SteelSeries Rival 310 Review: Ergonomic and Esports-Friendly

Our Verdict

With a great sensor, an ergonomic design and well-designed software, the SteelSeries Rival 310 is a solid option for near gamers.

For

Keen Performance
Attractive design
Very comfortable
Vivid lighting

Confronting

Only six buttons
No adjustable weights
Right-handed option simply

Tom's Guide Verdict

With a great sensor, an ergonomic pattern and well-designed software, the SteelSeries Rival 310 is a solid option for most gamers.

Pros

+
Slap-up Functioning
+
Attractive design
+
Very comfortable
+
Vivid lighting

Cons

-
Only 6 buttons
-
No adaptable weights
-
Right-handed option only

Competitive gamers need a mouse that can proceed upward with fast-paced activity. At $lx, the right-handed, ergonomic SteelSeries Rival 310 promises to deliver responsive operation for the esports crowd, as well as virtually other gamers.

The Rival 310 doesn't take the Sensei 310's ambidextrous design or its 8 programmable buttons (the Rival has six), simply both use SteelSeries' new TrueMove 3 optical sensors and feature a dots-per-inch (DPI) sensitivity of up to 12,000. The solid SteelSeries Engine software too allows gamers to easily control lighting effects and ready upwardly game profiles. Given its ease of utilize and consistent functioning, I found the Rival 310 to be an enjoyable and reliable peripheral for both serious gaming and day-to-twenty-four hours use.

Design

The SteelSeries Rival 310 combines a pocket-size matte pattern with a skillful number of features. All six of its buttons are programmable, but you lot'll most probable want to keep the default actions for the right and left buttons, likewise as the scroll wheel. Otherwise, the DPI switcher and the two side navigation buttons offer good opportunities for customization.

Between the contoured shape and the comfy rubber grips on each side, the Rival 310 is very comfortable to use. With a make clean surface and moderately narrow dimensions (4.9 x ii.4 x 1.vii inches), the Rival 310 accommodated my average-size hands well when I tried out both a claw grip and a palm grip. It does experience a fleck on the lighter side at 4.three ounces, but serious esports players might capeesh its ease of motility.

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While the main click buttons offer distinct and solid feedback, in that location is a significant gap between them and the base, which might affect their longevity. The angular navigation keys on the left-hand side are large and felt solid, though they are positioned a little loftier upwards on the side for my preference. The whorl wheel and the SteelSeries logo on the dorsum one-half of the mouse both lite up vividly and accent the design, without being ostentatious.

The Rival 310's underside has a long sliding pad on the front section and two shorter angled ones at the back, which facilitate smoothen movements even without a mouse pad — though you'll probably want to buy 1 anyhow to preserve them. The middle of the base of operations houses the optical sensor, while some other SteelSeries logo graces the back half.

The nondetachable USB cord is reinforced at both ends, and SteelSeries advertises the wire as both flexible and lightweight. All the same, I found the connections on the flimsy side, especially at areas of potentially loftier tension. For example, the wire's padded connection at the mouse finish scrapes against its hard plastic edges without much coercion, which could wear it down over fourth dimension.

Features

The Rival 310's technical prowess matches its attractive design. The new SteelSeries TrueMove 3 Sensor, which is specifically engineered for esports gaming, offers 1-to-1 tracking between 100 and 3,500 DPI, and promises reduced jittering between 3,500 and 12,000 DPI. Thanks to this new sensor and its wired connection, I didn't experience any input lag, and movements across all applications felt smooth and natural.

The SteelSeries Engine software paired speedily with the Rival 310 after a small firmware update, and I could access a broad assortment of customization options without upshot.

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In the software, you lot can customize the functions of each push, equally well equally set the logo's lighting manner and color scheme. Yous can besides set two DPI levels to switch between, as well as the polling rate (how frequently the mouse communicates with the estimator).

Some other tab called Engine Apps organizes a collection of apps for configuring reactive lighting effects. For example, there'south the Prism app for syncing lighting profiles across other SteelSeries devices, as well as 1 specifically for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that lights upwards the mouse to correspond with certain actions in-game. The final section, Library, lets users customize settings for specific applications or game genres.

Performance

As expected, the Rival 310 performed exceptionally well in-game. When I played some of the most popular esports titles, such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Overwatch, all of my movements tracked well, and I didn't encounter whatsoever lag when firing off circular after round of ammo or using special abilities. I institute toggling betwixt DPI rates on the wing especially useful in Overwatch, since characters with different weapon types require different levels of aiming precision.

Both games have uncomplicated command schemes, so I never felt that I needed more than than the Rival 310's six buttons to perform well. Notwithstanding, I could imagine scenarios where a few extra buttons would be useful for more complex deportment in other games, such equally massively multiplayer online part-playing games.

When I tested more coincidental games, including the heavily mouse-dependent Stardew Valley, I completed time-consuming tasks, such as watering plants and fighting enemies in the mines, without much fatigue. Similarly, in the fast-paced Galaxian-style arcade shooter 1982, the quick tracking helped me move my ship from side to side and burn off rapid bursts of missiles.

Despite its gaming pedigree, the Rival 310 was more than adequate for twenty-four hour period-to-day office tasks such equally word processing and browsing the web. Fifty-fifty the vivid lighting furnishings were attractive enough to blend into an part workspace.

Bottom Line

The SteelSeries Rival 310 is a capable gaming mouse, despite a few drawbacks. Information technology's well built and feels great, and its TrueMove iii sensor and wired connection ensure polish performance. The SteelSeries Engine software is also peak-notch, but the mouse itself has a limited number of customizable buttons and doesn't offering adjustable weights.

Left-handed users, too equally gamers who demand more than buttons, should opt for the Rival 310's ambidextrous, eight-button cousin, the Sensei 310, for the same price. Our top overall mouse, the Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum, too costs about the same, but it has adaptable weights, 11 customizable buttons and the aforementioned DPI range.

The Rival 310 mouse is hard non to recommend, and will surely discover its identify in the hands of both casual and professional gamers. It's a good value, at $59.99, but you still may desire to consider alternatives with better features before pulling the trigger.