Software

The Rival 3 Wireless is compatible with SteelSeries Engine, SteelSeries' staple software suite. All available options are accessible on a single page: button remapping, macro functionality, acceleration settings, angle snapping, and polling rate (125, 250, 500, or 1000 Hz). CPI adjustment ranges from 100–18,000 CPI in increments of 100 CPI, for up to five levels.

Additionally, several further settings related to wireless functionality are available. "Sleep Timer" controls how much time has to pass before the mouse enters sleep mode. "High-Efficiency Mode" automatically disables all illumination, sets the polling rate to 125 Hz, and puts the sensor into a low-power mode. I've tested this mode in terms of latency, and the results aren't good: Roughly 7 ms of motion delay make this mode rather pointless for pretty much any sort of gaming. "Illumination Smart Mode" automatically turns off any illumination whenever the mouse is not stationary. During testing, I discovered a rather annoying bug: After entering sleep mode, the mouse simply keeps slumbering. No amount of mouse movement will awaken it from its deep sleep, only turning it off and on again does the trick.

All settings are saved to the on-board memory, so the software does not need to be running (or be installed) all the time. On my system, the software had a RAM footprint of 240 MB on average when running in the foreground and a footprint of 40 MB when minimized to the system tray. Upon exiting the application, all processes are terminated, as they should be.

Lighting

The Rival 3 Wireless has but a single zone for RGB lighting, which is the scroll wheel. A total of four pre-defined lighting effects are available in the software. These are Steady (single color), Color Shift, Multi Color Breathe, and Trigger. All effects can be further customized in terms of speed and colors. Of course, it is also possible to disable the lighting altogether.

Color accuracy and vibrancy are very good throughout. Here's a short demonstration video in which I go through the ColorShift and Multi Color Breathe lighting modes:

Battery Life

SteelSeries states a maximum battery life of up to 400 hours. In order to achieve this, two batteries as well as "High Efficiency Mode" ought to be used. SteelSeries doesn't specify whether this figure only applies to Bluetooth, 2.4 GHz mode, or both. In any case, expect battery life to be significantly lower when using "regular" settings; i.e., 2.4 GHz mode, a 1000 Hz polling rate, some sort of illumination, and possibly just a single AAA-battery. For further advice on how to maximize battery life, please refer to this.