ASUS IS WELL-KNOWN for its motherboard
and GPU lineup, but its peripheral range
is sometimes overlooked. Don’t get us
wrong, many other options are cheaper,
and the ROG tax can hit the user hard, but
if you put the price aside, its products are
usually solid. The ASUS ROG Chakram is
the latest mouse we’re looking at from
the company, and despite appearing
very familiar at first glance, Asus has
implemented some features that we
rarely see at this price point, some of
which are done impressively well.
The Chakram is certainly pricey. It
retails officially at $150, but it is worth
searching for other deals, as we found
it for $120 at some retailers. For this
price, you get a PixArt PAW 3335 sensor.
This has been designed specifically to
have better power efficiency for use with
wireless mice. The sensor did very well
in all of our testing, and tracked over
multiple surfaces without skipping a
beat. It's accurate and responsive and is
what you'd expect from a mouse at this
price. It has a maximum CPI of 16,000 and
has pre-set, on-the-fly, settings for 400,
800, 1600 and 3,200. The Chakram can be
used straight out of the box, but for many
features, such as customizing the three
RGB zones and setting macros, you will
need the ASUS Armoury II software.
The mouse is incredibly comfortable.
This is subjective, of course, but it is
not very often we can go from using
our mouse to a test sample without a
few days of getting used to it. The build
quality is high, and although there is
some slight movement in the shell and
the buttons—due to the hot-swappable
Omron switches and the screwless
magnetic removable back—it is barely
noticeable, and the comfort and usability
experience is great. The mouse weighs
in at 4.4 ounces on our scales, so if you
are looking for a light mouse, then this is
not the one for you. It has two wireless
modes and a USB-C wired mode. We
A feature-packed
wireless gaming
mouse that even
has a joystick
ASUS ROG
Chakram
8
VERDICT ASUS ROG ChakramSHARPENED STEEL
Comfortable; hot-swappable
switches; great wireless options.
DULL BLADE The joystick is more of a
chorestick; expensive.
$159.99 http://www.asus.comSPECIFICATIONSMouse ASUS ROG Chakram
Sensor PixArt PAW 3335
Optical
Max Sensitivity / IPS 16,000 CPI / 400
Polling rate 1000 Hz
Programmable
buttons
5 + Joystick
Weight 4.4 Oz
Battery life 70 hours (no
illumination)
Connection Standard
2.4GHz wireless,
Bluetooth,
USB-C cableused the 2.4GHz one mainly, and only
used the wire while charging. The mouse
does have Qi charging if you have a
compatible charger. Bluetooth is great
for office work or for connecting to other
devices, but for gaming we overlooked
it—it’s just not worth it when you have
two far better options.JOY(LESS)STICK
The star of the show is meant to be the
joystick. This can be swapped from a
short stem to a long stem and can also
be blanked off entirely. Unfortunately,
the short stem joystick arrived broken
out of the box. For a $150 mouse this
really should not happen. The joystick
works well in games and tests. It does
everything it advertises, but it just
doesn’t feel that intuitive; it feels more
like an add-on rather than a seamless
incorporation. It’s spongy and has little
to no feedback, but that’s not necessarily
a bad thing. Despite the ease of setup and
use in games, it is more of a gimmick
rather than a feature. We were forcing
ourselves to use it rather than using it
naturally. Those with small hands may
find the joystick just too far out of reach
as well. A palm or fingertip grip worked
best for us—a claw grip feels rather
awkward, especially if you wish to use
the joystick.
The ASUS ROG Chakram ticks so
many boxes: It’s comfortable, accurate,
has great hot-swappable switches, and
even has a nice carry case. But the mainfeature just doesn’t do it for us. If you are
someone who feels like the joystick will
really change your gaming experience,
spend the money and enjoy the Chakram.
But if ASUS dropped the joystick and
the price, the Chakram could have been
a different beast entirely. It could have
quite easily contented itself as one of the
best wireless mice of 2020. –DAVE ALCOCKmaximumpc.com SEP 2020 MAXIMUMPC 71