The SteelSeries Rival 600 is mainly targeted at palm-grip users with average to large hands. I, for instance, would gladly use this mouse if my hands were a bit bigger. Back in the day, a huge amount of people loved the SteelSeries Kinzu and Kana series for their more compact, ambidextrous style, and while the Kana v2 featured a good sensor, all Kinzu mice were pretty much unusable for competitive play (there are obviously some exceptions—GuardiaN, for instance). I do hope SteelSeries will soon realize that users with smaller hands would like top-tier products as well. Right now, all their high-end models are made for average or big hands, and are generally designed for palm-gripping. I, for one, could use the Rival 310 rather comfortably, but the Sensei 310 was way too big, and I prefer the form factor of the Sensei.

The surface coating of the main gripping areas is just amazing; it's grippy enough, but very smooth, and it seems durable too. The build quality is even more amazing than the coating as there are no creaks, squeaks, or rattling of any kind—this is kind of rare with mice that have detachable parts. The stock weight actually feels very nice and balanced, but can be kicked up by a few notches if one wants. The Rival 600 has a very nice, easy-to-use yet hidden weight-in system where you can add a total of 32 grams to the default 96 grams. The detachable side panels are firmly in place and won't fall off accidentally even though they are not hard to remove intentionally.

SteelSeries first introduced their TrueMove3 sensor with their debut of the Sensei 310 and Rival 310 models. They claimed the sensor to give a true 1:1 tracking experience. The Rival 600 got the same sensor, but they added an extra depth-sensing sensor in order to eliminate all cursor displacements caused by lifting the mouse off the surface, and I have got to say that these two work absolutely great together. There is nothing I can nitpick here. Perfect tracking, there are no errors or malfunctions.

One would expect high quality buttons on a mouse this expensive, but I was absolutely blown away by the clicks of the Rival 600. All buttons are fantastic; no pre-travel, no post-travel, no rattling, and none of the buttons feel mushy. If I had to rate these, I would easily give them a 10 out of 10. The main buttons have a nominal rating of 60 million clicks and feature SteelSeries' own brand of micro switches.

Detachable mouse cables are starting to become a thing—I have not yet found the proper advantage to it, but guess others already have. Thankfully, the cable itself is great; it's flexible and doesn't generate much friction when it touches the mouse pad or desk. The mouse feet are good as they glide smoothly and evenly, but as mentioned above, there should be an extra one attached to the very back of the underside to eliminate the possibility of accidental back-tilts.

SteelSeries Engine 3—the company's software driver for all their newer products, including the Rival 600—is an elegant, easy-to-use all-rounder with a rather minimalist design. All settings can be reached easily. The RGB lighting has eight individually customizable zones with many different effects to choose from, and all of them look great.

For $79.99, the Rival 600 has an awful lot of rivals out there—horrible pun aside, it's true. However, it has impressed me in every single aspect, even with its spicy price tag. Objectively, I cannot really bring up any cons besides it being too big for users with small hands, and that it may tilt backwards with certain grip styles. While the latter is easily fixed, the size itself isn't really up to DIY modifications. If size and shape fits, this mouse can absolutely be a top choice, and I would gladly recommend it.