Tekeurope’s managing director John Barrett decided it was high time he upgraded his gaming mouse and has decided to buy and review the SteelSeries Rival 710.

The Rival 710 from Steelseries is easily one of the most comfortable ergonomic gaming mice I’ve ever used. I originally purchased this mouse intending to use it for gaming, mainly strategy games at that. Yet as I used it more and more I found that I enjoyed using the mouse for my day-to-day as well, as I’ve now started to take it to work as well.

I would say that this is because of its design as it’s not a small mouse with it also having grips on the side helping your hand fit around the mouse for long sessions at the computer, perfect for work and long strategy games. As for the mouse’s weight albeit I was sceptical of this mouse as it is a bit on the heavier side. Yet after a few days of using it, I found that having a mouse on the heavier side is perfect for me, making it easier to navigate carefully in games with a lot of UI.

As for the Rival 710’s aesthetics, it has a simplistic and sleek design with a little bit of RGB in there to add some colour. I honestly prefer peripherals like this as having too much RGB/colour tends to distract me from the task at hand with lights everywhere. The mouse also features a OLED screen on the side of the mouse, quite a novel addition but not without its uses. It’s customisable and can provide notifications when in-game, although it’s of no consequence to me I can imagine how it would be useful to others.

Now the only thing I have to mention that I’m surprised with is its lack of customisation. Although I don’t tend to need that many buttons on my mouse there is a noticeable lack of customisation available, with it having a minimal amount of customisable buttons on the mouse it does limit its use in some games such as MMORPGs and MOBAs. Although it does make up for that with its OLED screen as that can prove to be useful with its custom notifications in games. Depending on what game you are playing it can tell you when you are on low health or if you need to reload but I think that if you are low on health you won’t be looking at your mouse.

The mouse also has haptic feedback capabilities, meaning that it will vibrate/respond to certain actions when in games, like if you reload or shoot a gun. Although this doesn’t affect me much personally as I tend not to play games that use it but I think it’s quite a nifty feature that could immerse you more into a game.

In conclusion, I think the mouse works perfectly for me with its minimalistic design and ergonomic grip, but what I will say is that if you are after a mouse for FPS games then this may not be the one for you. As its weight may make your movements more sluggish after a while but that is down to you. I would honestly suggest this mouse to anyone who enjoys a long gaming session.