Buttons, Scroll Wheel

I have to say that SteelSeries absolutely made it this time—they have raised the mouse-button game to another level with the Rival 600.

The main buttons are extremely good; they are crisp, tactile, and have great feedback without being loud or hard to press in. They have a medium tension, but lean towards being a tad too stiff for my taste. I am, however, used to very light clicks, so it may just be me. There is absolutely no pre- or post-travel whatsoever. From an objective point of view, these are among the best main buttons I have ever pressed. The switches have a blue plunger and only a SteelSeries logo etched into them, but as far as I know, they are manufactured by TTC. They are rated for 60 million clicks, but since the quality control is quite random with switches, there is a chance they will break down sooner, or they may even last a hundred million clicks.


Moving on to the scroll wheel, I almost shed some tears of joy. Once again, very tactile, well-defined notches, yet easy to scroll through the steps. The middle click requires pretty much the same tension to actuate as the main buttons, and it is spammable too. No stiff, uncomfortable feeling while using it whatsoever, yet there is no need to worry about accidental clicks. The switch used here is a cube-shaped tactile switch.


Unlike the usual setup, we get not two, but three buttons on the left side, the front one being rotated by roughly 45 degrees. This is generally a very comfortable setup, but with certain grip styles and hand sizes, the front button may actually be in the way. I think some modularity for the option to remove it would have been a nice touch. Overall, their click-feel is pretty much perfect as there is no rattling and pre- or post-travel. They use some very small, blue plunger TTC micro switches I have never seen before.

The CPI switcher is sticking out by quite a lot at the top, and it could be in the way for some users. I did not have issues with it, though. It has more tension than the other buttons, but is not uncomfortable to use. It feels pretty good and is spammable, too.

Overall, I am greatly impressed by how SteelSeries raised their button game to another level. I also made a video in order to demonstrate how these buttons sound:

Cable

The cable has a similar feel to it as the main mouse shell coating, though it is more slippery, which is great news since we don't want much friction with our cables, do we? The other good news is that it's pretty flexible too. It is 2 meters (6.5 ft) long, which should generally be enough for everyone. The end that attaches to the mouse has a standard micro USB type B connector.

There is no retention mechanism on the cable (like on the ASUS ROG Gladius series), but it sits very tightly in its place, so I don't think anyone should worry about it randomly detaching during a heavy gaming session—at least it did not when I was doing my testing and gaming.

Mouse Feet

The stock mouse feet glide smoothly, with no scratchy or uneven feeling towards them whatsoever. However, there is a small error in their design—the rear part of the mouse can actually tilt backwards depending on your grip style. I could easily fix this problem by adding an extra mouse skate to the bottom rear of the mouse, but for a mouse priced this high, this issue shouldn't be present by default. Again, it is easily fixable, but it is kind of annoying if you don't have any spare skates at home and it bothers you. There are no extra feet in the box either, which is a bit of a letdown at such a price.

Disassembling

In order to disassemble the mouse, you need to detach the side panels and remove all three mouse feet before you can access the screws. There are a total of four screws. Be extremely careful while taking apart the upper and lower shells because there are three ribbon cables between the lower and upper parts. Breaking either of those isn't a pleasant experience. I would advise against disassembling this mouse if it isn't absolutely necessary.