MORE THAN RGB

RGB LIGHTS SURROUND A SOLID WIRED GAMING MOUSE

The Pulsefire Surge from HyperX is a wired gaming mouse with solid specs and 360-degree ring of RGB lighting. The heart of the mouse is its optical sensor, which in this case is the Pixart PMW3389; a sensor with a native 16,000 DPI (or CPI) resolution. A pair of Omron switches handle clicking duties for the left/right mouse buttons, and on paper this seems like a pretty good option – with the added flair of RGB effects. So how did it perform? Let’s find out!

 

 

Out of the box the Pulsefire Surge looks quite conventional – more like a standard productivity mouse than a gaming product. This is a compact symmetrical design (aside from the two side buttons along the left edge). Without RGB lighting enabled this could pass for any number of inexpensive or OEM mice on a desk – but we will discover that actual use paints a very different picture.

 

 

The mouse exterior has a matte, slightly velvet-like finish with a smoother feel to the top than the sides, which have a bit more grip. Weight is not adjustable, and is 100g or 130g with the cable (or 3.52 – 4.59 oz). The design does offer flexibility in grip preference, working well for finger or claw style grips, and shaped to support palm grips as well.

 

 

When using a smaller mouse like this I have a finger-style grip with just the tips of my fingers and no palm, and while a palm grip felt fine I personally didn’t feel like I had as much control with my palm on the mouse (this depends a lot on hand size and personal preference, of course).

 

 

Beyond material feel and grip style/comfort, button presses themselves to have a solid feel – particularly the left/right buttons, thanks to the Omron switches. HyperX’s use of these switches is a selling point of course, and if you have not experienced these in other mice I won’t exaggerate and suggest it is akin to the feeling you get when going from a standard membrane keyboard to one with mechanical key switches – but the buttons do have a pleasantly solid ‘click’ to them.

 

 

The scroll wheel has a soft rubber feel and a segmented (softly clicking) action – not free wheeling as some are. The action of the wheel was smooth and resistence is only slight, with the ‘click’ effect more felt than heard.

 

 

The pads on the bottom allowed for smooth movement over a variety of surfaces, and it moved freely on both a dedicated pad and bare desktop, though for precision tracking I would still use a pad. I can’t speak for long-term durability of the pads in my relatively short time with the mouse, but they seem to be of good quality.

Usage Impressions

After using the Pulsefire Surge exclusively for a few weeks I have grown used to the precise tracking and solid feel that it provides. The form-factor still feels a little small to me, and overall design (other than lighting) is understated, but it works quite well. The closest comparison I can come up with as far as feel goes is my old SteelSeries Sensei mouse, though the Pulsefire Surge is a smaller mouse, particularly towards the palm area.

 

 

Another consideration is the Pulsefire Surge’s RGB lighting, which is fully controllable using the NGenuity software – including the option to turn all lighting off if you have RGB fatigue. Regardless of your feelings about RGB lighting it is very well executed here, and takes things to another level with the full 360-degree lighting bar, rather than just having a zone or logo lit up (and the logo lights up as well, as you can see).

 

 

In the screenshot above you can see the option to select the preset optical sensitivity levels, with native 16,000 DPI the highest level (for those times when you need to throw the cursor from one side of your display to the other with minimal movement). The button below the scroll wheel allows you to cycle between these settings, and if you are running the NGenuity software a notification briefly appears onscreen to let you know which DPI setting has been engaged. I liked the 3200 setting for most of my uses, but started getting used to the 6400 setting by the end – with anything higher just feeling too fast. Having the option to select your own preset levels is certainly a nice feature.