With the Rival 3 Wireless from peripheral giant SteelSeries, Logitech is facing stiff competition from their best horse in the Wireless stable, the G305. Features an unusually long battery life and a high-end sensor, the Danish manufacturer’s latest creation is quite impressive – even against other competitors.
The Rival 3 Wireless also features energy efficiency, which makes RGB lighting take a back seat. Whether the wireless successor to the wired version released at the beginning of the year meets the highest gaming requirements is clear from our test.
Technical details
| Ergonomics: | Symmetrical (right-handed) |
| Sensor: | SteelSeries TrueMove Air, optical |
| Resolution: | 100 – 18.000 dpi |
| Speed: | 10.2 m/s |
| Acceleration: | 392 m/s2 |
| USB polling rate | 1,000 Hz |
| Primary button: | 60 million clicks |
| Number of keys: | 6 (4 top side, 2 left side) |
| Special keys: | mouse wheel, dpi-switch |
| Software: | 5 profiles storable, macro recording |
| Case: | 121 x 68 x 38 mm, polymer |
| Weight: | 106 g (with only one battery 96 g) |
| Connection: | 2.4 GHz radio, Bluetooth 5 |
| Power supply: | 2 AAA batteries, 400 hours runtime |
| Price: | € 39.95 * |
Battery life par excellence
The focus is on functionality as a gaming mouse. To achieve this, it must meet the highest requirements, such as long battery life, rapid transmission of all movements and keystrokes, and an ergonomic design. This much can be revealed: The Rival 3 Wireless is able to present all the points in an appropriate manner; some points even at high-end level.
First of all, the battery life of up to 400 hours should be mentioned. This is made possible by two AAA batteries. But these batteries also carry most of the weight. If you need it a bit lighter, there is the possibility to remove one battery. This reduces the total weight of the Rival 3 Wireless from 106 grams to 95 grams, which of course halves the battery life.
Energy efficiency is top priority
The long battery life, which is quite untypical for wireless gaming mice, is mainly due to the fact that SteelSeries focuses on absolute energy efficiency in its new mouse.
This is made possible above all by the newly developed Quantum 2.0 wireless technology from SteelSeries. It ensures that all components of the Rival 3 Wireless are only supplied with the most essential power, but can still give full power.
To further regulate the efficient use of energy, SteelSeries has decided to reduce the RGB lighting. Around the Rival 3 Wireless mouse wheel, only RGB LEDs light up to indicate game reactions or warnings such as low battery. While the mouse is in motion, the lighting is off, but only when lying on the table does the mouse wheel light up, so that you can find it quickly in the dark. So the new wireless mouse is not meant to embellish a setup, but to bring performance on the highest level.
The TrueMove Air Sensor
The sensor developed by PixArt has also received the energy efficiency, but this does not diminish its strong performance in any way.
On the contrary: The SteelSeries TrueMove Air sensor lives up to its name. With a resolution of 18,000 cpi, an acceleration of 40 G as well as a sampling rate of 1000 Hz per millisecond, the sensor keeps up with wired high-end gaming mice.
With ultra-low latency response time, the SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless is also suitable for fast-paced shooters and all other games where every action counts per second.
Almost like with cable
The Quantum 2.0 wireless technology also enables the Rival 3 Wireless to transmit both wirelessly and via Bluetooth. While the latter would be too slow in transmission for precise and responsive gaming, a wireless connection definitely meets these requirements.
Features of the wireless version of the SteelSeries Rival 3 include the ability to transmit all movements at 2.4 GHz. For simple computer work or when on the move, Bluetooth 5.0 comes into its own. A slider on the back of the mouse allows you to switch between the wireless functions.
Save profiles with the software
With the software from SteelSeries, five profiles can be created to meet different requirements. DPI and acceleration as well as power saving settings can thus be individually adjusted.
In addition, the software automatically changes the settings when a specific game or software is started. In addition, the Rival 3 Wireless can be coupled with PrismSync, which is responsible for the RGB lighting of all SteelSeries products.
Workmanship and price
The matt black material of the Rival 3 Wireless is exclusively the ABS plastic polymer. This brings both robustness and lightness to the design of the mouse. The mouse is designed exclusively for right-handed users and is ergonomically constructed so that the mouse can be operated with fingertips as well as with the claw handle.
The usual high-quality workmanship on the part of SteelSeries is convincing and the six mechanical buttons are designed for 60 million clicks. The rubber on the mouse wheel also convinces with both haptics and optics.
The Rival 3 Wireless is available immediately for the recommended retail price of 60 euros. For what the latest SteelSeries movement brings with it, that’s an acceptable price.
Conclusion of the SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless review
With the Rival 3 Wireless, SteelSeries is fully committed to lightweight construction and efficient energy use. Without sacrificing performance, the manufacturer from Denmark puts this into practice perfectly. Performance is ultimately determined by a very good sensor and a low-latency wireless connection. Both can compete with both wireless and wired gaming mice.
The bottom line is that the SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless comes with a real price/performance package.
SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless
Workmanship
Features
Ergonomics
Software
Value for money
93/100
The combination of extremely long battery life, stability and a fast 2.4 GHz wireless connection gives gamers all the necessary prerequisites to perform without obstacles in even the fastest games.
