Buttons, Scroll Wheel

Buttons on the Rival 650 are absolutely fantastic, which is no wonder since the Rival 600 pretty much has perfect buttons as well. Both main buttons are great; they have a very nice click feel and really good tactility. Both are very much spammable and have no unnecessary travel. The switches are self-branded and have a nominal lifetime of 60 million clicks. They are most probably made by TTC, but I'm not entirely sure on this.


Scrolling is fantastic with the Rival 600; the steps are light, but very tactile. It's easy to scroll through the steps, but the notches are very well defined. I'd call this one a perfect choice for both gaming and browsing. The encoder is made by Alps, a well-respected Japanese company that pretty much manufactures the best mechanical encoders in the world.


The middle mouse button is quite light, and again, very tactile and spammable. It's hands down among the best middle mouse buttons I've ever had the chance to try, and I very much enjoy it since it is not tiring like on a lot of mice. I hope more manufacturers take note of this and make middle clicks lighter! The switch is a standard square switch, and I couldn't find any branding on it.


There are a total of three side buttons on the Rival 650, and all of them feel pretty good. They have a short amount of travel and are not too light or very tight. The switches are small blue plunger TTC ones.


Last but not least, the CPI button, which is beneath the scroll wheel, does a good job as well. It's not overly light, but doesn't take too much force to depress either. It might be in the way a bit for some people with a flatter palm grip, but is perfectly placed for me. The switch is manufactured by Kailh and of the same design as the side buttons.

I also made a video in order to demonstrate how the buttons sound:

Mouse Feet

There are three mouse feet at the bottom of the mouse, and while they do provide a rather smooth glide, their friction could be less (such a heavy mouse makes this factor extra important). Unfortunately, there are no replacement sets provided, so once these wear out, you might need to go for aftermarket replacements (which I'd highly recommend as most are better and will definitely provide a better glide with less friction than the stock feet).

Cable

As for the cable, it's pretty light and flexible, which is great because it doesn't generate a lot of resistance while using the mouse in wired mode. It's 2 m long, which should be more than enough for most people. The connector that attaches to the mouse follows a micro USB type B standard.

Disassembling

The Rival 650 definitely isn't easy to disassemble, so I'd suggest against it unless you really have to. The main problem is that it uses Torx screws instead of standard Philips-head ones. I was lucky because I could unscrew them with a small Allen wrench, but I don't know its proper size. Once the screws are removed, the shell can be separated. There are a total of three internal cables which connect the bottom and top PCBs, and these can break rather easily, so be very careful when taking the mouse apart.