Product: SteelSeries Prime Mini Wireless
Type: Gaming Mouse (Wireless)
Price: $229.00 AUD
Availability: Out Now
Link: steelseries.com/gaming-mice/prime-mini-wireless

There’s been a recent gaming mouse trend where overall lightness now goes hand-in-hand with performance. That is, a mouse designed to deliver the goods when playing a fast-paced shooter should glide on your mousepad or surface - with very little in the way of force required to move. Years ago it wasn’t strange to see gaming mice arrive with additional weights for some reason, now it’s all about shaving off every extra little gram you can. Keeping things sleek and smooth in the gaming mouse space is akin to designing a vehicle purely for speed.

With that in mind there are of course obvious considerations that can go into the overall design, from removing excess plastic with mesh like holes, and foregoing the addition of grips and over-the-top RGB action. The SteelSeries Prime Mini Wireless isn’t one of those peripherals with holes everywhere, it simply builds on the simple but effective esports focus of the wired SteelSeries Prime. With the Mini here seemingly being a slight shrink in terms of overall size to add the, well, added bonus of wireless communication.

Grip It

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In terms of design, the SteelSeries Prime Mini Wireless definitely errs on the side of function. Smartly so, as you’ve got a right-handed ergonomic design that is immediately comfortable for those that game with a claw or palm grip. Weighing in at 73 or so grams this is what you’d call an ultralight too, with wireless performance over 2.4GHz and an impressive battery life of up to 100-hours. In order to keep the weight down things are kept minimal in the sense that you’ve only got 5-buttons, no side grips, and minimal RGB lighting (limited to the scroll-wheel) that can illuminate to add a bit of visual flourish.

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Weighing in at 73 or so grams this is what you’d call an ultralight too, with wireless performance over 2.4GHz and an impressive battery life of up to 100-hours.

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It’s worth reiterating that the SteelSeries Prime range is aimed at competitive performance, specifically for those that play first-person shooters or games that are all about fast-movement without having to manage a suite of actions, skills, or abilities that might require several additional buttons. Paired with titles like Apex Legends, Rainbow Six Extraction, DOOM Eternal, and others, the results are immediately impressive. The smaller size does not really affect comfort or general use in any real way. Unless you’ve got giant mitts for hands the SteelSeries Prime Mini Wireless is suitable for just about everyone. And again, the shrinking compared to the wired SteelSeries Prime is minimal. For this review SteelSeries provided the wired SteelSeries Prime for comparison, and at a glance it’s pretty hard to tell the two apart.

Point-and-Click

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Underneath the sturdy matte plastic shell is where SteelSeries flexes its design chops, with its own sensor (created in collaboration with PixArt) designed for optimal performance on a variety of surfaces. Tested with a SteelSeries mousepad the glide action here is impressive thanks to the generous PTFE glide skates on the underside. It’s there too where you’ll find the profile switch button that can be customised right down to 100 CPI increments. Having this on the underside of the mouse isn’t ideal for on-the-fly changes, but again, it’s all functional in terms of the physical design.

Specs

• Sensor: SteelSeries TrueMove Air
  
• Sensitivity: 100–18,000 in 100 CPI Increments
  
• Switches: Prestige OM optical magnetic switches
  
• Buttons: 5
  
• Battery Life: 100 hours (over 2.4GHz wireless)
  
• Weight: 73g

Paired with SteelSeries software customisation is a breeze, with the option to drill down into specific profiles and make full use of the long-lasting battery with a few eco-friendly settings. The mesh USB-C cable is also very flexible, making the play-and-charge functionality something that isn’t a big step down. In fact the only real downside is an overall lack of versatility for things like RGB lighting, additional buttons, and Bluetooth for additional device support. But really, that’s not what the SteelSeries Prime Mini Wireless aims to be. What you’ve got is a robust wireless mouse built for competitive gaming, and the direct result of that is precision aiming in the digital sense. A first-person wireless winner.