SteelSeries Prime Wireless design
Despite its hefty price tag, the SteelSeries Prime Wireless sports a rather discreet and sleek design, with its long black shell accented by a gray SteelSeries logo and subtle RGB lighting on the mouse wheel. It stacks up to 4.9 x 2.7 x 1.7 inches and weighs just 2.8 ounces, making it ridiculously light and thin, but rather long. The top panel forms slightly into a V shape, but the matte black panel blends in with the rest of the shell so it’s hard to tell where it starts and ends. Leading upward from the gray SteelSeries logo are two relatively short clickers and an RGB-lit scroll wheel sitting snugly between them. Unlike most gaming mice, there isn’t a DPI button on the top panel. The left side of the mouse features a subtle curved depression in the mouse for my thumb, and right above it is a standard two-button panel. Conversely, the right side of the mouse features a subtle curved protrusion, which is where the ring and pinkie finger are meant to rest. Meanwhile, the front end of the mouse features an input for USB Type-C charging, and the underside holds room for the teflon feet, the DPI button and the power switch. It’s a very clean design in form and function.
SteelSeries Prime Wireless comfort
The SteelSeries Prime Wireless is great for people with large hands thanks to how long the shell is, and since it’s so light, it’s easy to move around. However, if your hand is wide, you might not find it as comfortable, as the mouse is skinny. While the clickers on the mouse aren’t necessarily sharp, they are deep and satisfying nonetheless. Resting my palm on the mouse felt comfortable and it contoured to my hand better than most mice. There’s no bulge at the end to cushion my palm, but instead it dips downward toward the ground. If you like the end of your palm to touch the surface you’re using your mouse on, that’s great, but otherwise you might not like the SteelSeries Prime Wireless’ ergonomics. As I stated before, the thumb rest’s curve looks subtle, but it’s actually rather deep, and there’s more than enough room for larger thumbs than mine to use up the space. And while there’s no grip per se, the matte surface is smooth and comfortable enough to get used to. I had some issues with the clickers right above the thumb rest, however. The clickers are somewhat stiff, requiring a little more force than I anticipated, which is a problem during fast-paced games where survival is dependent on how fast you click a button. The right side of the mouse is relatively comfortable, but there’s no real shape designed to fit the ring and pinkie finger, so that makes it a little challenging to get lift off when moving the mouse around. The mouse wheel isn’t anything special, which is disappointing for a mouse priced this high, but it is comfortable and well placed.
SteelSeries Prime Wireless performance
Gaming with the SteelSeries Prime Wireless felt super smooth and easy despite there not being many buttons to work with beyond the standard set up. In Resident Evil Village, I wound around the corner to find a werewolf coming at me, but I blasted his head with a shotgun in one quick snap of the mouse. Thanks to how swift the mouse was, I expertly dodged and weaved my way through the village as a horde of werewolves chased me. I tested the mouse out with a more chill game such as Gloomhaven, which is based on a tactical-RPG board game. Even moving the mouse around to select my cards as well as the kind of abilities I would use during a round felt satisfying. Playing more casual games like this, at least in terms of how the mouse is used, felt good with the SteelSeries Prime Wireless since it’s so light. In Halo: The Master Chief Collection, I bolted my way through a horde of nasty Elites and ran up behind one to assassinate him, but unfortunately, I couldn’t press down on the side button fast enough to melee him, which got me axe kicked to death. I wish the side button was just slightly bigger and protruded out more. However, I found it incredibly easy to handle the DMR with the SteelSeries Prime Wireless, as I nailed all of my headshots on the Elites across the room.
SteelSeries Prime Wireless features
Despite its simple visual design, there’s a bunch of fancy tech jam packed inside the SteelSeries Prime Wireless. Firstly, there’s the optical magnetic switches, which creates consistency and precision so that every click actuates with the same amount of release force. These clickers are rated for 100 million clicks. Then there’s the TrueMove Air Gaming Sensor, which SteelSeries claims has true 1-to-1 tracking. It also is capable of 18,000 DPI, 400 IPS (inches per second) and 40G acceleration. As far as the wireless capabilities go, the SteelSeries Prime Wireless features a Quantum 2.0 Wireless chip, which apparently boasts zero packet loss, so the mouse won’t lag. Backed by all that fancy tech is the SteelSeries GG software. Within the app, you can easily customize all 5 programmable buttons and mouse-wheel directions. You can adjust the DPI, the sleep timer, the illumination dim timer, the polling rate, the acceleration, the deceleration, the angle snapping, enable high-efficiency mode to save battery life, and enable illumination smart mode to conserve battery life. Then there’s the illumination tab, where you’re able to configure what color patterns the RGB lighting takes.
SteelSeries Prime Wireless battery life
The SteelSeries Prime Wireless is designed to last over 100 hours of uninterrupted 1000Hz gameplay on a single charge. The mouse does have fast charging capabilities, which means that if it’s charged for only 15 minutes, you’ll get at least 40 hours of gameplay. Keep in mind that the mouse also has RGB lighting. It’s only in the mouse-wheel, but this can definitely affect battery life.
Bottom line
While the SteelSeries Prime Wireless is rather simple in its design, it is comfortable thanks to its discreet curves and light chassis. Not to mention that you’ll get over 100 hours of battery life out of this mouse before you need to charge it. However, if you’re looking for a mouse with more bells and whistles, you can spend a little extra to get the Razer Naga Pro, which offers three swappable panels for FPS, MOBA and MMO games. Despite that, the SteelSeries Prime Wireless is still a solid mouse for those that like a simple design paired with a comfortable, lightweight feel.
