In order to be light, a gaming mouse does not necessarily have to be simple, poorly equipped and have a lot of holes in the body to reduce weight, in which dust will also be stuffed. This statement is proved by the ASUS ROG Gladius 3 Wireless Aimpoint wireless mouse, which with a weight of 79 grams can offer its user a lot. And this will be discussed later in this review.
ROG Gladius 3 Wireless Aimpoint package contents
The mouse comes with quite a generous amount of kit: a pouch to store the mouse, stickers on the sides to improve hand grip, interchangeable switches for the main keys and a tool to remove them, a cable for charging and use, and an adapter for connecting a wireless signal receiver.
The latter is equipped with a clip, thanks to which you can fix the receiver on the mat as close as possible to the mouse in case of using wireless mode.
Design
Compared to the previous generation of Gladius, the third has become more modern, noticeably updated with smoother lines. The mouse is sold in two colors — black and white, and I tested it in both.
To be honest, I hardly used the black version, because I didn’t see anything special in it. It is practical and… that’s it. The only thing that somehow dilutes its appearance is the illumination of the ROG logo on the surface that rests on the palm.
But white is another matter, as far as I’m concerned, even though I understand that such a color is not suitable for any setup. Personally, I liked the combination of gray and white.
I was also surprised by the practicality of the white model. During use, I did not notice any dust or visible fingerprints, or the case somehow changing its color.
On the lower surface, in addition to the legs and the sensor, there is a PC connection mode switch, as well as a button to switch profiles that you can configure in the software.
Ergonomics, weight
As for a wireless mouse, the Gladius 3 turned out to be quite light, despite the fact that the battery is installed in the middle. You can hardly feel the mouse in your hand, but it is made of strong plastic and I have no complaints about the quality of the assembly. 79 grams is, of course, not a record, but for a modern wireless mouse, it is very good.
Like the previous models of the Gladius line, the ergonomic shape of the case remained in the third generation. The ideal grip option, in my opinion, is “palm”. If you like to move the mouse by lifting it, then you will need additional pads, thanks to which the mouse becomes more grippy for your fingers. But if you don’t lift the mouse, it fits perfectly into your hand.
The mouse is equipped with 6 buttons: a pair of main ones, a scroll wheel, a button behind it and two side keys under the thumb of the right hand. I will talk about the main keys a little later, but I have no complaints about all the others.
They are tactilely highlighted and clearly pressed. The only complaint was about the scroll wheel, namely its clarity and the sound of operation. In my copy, it rattled a little, but it worked generally well. There are no complaints about the function of the middle key, the wheel works clearly. But a rather cheap sound in a rather expensive mouse is a drawback.
Equipment, functionality of ROG Gladius 3 Wireless Aimpoint
I’ll start with the switches under the main keys and the process of replacing them. In this model, ASUS used ASUS Micro Switch optical switches with a resource of 70 million clicks.
The switches with which the mouse is equipped “out of the box” have a rather short but noticeable stroke and a loud click. Here everything is as it should be, clear and tangible. If something happened to the switches, or you wanted to put switches with different characteristics, then it is done quite simply.
To do this, it is enough to unscrew two screws on the lower panel and remove the surface under the palm. The switches are easily removed and no additional manipulations such as soldering are required here.
Additional complete switches are marked D2F-01F, they are manufactured by Omron and differ in their tactile and sound characteristics. Their stroke is longer, a little muffled and not so clear compared to already installed switches. This is the interesting feature of ROG Gladius 3 Wireless Aimpoint.
As you have already noticed, this model received the “Aimpoint” in the name. There is also ROG Gladius 3 Wireless on sale without it, and this means a slightly simpler sensor in terms of characteristics. In our model, the sensor supports a resolution of up to 36,000 dpi and the ability to track a surface area of 650 inches per second.
These are not unique indicators in this segment, but they are among the largest. As I expected, there were no problems with the sensor during use. It works as it should both at low resolution indicators and at high ones, which are already not very comfortable to play.
The mouse supports three options for connecting to a PC — Bluetooth, a 2.4 GHz radio channel using a micro-receiver, and a wired option, during which the battery is also charged.
In all variants, the mouse proved itself excellent, even with Bluetooth connection in an apartment with a large number of wireless devices, no problems arose.
Using a mouse with a connected wire is very comfortable, it is light, soft and unnoticeable in operation. I also liked the battery life, which was about 100 hours in Bluetooth mode. In a week of daily use, I never managed to drain the mouse, and I didn’t notice any self-discharge when I was idle, and that’s because I left the logo backlight on, albeit at minimum brightness.
To configure the ASUS ROG Gladius 3 Wireless Aimpoint, the Armoury Crate utility is used, which has long been a hub for the company’s peripherals. In the utility, it is quite convenient to adjust the sensor parameters, the functionality of the keys, and synchronize the backlight with other ASUS components that support the ASUS Aura function.
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