ASUS ROG Spatha X Wireless Gaming Mouse Review
Peter Donnell / 2 years ago
A Closer Look & Performance
I’ve seen a lot of gaming mice over the years, hundreds have passed through the office, and I’ve seen and tinkered with many more at various events and shows, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t one of the most unique and best looking of them all. Admittedly, it’s likely complete overkill for most users, but if you’re investing such large sums of money on a mouse, I guess it should look like it’s a pretty big deal. It’s also one of the largest mice I’ve ever seen, perhaps even bigger than the XL versions Roccat used to make. If you’ve got big hands, long fingers, or just like a chunky mouse, this fits the bill.
There are many things going on down the left side alone, with six thumb buttons laid out to look like the ASUS RoG eye. It looks a bit crazy, but honestly, they’re all uniquely shaped and have a range of angled edges that makes them exceptionally easy to index. There’s also this gorgeous digital design rubber grip on the side, which looks stunning. I’ve seen that texture on a vast range of RoG products in recent years too, so it should all match up nicely.
The right side looks great too, with more of those aggressive ergonomic shapes. It looks like it would be uncomfortable, but honestly, it feels very natural in my hand. The various shapes cut into the mouse provide comfortable resting points and grips for various play styles, but really its larger size is best suited to a wide and lazy palm rest.
The left and right mouse buttons are mounted with their own panels, and they’ve both scooped out, so your finger more naturally rests on the sweet spot.
Tucked into the left-wing, there are two more programmable buttons. And of course, there’s that heavily recessed scroll wheel, which is also clickable.
The underside of the ASUS RoG Spatha X Wireless looks really cool, with all that magnesium alloy chassis on show, and a bunch of low friction pads to help improve the glide of the mouse.
Located in the middle, you’ll the latest custom-tuned optical sensor, which can deliver an impressive 19,000 DPI, with a 1000 Hz polling rate in both 2.4 GHz and wired modes.
There’s also a handy master power switch and pairing button here, should you need them. Plus, just next to that there are two gold-plated pins, which are used to charge the mouse when it’s placed on the dock.
Or you can use the included paracord USB Type-C cable to use the mouse in wired mode, which will also charge the built-in battery too. However, since the mouse can do up to 67 hours with the RGB off, and about half that with them on, you’ll not be reaching for the cable or the dock too often.
There’s an included tool, that allows you to open up the mouse.
Once you’re in there, you’ll find the left and right switches are in push-fit sockets.
You can simply pull the switches out at your pleasure. However, the new ASUS RoG Micro Switch are rated at 70 million clicks, a big step up from the Omron 20M ones in the old Spatha mouse!
While the click is subjective, I really do like the RoG switches. They have a light response but the click is well defined. It’s got a good sound and tactile feel to it, and there’s no pre or post-travel from the design, making it feel very tight and responsive overall.
The sensor isn’t quite as advanced as the last ASUS mouse I tested, but that really doesn’t matter much, as it still feels exceptional. It’s got a huge tracking range and having up to 19,000 DPI to play around with is plenty for me, and you can even dial it as low as 100 DPI if you really needed to. The optical sensor is very smooth and really, I couldn’t find a fault with it. It’s great for tinkering in Photoshop, and it’s good enough for some serious competitive gaming too.
Having 12 programmable buttons is great too, I’m used to a many-button mouse configuration, and it’s great for throwing in a few macros and shortcuts. I like a few text macros, some basics like copy/paste, and a few gaming-specific ones too. However, you can set up buttons for profiles, RGB settings, DPI level, sniper modes, and so much more, it’s really up to you.
What I do like is that while the side buttons look a little crazy, they took very little brain power to adapt to, they’re easily indexed and feel very natural. Plus, with the RGB on, they look really cool the way it forms the RoG eye.
There’s a little more RGB as the back, with, well it’s another RoG eye, but who cares, it looks great!
Then you have a little more up in the mouse wheel, and the control button behind it. While five profiles can be stored on the mouse, including all the macros, DPI levels, etc, you can have unlimited via the desktop software. It has all the usual effects built-in, but you can customise it far beyond those too.
There’s an extra RGB zone on the dock too, which can be customized in the same way. Plus, RGB or not, the dock looks pretty cool on its own. It’s great if you’re using the mouse in wireless mode, as it provides a place to store it, it shows off the mouse in all its glory, and it keeps it charged between uses too.
It’s got a magnetic mount too, so just offer up the mouse and it snaps into place.
Finally, the software suite is pretty cool, offering all the usual options for performance, RGB, etc. Plus, it gave me access to some rather dope RoG desktop wallpapers.