm and satisfying click response. Click feel is still a bit dull, however. Having said that, I do prefer these buttons over those of the regular Rival 3. While the buttons are separated from the shell, there is only minor button wiggle. Button stiffness is light. SteelSeries-branded switches (blue plunger) are used here, which apparently are essentially Zippy DF3-P1L1 (60M) switches.


Side buttons are very good. Both pre and post-travel are low, resulting in a snappy click response. The pressure point is even across the entire button as well. They're very small and thin, however, which makes readily actuating these by rolling one's thumb across difficult. TTC switches (black plunger) are used for these.

At the top of the mouse is a single button for cycling through the set CPI levels. Its click feel is good. Another TTC switch (blue plunger) is used for this one.

Scroll Wheel

The scroll wheel is good. Scrolling is rather noisy, but the individual steps are quite nicely separated, resulting in good tactility. Much like on the Rival 3, the scroll wheel still sits a bit low, which may be irritating depending on one's preferences. The middle (scroll wheel) click requires medium force for actuation. A seemingly unbranded tactile switch is used here.

Coating

The Rival 3 Wireless has a slightly grainy and rough matte coating all over. It provides fantastic grip and doesn't attract fingerprints, dirt, or the likes much at all. It's easy to clean, and there are no signs of wear left after doing so. All in all, an excellent coating.

Button Sound Test

Disassembly

Disassembling the Rival 3 Wireless is quite easy. First, remove all the feet. Beneath these, you'll find four Torx T6 screws. Regular readers will know that I have a special disdain for this screw head type. Once those are taken care of, simply pop the top and bottom shells apart.

Although the internal design may look somewhat complicated, it's actually pretty simple. The battery case is affixed to the bottom shell with three screws, along with an additional screw that secures the scroll wheel illumination and CPI button PCB. To the left of the battery holder, you'll find the side-button PCB, which is connected to the main PCB with a 3-pin JST connector. The battery holder itself is connected to the main PCB with a 3-pin JST connector as well. The main PCB is rather big and affixed to the bottom shell with two screws. Although the PCBs vary in thickness, they all tend to be on the thicker side of things. What we can also see is the 8-pin DIP sensor package along with external illumination, which lends credence to the notion of the TrueMotion Air indeed being 3335-based. The MCU is a Nordic nRF52810, whose datasheet can be found here.


As for the soldering and general quality of the PCB, I'm unable to find any noteworthy flaws.