Expert’s Rating
Pros
- 18 simply programmable buttons
- Weighs solely 89 grams
- Quick and responsive
- Dual Bluetooth 5.0 and a pair of.4Ghz wi-fi
Cons
- Some buttons on the aspect grid are exhausting to achieve
Our Verdict
The SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wireless is light-weight and fast, and contains loads of customizable choices for severe MMO/MOBA players. It’s top-of-the-line mice we’ve examined.
Price When Reviewed
SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wireless: $149.99
Best Prices Today: SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wireless
$116.35
Free
The SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wireless is a uncommon discover amongst gaming mice in that it has 18 programmable buttons however weighs simply 89 grams. These two elements alone ought to delight players—particularly MOBA and MMO gamers on the lookout for extra buttons to deploy instructions and macros. Even higher, the Aerox 9 Wireless backs this up with a fast 18,000 CPI sensor and twin Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.
The secret sauce to its light-weight design is a honeycomb-mesh protecting that runs nearly the complete size of the mouse. Apart from protecting its weight in test, this design additionally provides the Aerox 9 Wireless a futuristic look, and offers a superb birds-eye view of the flashy RGB lighting inside.
The Aerox 9 Wireless can be extraordinarily comfy—so long as you utilize a palm or fingertip grip. If you’re extra of a claw-grip participant, this mouse in all probability isn’t for you, since its punctuated prime could be a little awkward in opposition to your fingertips.
SteelSeries Aerox 9 design and construct
Opening the field, my first impression was that the mouse is pretty giant, however has a minimalist profile. There aren’t any fancy curves, flaps or flares such as you would possibly see in different gaming mice.
The 18 buttons appear very properly positioned for one’s fingers. Apart from the 2 most important ones on the highest, there’s a button that’s simply reachable by your center finger on the top-center behind the mouse wheel. This button enables you to cycle by way of 5 totally different CPI profiles that alter the mouse’s sensitivity ranges.
The mouse wheel itself has three buttons in a single, together with each left and proper tilt buttons, however the primary physique of buttons is a grid of 12 situated on the left-hand aspect. This grid is accessible by way of your thumb and is coloured grey, which contrasts properly with the mouse’s black matte aesthetic.
The Aerox 9’s prime mesh design will probably be acquainted to players who’ve used the equally designed SteelSeries Aerox 5. If you haven’t, you’d be forgiven for considering it compromises performance. This is just not the case. Despite its plenitude of holes, the mouse is remarkably sturdy. The prime mesh didn’t transfer an iota once I examined it, holding its kind throughout intense gameplay.
The SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wireless boasts a honeycomb prime that helps the mouse obtain its 89 gram light-weight design.
Dominic Bayley/IDG
The RBG lighting can be a winner. It’s internalized within the mouse physique, however it’s no much less spectacular than in mice which have exterior RGB lighting. It’s cut up into three pyramidal zones, which produce some dazzling results as the sunshine ripples across the mouse’s internal circuitry.
Being capable of peer inside and see all that circuitry unnerved me a bit of at first, since I typically hold a cup of espresso simply inches away from my mouse pad and was a bit of involved about spillage. But in response to SteelSeries, the internals are protected by an IP54-rated Aquabarrier, which helped put my thoughts comfy.
One shocking advantage of the distinctive “open top” design was that my hand obtained much less sweaty on sizzling days. Without a stable lump of plastic beneath it, the additional aeration proved very comfy in prolonged gaming periods.
SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wireless Performance
SteelSeries has armed the Aerox 9 Wireless with its extremely succesful proprietary 18,000 CPI TrueMove Air sensor, which incorporates 400 IPS monitoring and 40G acceleration. Admittedly, it isn’t as fast because the Razer Naga Pro’s 20,000 DPI optical sensor. Still, it’s confirmed itself worthy in different aggressive SteelSeries gaming mice and it carried out properly in my checks.
