Steelseries Rival 3
With good performance for just $70, the Rival 3 is a highly recommended budget mouse.
SteelSeries newest entry-level gaming mouse only costs $70, which is roughly half of what many people would expect to spend on a gaming mouse. That low price comes with RGB, acceptable performance with gaming as well as productivity and fewer limitations that you might expect.
But if you find cable drag annoying or are seeking the best gaming mouse around, this budget peripheral won’t be enough.
The Rival 3 looks a lot like the SteelSeries Sensei Ten released in late 2019. There are some important differences – especially the Rival 3’s lack of side buttons on its right casing – but it would be easy to tell they were made by the same company even if they didn’t feature the SteelSeries logo. Basically, the Rival 3 looks like a smaller take on the Sensei Ten.
The Rival 3 measures 4.75 inches long, 2.3 inches wide in the front, 2.64 inches wide in the back and is 0.85 inches tall in the front and 1.49 inches tall in the back. It weighs 2.7 ounces, and if it were any smaller, it would feel like a toy.
SteelSeries equipped the Rival 3 with six buttons: the left mouse button, right mouse button, two side buttons, a scroll click button and a DPI switch. That should be plenty for most people, especially since the buttons are customizable via the SteelSeries Engine 3 software available for Windows and macOS (more about customization in a bit).
The Rival 3 is light enough to use for extended periods but not so light that it’s easy to accidentally fling it across your mouse pad. The mouse fit my smaller hand well (more so than the DeathAdder V2), and my palm grip always felt good. Unlike the DeathAdder V2’s sandpaperlike side texture, the Rival 3’s casing didn’t irritate me during longer gaming sessions.
I enjoyed using the Rival 3 in my usual rotation of first-person shooters (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Apex Legends and Overwatch) and didn’t experience any tracking-related issues with the CPI set to 1,600 or 2,000. Swapping between those settings in the heat of the moment is slightly difficult, thanks to the small DPI switch, but doable.
It’s hard to believe the SteelSeries Rival 3 only costs $30. Is it the most solidly built gaming mouse on the market? No. It’s not the most customizable mouse, either, nor the best performing. Anyone who’s looking for the best of the best shouldn’t waste a second glance on the Rival 3.
For everyone else, however, it’s easy
The Rival 3 is light enough to use for extended periods. .
to recommend the Rival 3. It performs well despite having a limited CPI range, offers some customization options via SteelSeries Engine 3 and has attractive RGB lighting that would be hard to find on similarly priced gaming mice. It’s also comfortable to use.
My only wish would be for SteelSeries to ditch the RGB lighting and include a braided cable instead. Yes, that would make the Rival 3 look less distinctive, but it would also improve in-game performance.