Steelseries Rival 710 Gaming Mouse Review

A Closer Look and Performance

The mouse looks fantastic but rather toned down from many other gaming mice. There aren’t any bright and glossy plastics everywhere as one would expect these days. If anything, the mouse looks quite stealthy and dull thanks to its soft-touch rubber grip coatings and matte finish.

Even down the left side, it’s more rubber grip coating, more textured side panels, and what little glossy plastic there is to be found is there for the OLED display. Of course, we’ll see that part in a moment. There is a tiny hint of colour thanks to those tiny orange nubs. What are they? nothing more than a subtle thumb placement guide; similar to the bumps on your F and J keys on your keyboard.

Sweeping Ergonomics

The shape of this mouse feels incredibly well refined. It sits quite low, it stops short at the back, it slopes in on the left and swells out on the right. It has a “similar” shape to many mice, it feels… more unique yet better suited to your hand than most. Sure, it’s right-handed only, but damn does it feel good to grip. Little details like the length of the mouse, or the angular design of the larger than usual side buttons. It’s all tuned for easy operation and feels very natural for it. Of course, that’s subjective, but you’ll be hard pushed to find someone that wouldn’t agree with me here.

Precision Design

This is an RGB gaming mouse, although I must admit it looks pretty fantastic with the lights off. The matte finish of the mouse, plus that white logo at the back, tick all right boxes for me. Of course, you can turn the LED off if you so desire. I like the backstop on the mouse too, with just a subtle inlay of the product name. It’s impressive how the mouse looks both angular and curvy though, especially given it feels so comfortable in the hand.

Control

I must admit that the texture of the mouse does make it look sort of dirty. However, that seems to only be the case when 1) you’re looking at it too hard and 2) someone (me) uses their powerful camera flash to illuminate it. It honestly looks much cleaning and stealthy in real life.

The mouse buttons are each mounted on their own panels, giving them more accurate tactile feedback and response. Of course, tucked into the middle, you’ll find a large scroll wheel, which is heavily recessed so it doesn’t get in the way. Finally, a single switch in the top-mid for DPI profiles. Of course, the whole thing is fully programmable, so you can change the configuration up if you really need to.

Sensor Action

The sensor is their latest TrueMove model, and honestly, it’s as good as good gets. I’ve had the pleasure of using this sensor tech in a few of their other gaming mice. Sure, you have to look bloody hard to find a “bad” sensor these days. However, there’s a reason eSports gamers love this one, as it lives up to its marketing hype time and time again. With CPI of 100-12000 in 100 CPI increments, 50G acceleration, and 1:1 tracking, it will keep up with even the most aggressive players out there.

Grippy McGripFace

I have rather long fingers, and as such, there are only a few mice I’ve ever used that actually fit my hand. The ergonomics of this mouse tend to allow me to keep it further forward in my hand, making it very easy to control without putting excess weight on the mouse. It works really well for palm grip and would do so even better for those who don’t have larger hands.

That flat shape at the very back of the mouse allows you to bump your wrist up tight to the mouse, getting a strong hand position for a claw/fingertip grip play style too. How you hold it is really up to you, as the mouse feels very versatile for each grip type.

Customisation

Plus, in either grip type, the mouse gives you easy to control side buttons, with the FW/BK navigation, as well as a sniper-style switch towards the front. Remember, it’s all programmable, so you could use that as a DPI-dropping snipper button, profile change, or a hotkey to change the OLED notifications. The OLED is nothing new for Steelseries, but it’s a welcome return. I’m sure it’s handy for showing DPI levels and such, but as with our previous Steelseries review I’d put a custom logo on it and leave it, but that’s just me.

Rumble in the Jungle

The party tricks just keep on coming with this mouse. Sure, it has the OLED, and customisation buttons, and a pretty dope sensor. However, it also has two-zone RGB lighting, and a tactile rumble too. Now, I don’t know why this isn’t more common, but I think it’s bloody fantastic. Just a little haptic “knock” when your ammo or health is low is a real game changer. Even better if you like to play with a minimal or hidden UI.