Trying out the Aerox 9 Wireless in Call of Duty: Black Ops, it felt gentle and straightforward to maneuver. The sensor had no issues maintaining with my fast hand actions, be they lengthy or quick. The mouse’s monitoring additionally appeared extremely correct, and pinpointing targets was a breeze. Plus, the stable, high-shaped prime supplied loads of stability in my palm grip once I wanted to make repetitive actions.
Helping the Aerox 9 glide easily throughout my desk are PTFE glide skates on the underside. There’s one in the back and front, in addition to one across the mouse’s sensor. These labored like a dream, even once I wasn’t utilizing a mouse mat.
The honeycomb design provides the Aerox 9 additional aeration, making it very comfy in prolonged gaming periods.
Dominic Bayley/IDG
The most important buttons felt comfy, too. They have a contoured middle that cradled my fingers completely in a pure grip. However, they aren’t the widest of buttons, and players with giant fingers might desire a bit of extra room right here.
While most premium gaming mice function comparably quick switches, there will be delicate variations in how they reply and of their sturdiness. SteelSeries has given the Aerox 9’s Golden Micro IP54 mechanical switches an 80 million click on sturdiness score, which is 10 million clicks greater than the Razer Naga Pro. To me, they felt comfortable and clicky. They additionally had minimal journey, which was ultimate for video games through which I wanted to click on quick.
To take a look at the aspect grid of buttons (that are with out mechanical switches), I mapped instructions in an previous favourite MMORPG, Gloria Victis. On the entire, the grid was a pleasure to make use of and tremendously simplified my gameplay. The majority of buttons had been straightforward to search out and responsive. However, I did discover myself having to stretch my thumb out to achieve for buttons 3 and 6—this regardless of SteelSeries having neatly organized the buttons in three clearly outlined traces. Still, this was by no means a significant downside that affected my gameplay.
On the upside, the grid buttons are fairly agency, so that you’re unlikely to set off them by mistake while you don’t wish to.
Aerox 9’s twin connectivity contains each Bluetooth 5.0 and a pair of.4Ghz wi-fi choices. As a laptop computer reviewer, I discovered this performance extremely helpful for leaping between laptops. I might hold the dongle inserted for gaming in a single rig and use Bluetooth whereas writing a evaluate on one other. You will want to verify your laptop computer has a USB-C port to plug within the Wi-Fi dongle, although.
The SteelSeries Aerox 9 is rated for 150 hours of battery life, which is a good period of time that gained’t see you speeding to plug it in each time you play. The caveat is that that battery life is the utmost when RGB lighting is switched off, so count on it to empty down lots quicker when lighting is activated.
SteelSeries GG Software
If you usually end up spending time customizing a gaming mouse, make it this one. With so many buttons to map, the Aerox 9 Wireless could be a recreation changer in MMO/MOBA video games the place you seldom have sufficient. Conveniently, the 18 buttons will be assigned instructions or macros on the degree of the SteelSeries GG app, slightly than having to fiddle round inside every recreation’s controls menu. This will prevent a heap of time.
For Gloria Victis I mapped out instructions for Interact, Kick, Display Map, Sheathe/Unsheathe Weapon and Bandage Ally, and I nonetheless had many extra buttons left over that I might have programmed in. This took simply two minutes however made a world of distinction to my gameplay.
Here we see all of the programming choices for mapping buttons to Gloria Victis.
Dominic Bayley/IDG
RGB lighting zones, mouse sensitivity and responsiveness can be rapidly modified in SteelSeries GG. For mouse responsiveness, you may nice tune and alter the polling charge and the mouse’s acceleration or deceleration to discover a desired setting.
Once you’ve set issues precisely the best way you need, you may then simply merely save the profiles within the “configuration” column on the left-hand aspect of the app. Switching mouse profiles earlier than video games is so simple as clicking on the proper profile—it actually couldn’t be extra easy.
SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wireless: Should you purchase it?
The SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wireless is an ingeniously designed wi-fi gaming mouse that options 18 programmable buttons however weighs simply 89g. The mouse’s in depth button choices, fast sensor and twin connectivity ought to make it a extremely enticing mouse for each aggressive and informal players, particularly MMO and MOBA players who can map instructions and macros all day lengthy. We can’t advocate it extremely sufficient.