In today's article, we're going to be talking about the Steelseries Rival 5.

Shape:

This is a very good shaped mouse. I actually love the shape quite a bit. It reminds me a lot of the Rival 600. But, it's not nearly as good as the Rival 600. Even though it is a lot lighter, weighing about 85g, it's a ton lighter and a lot more usable by today's standards. That does not mean everything. And just because it's lighter weight, doesn't make it a better mouse. So basically Steelseries took the shape of the Rival 600 and 650. Well, the shape feels good, but the functions and the features that made the Rival 600 and 650 special like having three side buttons, well, they kind of just messed it up entirely. Number one, the front mouse button, or should I say the third mouse button is just way too far forward on the side of the mouse. It is just really hard to reach, and I have pretty big hands too. My hands are about 20cmx9.5cm And I find it really hard for my thumb to just naturally rest on that front mouse button. That button is completely useless to me. It's nice they have this little pad for your thumb to rest on.

Switches:

But when you try to press this mouse button here, it pretty much just doesn't work ergonomically at all. So I don't recommend actually using this button here at all. Next, this little switch right here, well, I don't know. I just think that thing is entirely useless. Again, it's not ergonomic at all. And if this shape really reckons for an ergo grip, I don't really know where I would ever use that in-game, in a panic situation. Not really a panic situation, but more so a reaction situation. It's not very good. The other two side buttons I find to be okay. They are a little high for me, but they are still usable.

Mouse:

But let's go ahead and talk about the rest of the mouse real quick. So, the mouse is weighing in at about 88g on my scale, which is a little bit more than what they said is 85. And I'm pretty sure it's 85 without the cable. 88 with the cable. It's fine. It works. I can use it. It's not my preference. But, it is lighter than everything else that Steelseries has released up until this point with this kind of size and shape. The sensor on this mouse is the TrueMove Air which I found zero problems with in terms of tracking during gameplay. I can actually play pretty well with this mouse. There are just no side buttons. Again, do nothing for me. And the clicks are rated up to 80,000,000.

Scroll:

In terms of the scroll wheel, this is pretty much the same scroll wheel that you'll find on a lot of the other Steelseries mice that are very similar to this shape, so I don't have any issues there. It's really smooth, really tactile, and a pretty light press as well. So, Steelseries, just make the Rival 600 and 650 lighter weight. That's all you have to do with the shape. This shape is pretty much perfect, but this Rival 5, I don't know who I would recommend this mouse to at all.

Conclusion:

Even if I was going to recommend it purely for having more side buttons, which I know a lot of us in the game community really want. Even if I was recommending it for that, because the front side buttons are just not ergonomic at all, and the top one is kind of in that same boat. I can't recommend it to somebody for that. I just can't. So, I don't really know who this mouse is for. The cable is quite a junk. So, you're not really leaving me anywhere to go with this product. I don't know who this is for. Any of you guys in the comments, if you think this is for you, tell me why you would pick this mouse over literally anything else. Just tell me why. 'Cause it's pretty comfortable? Yes. Other than that, the features aren't that good.