SteelSeries Diablo III Mouse Review

To tackle the vast lands of Sanctuary, a hero needs many things; a good set of armor, weapons, and quick wits. But the one thing a hero needs most in their arsenal is a mouse designed for performance and comfort. The SteelSeries Diablo III mouse does this and more with style!

The hardware wizards at SteelSeries have concocted a mouse for Diablo fans that is simple, comfortable, functional, and quite elegant with the Diablo III mouse. Similar in design to the SteelSeries Xai or Sensei RAW (without the LED display on the bottom or the insane amount of processing power of course), the Diablo III mouse is covered in a rubberized, soft-touch coating that is sweat resistant to assure maximum grip for clammy hands (like yours truly has), and feels silky smooth to the touch. The Diablo III mouse shares the same thematic Diablo III motif as the previously reviewed headset, along with pulsing red LEDs in the scroll wheel and on the back where the Diablo III logo is proudly displayed. The overall design of the top of the mouse is as comfortable as it is gorgeous and functional. Two buttons are located on either side and can be mapped to whatever buttons you so desire in order to ensure quick and accurate results be it for a spell, weapon combination or other. The mouse’s bilateral design also allows usage by both left- and right-handed users to ensure that no hero is left out in the cold.

Just behind the scroll wheel is a button that allows you to switch the Avago laser sensor between two different CPI (Counts Per Inch) settings to allow you to configure the mouse for everyday usage where a moderate speed may be more preferable, and then hit the button to a set, faster response for those intense days and nights of gaming. You can set the mouse up to 5700 CPI for a twitch response if so desired; however, you might want to set it lower than that if caffeine gives you the jitters.

To ensure maximum accuracy, the Diablo III mouse’s glides lift only 1mm off of the surface that you’re playing on, and move across our mousepad like a hot knife through butter. The glides are replaceable, which is a good thing because they do eventually wear down.

For a game like the Diablo series, durability is a must for any mouse. Being a Diablo I and II veteran, I can’t count how many mice have met an untimely demise with broken buttons, or the clicking surface of the mouse cracking (yes, cracking) from the literally thousands of clicks that can take place in just a few sessions. SteelSeries is combating that with the Diablo III Mouse by using the highest quality parts that allow for “a guaranteed lifespan of 10 million clicks.” While we didn’t quite get that high, I did manage to burn through a few thousand clicks pretty quickly with no major issues. The buttons are relatively quiet as well; while there will be some clicking, it’s not so heavy as to be annoying while you’re in the middle of your midnight dungeon crawl. The buttons also have a very low action to allow for super-fast clicking, but have a definite tactile response felt in your fingertips to let you know that the button has been depressed.

Further durability is built in to the mouse’s nylon wrapped, red and black cable and gold USB connector to ensure maximum contact and connectivity at all times. After running the cable under my 8 lb. laptop, there were no signs of crushing, and with 8 feet of cord, there should be no shortage of cable that will risk pulling the mouse out of its socket.

The Diablo III mouse is exceptionally light as well, weighing in at just a few ounces, ensuring that your wrists won’t become fatigued after hours of gameplay. The simple, ergonomic design also keeps fatigue and hand cramps from setting in as well, which is an important factor while playing. Having enjoyed a couple of marathon sessions of 8 to 10 hours while playing, my hand and wrist felt minimal soreness, which is something that I experience fairly easily at my age.

Overall, the Diablo III mouse has everything going for it for a dedicated dungeon crawler. Eight programmable buttons settled into a comfortable and durable frame that looks simply amazing to boot. With everything that the Diablo III mouse has going for it, there’s simply nothing that could be wrong, which is why this mouse receives our top recommendation of 5.0/5.0.

***CONTEST ALERT*** – Love Diablo?  Want to get your hands on a Diablo III mouse, headset and mouse pad to adorn your PC-powered demon lair?  Well, now you can!  This week, Wanderson75.net is giving away not one, but two sets of Diablo III gear compliments of SteelSeries.  That’s right!  Just head on over to our Facebook page and Like us.  Two winners will be chosen at random this Friday night (April 13th, 2012) and announced on our page on Saturday morning.  This contest is open to anyone in the continental U.S. or Canada (sorry Alaska, Hawaii, Nova Scotia and PEI).  Sign up now! And if you don’t win this time around, hey – you’ll still get awesome news and reviews on videogames, technology, and gamer life delivered to your Facebook page daily, because we love you.