Closer Examination

Looking at it from this angle, we can see that there is a nice rubberized grip where your pinky fingers would go to ensure you can grip the mouse without slipping at all. The mouse is contoured, which allows for a comfortable grip to make sure long gaming sessions don't become painful.


On the left-hand side of the mouse are three buttons and the OLED display. We will talk about the display a little later on, but the buttons work well and have a nice feel to them. The button that is further forward, near the screen, is too far away for my thumb to reach with a palm grip, but I have very small hands; I imagine anyone with average hands would be able to reach it perfectly fine.


The main buttons have very clicky switches with a very satisfying feel to them; you know you have clicked them and they are fast and responsive. The scroll wheel has a somewhat dampened feel to it. It scrolls nicely whilst giving good feedback, but doesn't click too much. The button behind it allows you to scroll through DPI settings and again has a satisfying feel to it without being too loud or hard to push.


We can see the multiple curves and contours the SteelSeries Rival 700 has by looking at it from above; it has been crafted for comfort with some customizable options for you to get the feel you desire.


The first bit of customization comes in form of a removable back. Although there are no extra backs included with the mouse, you can purchase a pack of two from the SteelSeries website; one has a glossy finish and the other has a textured anti-sweat finish.


Looking at the bottom, we can see the sensor SteelSeries used - the very highly regarded PixArt PMW3360 is an optical sensor with a CPI range of 100 - 16,000 and a 1ms (1000 Hz) polling rate.


If the PixArt PMW3360 doesn't really do it for you and you prefer a laser sensor, you can actually switch it out for the PixArt 9800, which, again, is very highly regarded. This laser module does cost around $30 so be mindful of that if it is something that interests you.


As has already been mentioned, you get two cables with the SteelSeries Rival 700; the first is a fully sleeved 2-meter cable with gold-plated USB connectors and the second is not sleeved and only 1 meter long, but with gold-plated connectors also. I do like that you get an option between cables, but would have personally preferred both to be 2 meters long. When not at home, I like to use an unsleeved cable so that it doesn't snag on any surroundings, but 1 meter is just too short for me whilst out and about. When at home, 1 meter is fine, but I like it braided at home since I have a mouse bungee and it holds a sleeved cable better. I know these are personal preferences and I could just grab a USB extension for whilst away from home, but I thought I would mention it anyway. As you can see, SteelSeries used a micro USB connector that connects to the mouse; it is made in such a way that only their cables will connect.


One of the features I often see discussed or advertised is the OLED display. I will be honest here and say this: it is a gimmick. Ok, you can make it show your in-game stats in certain games, show your Rival's sensitivity, or just the TechPowerUP logo, but let's face it, all of that is shown on a screen in front of your face, you don't need to look at your mouse for such information, and chances are if you do, you will either be getting fragged if in game or are procrastinating and not getting on with the task at hand. I am not saying it isn't a fun feature, it is, and I spent a long time playing with the different animated gifs, pictures and also designed crude images whilst at a LAN party, but none of these options improve the functionality or performance of the mouse and are mainly just for show. I have created an animated gif in the following section to show you what that looks like to let you make up your own mind.