SteelSeries launches new Rival 3 Wireless gaming mouse with a fancy efficient sensor

SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless
SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless (Image credit: SteelSeries)

What you need to know

  • SteelSeries launches a new wireless version of the Rival 3 gaming mouse.
  • This new mouse features SteelSeries' TrueMoveAir optical sensor and takes AAA batteries.
  • The new SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless is available now for $50.

SteelSeries has just launched a wireless version of its more affordable Rival 3 gaming mouse. The wired Rival 3 is a killer budget-friendly gaming mouse with a great sensor and other highlight features, making it a worthy companion for any gamer who doesn't want to spend big on a pointer.

This new wireless version of the Rival 3 comes rocking some interesting features. Firstly, it has 400-hour battery life. While that's for standby time, it's still impressive for a pointer in this price range. SteelSeries managed to achieve this by including a new power-efficient sensor. It's the first to feature the SteelSeries TrueMoveAir optical sensor.

As well as a great new accurate sensor, SteelSeries also uses Quantum 2.0 Wireless tech, which is essentially 2.4GHz over a USB wireless adapter, allowing for a polling rate of 1000Hz. This is important for sending data from the mouse to your gaming PC to register each mouse movement. Latency is just 1ms, which is in line with other gaming mice.

If 2.4GHz with an adapter isn't your thing, there is Bluetooth 5.0 available, making the Rival 3 Wireless a contender for gaming laptops. To dive into the numbers, the TrueMoveAir optical sensor has a counts per-inch (CPI) of 18,000, an inch per-second (IPS) of 400, and supports up to 40G in terms of acceleration.

The mouse itself can take one or two AAA batteries, depending on how much battery life you wish to have. This affects the weight of the mouse, which can be 95g with one battery or 106g with two installed. Finally, there's onboard storage for saving up to five profiles, so you can take this fella to your favorite LAN parties.

The SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless is available now for $50.

Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.