Having more or less perfected the gaming mouse for the home user, peripheral companies have set their sights on the next great frontier: eSports. The SteelSeries Rival 500 ($80) has adopted the kitchen sink approach to mouse design, with a plethora of buttons, bells and whistles aimed at competitive...

Large; comfortable design; Innovative tactile feedback; Sensible software; Novel take on eSports mouse

Steep learning curve; No onboard profiles

First thing: This mouse is made for MMO and MOBA. It is around 120g so it might be too heavy for FPS. This mouse has vibration function which is probably why it is heavier than an ordinary mouse.

Overall, in the SteelSeries Rival 500 we're looking at a very comfortable mouse with an excellent sensor and a slew of programmable buttons. Every feature has been implemented well by SteelSeries, from the click-down buttons to the tactile feedback, which was tight and didn't interfere with our use...

Gone are the days of normal gaming mice. These days we have gaming mice that are designed

– 15 programmable buttons; – Side buttons are actually functional; – Tactile feedback; – Comfortable design; – Engine 3 software

– Could be too cumbersome for people looking for something more streamlined; – Can only quickswitch two different DPI levels

Please don't hate me, but I'm going to mention the fact of how many gaming mice there are right now. With that out of the way, there are so many gaming mice around right now, it's getting real hard to do something that is truly innovative in the market right now.

Excellent quality; Great aesthetics; Pixart 3360 Optical Sensor; Ground breaking design that's perfect for MMORPGs; Engine 3 Software is still the best

Buttons closest to the front of the mouse are hard to reach and there's no tactile bump to distinguish different buttons around the thumb

Overall, it's a mouse with a lot of options and plenty of style. It wouldn't look out of place in a gaming set-up or in a more professional environment, due to its sleek core design and more extravagant LED lighting.

I love testing gaming gear and, in some way, for one of the strangest reasons: No one else in my house likes gaming gear. If I give them a headset designed for hours of comfort, maximum sound quality, and perfect voice capturing – they use speakers.

We've spoken a few times here at Techaeris about getting a leg up on fellow gamers with better game controllers, keyboards, and mice. MOBA/MMO gamers are no exception and while there are a number of multi-button gaming mice on the market, the SteelSeries Rival 500 takes a new approach to the...

Easy to use, great customization features, comfortable; Has the ability to bind games and applications to configuration setups; Useful for both gaming and office applications

A braided cable, or swappable cables like the Rival 700, would be a nice addition; Only three games work with Gamesense

If you have spent some time studying biology, you will realize your thumb is the most important digit on the human hand. Because of its large range of movement and high relative strength, as well as the fact humans have what are known as opposable thumbs, we rely on it to do a whole lot of things.

We recently reviewed the Steelseries Rival 700 Gaming mouse and found it to be an exceptional take on the genre. With superb lighting, swappable components, an OLED display and vibration feedback, it moved the gaming mouse goalposts considerably further on.