74 OCTOBER 2019|COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE 380
MICE
AËĴ~OUp~Ĵ~EAĦUĦTUF range is all about
durability,it’s the ROG family that contains
Asus’s most premium peripherals. That
includes the ROG Gladius, aright-handed
wired mouse that –among other things –lets
you open it up and replace its keyparts.
Initially the ROG Gladius doesn’t look
tooout-there,especially as agaming mouse.
It has arelatively high profile,which helps
accommodatearange of grip styles, with
slightly flared and grooved main buttons for
comfortable finger resting. Apair of side
buttons sit above the rubberised thumb grip,
which is covered in Mayan-inspired patterning;
this looks good, and adds texture to what
could have otherwise been aplain black pad.
THUMBS DOWN
We’re not overly fond of the inwards-slanting
angle; it leaves nowhere to let your thumb
rest, so to avoid dragging it alongside the
mouse you have to gently grip the mouse at
all times. On the other side,happily,it’s the
opposite: there’s the same textured rubber
but it’s angled slightly outwards, giving your
ring and little fingers aplace to layidly.
Still, that’s the only ergonomic issue worth
mentioning. The ROG Gladius is largely avery
comfortablemouse,itscontoursidealforsmall
and large hands alike.Both side buttons are
always within easy reach, even if (like those of
the MicrosoftClassic Intellimouse) they’re a
tad wobbly,and the scroll wheel has alovely
rubber finish with ridges forextra grip.
Also like the Classic Intellimouse,the wheel
has sunk quitefar intothe mouse’s body,but
it differs in that we never felt it was positioned
toolow down to operatewithout an awkward
finger bend. There’s no free-wheeling setting,
which could have been handy forblasting
through amassive spreadsheet or long web
page,but there’s very clear tactile feedback
fornormal scrolling.
Just below the scroll wheel is adpi button,
which instantly swaps the sensor between two
sensitivities. By default, the sensor works at a
sharp 1,600dpi, dropping to 400dpi with a
press of the button, the idea being that, in
games, you can hot-swap to alower sensitivity
to make more precise mouse movements than
you could with atwitchier sensitivity.
ASUS ROGGladius
★★★★★
£30•From http://www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
Evenifyou’renotagamer,theROGGladius’s
comfortandcustomisationoptionsgiveit
plentyofappeal
That’s aperfectly
legitimateuse of the
button, but we prefer
to approach those
sharpshooting moments
with the same sensitivity as
usual, to avoid throwing off
muscle memory.There are
non-gaming applications, too,
such as if you wanted to make
avery fine edit in Photoshop.
1,600dpi isn’t the ROG Gladius’s
limit,however;infact,it’snotevenclose.
Through Asus’s Armoury software,you can
manually set it up to 6,400dpi, or anything
lower,asyou get full control over both dpi
settings, polling rate(up to 2,000MHz), and
both acceleration and deceleration. Youcan
even increase the click response time from
its default 8ms up to 32ms, though the logic
in doing so is questionable.Wealso found
6,400dpi fartoo high to use comfortably,
even on higher-resolution displays, though
this is of course personal preference.
HAND SIGNALS
In keeping with the spirit of customisation
shown by the ROG Strix Flare keyboard,
Armoury also allows forfull remapping of all
the ROG Gladius’s buttons and scroll wheel
inputs. If,for instance,you’re happywith your
sensitivity,you can have the dpi button launch
afavouriteapplication or perform aWindows
shortcut instead. Or you could record a
macro combination and save it to one of your
lesser-used buttons –perfect forstreamlining
processes that require alot of clicks.
Armoury also contains options for
configuring the ROG Gladius’s red lighting,
and atool for‘calibrating’ the sensor to the
surface you’re using it on. However,wedidn’t
notice adifference between its out-of-the-box
accuracy and after calibrating it to our desk;
both were fine.The lighting options are
limited, too, as you can only really switch
from abreathing effect to astatic red, or
turn off the lights altogether.There’s no
RGB functionality,asthere is on the Asus TUF
Gaming M5 or Cooler Master MM830.
Nevertheless, customising the ROG Gladius
doesn’t end at software and aesthetics. This is
the first mouse we’ve seen that actively
encourages you to open it up and replace the
switches –asin, the central mechanisms for
the right-and left-click buttons. All you have
to do is peel off the stick-on feet, undo the
screws beneath, remove the base of the
mouse and you have access to the two
switches, which effortlessly pop in and out
of their sockets. Youcan then replace them
with any switches from the Omron D2F and
D2FCseries, including aset of D2F-01F
switches included in the box.
CLICKYOUR OWN
We were dubious as to how valuable afeature
this would be,but swapping in the bundled
switches gave each click afuller,more solid
feeling, which made the whole mouse alittle
bit more pleasurable to use.Wecan definitely
see the appeal in being able to personalise
how the ROG Gladius feels in the hand, not
just how it looks or what its buttons do.
There are even more little goodies in the
box, too. Apadded carrying case makes the
ROG Gladius much more attractive as a
travelling laptop peripheral, and if you find the
2m braided USB cable toolong forsuch ause,
it can be quickly detached and replaced with a
shorter 1m cable,which is bundled in as well.
Forjust £30, the ROG Gladius is agreat
buy.Even if it’s lacking in certain higher-end
features compared to the MM830, this is still
aversatile mouse with an enviable arsenal of
features and mostly spot-on ergonomics.
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ing;
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s’s
That’s aperfectly
legitimateuse of the
button, but we prefer
to approach those
sharpshooting moments
with the same sensitivity as
usual, to avoid throwing off
muscle memory.There are
non-gaming applications, too,
such as if you wanted to make
avery fine edit in Photoshop.
1,600dpi isn’t the ROG Gladius’s
limit,however;infact,it’snotevenclose.
Through Asus’s Armoury software,you can
manually set it up to 6,400dpi, or anything
lower,asyou get full control over both dpi
settin lli rat ( to2,000MHz) nd RGBfunctionality th is th A TUF
This is the first mouse we’veseen thatactively encourages
youtoopen it up and replacethe switches
