At a look
Skilled’s Ranking
Professionals
- 18 simply programmable buttons
- Weighs solely 89 grams
- Fast and responsive
- Twin Bluetooth 5.0 and a pair of.4Ghz wi-fi
Cons
- Some buttons on the aspect grid are exhausting to succeed in
Our Verdict
The SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wi-fi is light-weight and fast, and consists of loads of customizable choices for critical MMO/MOBA avid gamers. It’s top-of-the-line mice we’ve examined.
The SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wi-fi is a uncommon discover amongst gaming mice in that it has 18 programmable buttons however weighs simply 89 grams. These two components alone ought to delight avid gamers—particularly MOBA and MMO gamers searching for extra buttons to deploy instructions and macros. Even higher, the Aerox 9 Wi-fi backs this up with a fast 18,000 CPI sensor and twin Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.
The key sauce to its light-weight design is a honeycomb-mesh masking that runs nearly your complete size of the mouse. Other than retaining its weight in verify, this design additionally provides the Aerox 9 Wi-fi a futuristic look, and supplies an excellent birds-eye view of the flashy RGB lighting inside.
The Aerox 9 Wi-fi can be extraordinarily snug—so long as you utilize a palm or fingertip grip. If you happen to’re extra of a claw-grip participant, this mouse most likely isn’t for you, since its punctuated prime is usually 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 massive, 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. Other than 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 modify 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 principle physique of buttons is a grid of 12 positioned on the left-hand aspect. This grid is accessible through your thumb and is coloured grey, which contrasts properly with the mouse’s black matte aesthetic.
The Aerox 9’s prime mesh design will likely be acquainted to avid gamers who’ve used the equally designed SteelSeries Aerox 5. If you happen to haven’t, you’d be forgiven for considering it compromises performance. That is merely not the case. Regardless of its plenitude of holes, the mouse is remarkably sturdy. The highest mesh didn’t transfer an iota after I examined it, holding its type throughout intense gameplay.
The SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wi-fi 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 inside circuitry.
Having the ability to peer inside and see all that circuitry unnerved me just a little at first, since I usually maintain a cup of espresso simply inches away from my mouse pad and was just a little involved about spillage. However in line with SteelSeries, the internals are protected by an IP54-rated Aquabarrier, which helped put my thoughts comfy.
One shocking good thing about the distinctive “open prime” design was that my hand obtained much less sweaty on sizzling days. With no strong lump of plastic beneath it, the additional aeration proved very snug in prolonged gaming periods.
SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wi-fi Efficiency
SteelSeries has armed the Aerox 9 Wi-fi 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 Professional’s 20,000 DPI optical sensor. Nonetheless, it’s confirmed itself worthy in different aggressive SteelSeries gaming mice and it carried out properly in my assessments.
Making an attempt out the Aerox 9 Wi-fi in Name of Responsibility: Black Ops, it felt gentle and straightforward to maneuver. The sensor had no issues maintaining with my speedy hand actions, be they lengthy or brief. The mouse’s monitoring additionally appeared extremely correct, and pinpointing targets was a breeze. Plus, the strong, high-shaped prime supplied loads of stability in my palm grip after I wanted to make repetitive actions.
Serving to 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 after I wasn’t utilizing a mouse mat.
The honeycomb design provides the Aerox 9 additional aeration, making it very snug in prolonged gaming periods.
Dominic Bayley/IDG
The principle buttons felt snug, too. They’ve a contoured heart that cradled my fingers completely in a pure grip. Nevertheless, they aren’t the widest of buttons, and avid gamers with massive fingers could desire just a little extra room right here.
Whereas most premium gaming mice characteristic comparably quick switches, there will be refined 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 ranking, which is 10 million clicks greater than the Razer Naga Professional. To me, they felt tender and clicky. Additionally they had minimal journey, which was excellent for video games by which I wanted to click on quick.
To check 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. Nearly all of buttons had been straightforward to seek out and responsive. Nevertheless, I did discover myself having to stretch my thumb out to succeed in for buttons 3 and 6—this regardless of SteelSeries having neatly organized the buttons in three clearly outlined traces. Nonetheless, 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 need to.
Aerox 9’s twin connectivity consists of 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 maintain the dongle inserted for gaming in a single rig and use Bluetooth whereas writing a evaluate on one other. You will have 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 received’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 sooner when lighting is activated.
SteelSeries GG Software program
If you happen to usually end up spending time customizing a gaming mouse, make it this one. With so many buttons to map, the Aerox 9 Wi-fi is usually 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 stage of the SteelSeries GG app, somewhat than having to fiddle round inside every recreation’s controls menu. It will prevent a heap of time.
For Gloria Victis I mapped out instructions for Work together, Kick, Show 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.
Right here we see all of the programming choices for mapping buttons to Gloria Victis.
Dominic Bayley/IDG
RGB lighting zones, mouse sensitivity and responsiveness may also be shortly modified in SteelSeries GG. For mouse responsiveness, you’ll be able to positive tune and modify the polling fee and the mouse’s acceleration or deceleration to discover a desired setting.
When you’ve set issues precisely the best way you need, you’ll be able to 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 appropriate profile—it actually couldn’t be extra simple.
SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wi-fi: Must you purchase it?
The SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wi-fi is an ingeniously designed wi-fi gaming mouse that options 18 programmable buttons however weighs simply 89g. The mouse’s intensive button choices, fast sensor and twin connectivity ought to make it a extremely engaging mouse for each aggressive and informal avid gamers, particularly MMO and MOBA avid gamers who can map instructions and macros all day lengthy. We will’t suggest it extremely sufficient.
